Tony Cummings charts the life and achievements of MAHALIA JACKSON.

Concert-wise she played to rapturous audiences wherever she went, though now she was as likely to share the bill with Mickey Rooney and Carol Channing for an 'all star' benefit as to play the gospel extravaganzas with Ernestine Washington, Clara Ward et al. Not that Mahalia completely neglected her black audience. She'd still do black church concerts for pastor friends.

On record, Mahalia had a peculiarly schizophrenic time - one session recording a fiery revival (with her loyal pianist side-kick Mildred Falls) of "Move On Up A Little Higher", and the next wallowing in a simpering orchestration of "White Christmas". Yet her albums were reaching a vast audience.

In 1955 she made a TV special, years before they coined the name, and The Mahalia Jackson Show wowed the critics, though it was strictly for local Chicago consumption. But illness was troubling her. Her by now enormous weight caused a whole series of medical problems, the most serious being the sarcoid condition which was to eventually kill her. But her schedule seldom let up.

Her Columbia A&R man was nagged into allowing her to record the Thomas Dorsey classic of classics "Precious Lord, Take My Hand". But she also had to try and breathe some creative vibrancy into pieces of trite religious sentimentality like "Bless This House". She did.

Her extraordinary voice, which could produce goose pimples in the most hard-hearted listener and could duck and swoop through octaves like a knife cutting through butter, transformed even the most banal of songs into breathtaking art. The mid 50s pop scene continued to have a lot of pseudo religion circulating. But Mahalia's mighty, bluesy voice and utter conviction that Jesus was alive and in her, made the likes of Frankie Laine's "I Believe" and Nashville's "Crying In The Chapel" seem vapid indeed by comparison.

Mahalia sang regularly at political gatherings and got a letter from Mrs Eisenhower who wrote from the White House. "You were so kind to bring so much enjoyment to my birthday luncheon by giving us the benefit of your very great talent. 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' is of course a great favourite of my mother's and mine." The gospel star also sang at the National Democratic Convention. Her searing version of "I See God" silenced 4,000 disinterested and gabbling delegates and brought a rapturous response.

A Baptist born and bred Mahalia was crossing denominational barriers. She sang for the Catholic Interracial Council breakfast. Harry Belafonte gave her a diamond crucifix as an expression of thanks.

Across the country the emergent rock 'n' roll was taking hold. Mahalia added her view of the phenomenon. "They took the church music and the church rhythms and perverted it to make money." Mahalia was making money - lots of it. Her agents such as William Morris were bringing her plenty of big buck concerts. Minks and jewellery became more and more a part of the lifestyle of this simple, vivacious woman. Yet she retained all her down-home Southern ways, and was far more likely to cook one of her famed red beans and rice soul food dishes for a celebrity or politician than to go with them to a smart restaurant. Mahalia also retained her strict stand against nightclubs and refused to step into one, even to see a close friend perform.

When Las Vegas offered her $25,000 a week to sing her own material in a nightclub she stood firm with the comment "The Devil don't ever sleep, honey."

In May '57 she took part in the Prayer Pilgrimage For Freedom in Washington DC with the emerging national figure, Dr Martin Luther King. Mahalia became a key personality in the civil rights movement for the next decade and became one of Dr King's closest friends. Also in '57, John Hammond persuaded Mahalia to take part in a 'gospel special' to be staged as part of the famed Newport Jazz Festival. The Drinkard Singers, the 35-strong Back Home Choir and the Ward Singers did well. But it was Mahalia who tore the place up. "She sang 13 and she could have sung 113," wrote one critic. Her performance was captured on celluloid in the film Jazz On A Summer's Day.

At Columbia Records she was less triumphant. There was a new president Clive Davis, who was committed to getting the label into the rock scene. Mahalia s albums were steady catalogue sellers - spectacular sellers compared with any other Christian music artist - but they weren't the stuff that Top 20 hits were made of. She was often ignored by the record company big wigs.

In 1958 Mahalia recorded a track subtitled "Come Sunday" for Duke Ellington's massive 'Black, Brown And Beige' musical suite. But seldom did her records feature such imaginative accompaniments. Albums like 'Great Gettin' 'Up Mornin" and 'Come On Children, Let's Sing' (1958) and 'The Power And The Glory' (1960) were veritable curate eggs - good in parts - suffering from some poorly chosen songs and with her uninhibited vocal style combating with some decidedly square accompaniments (for example, 'The Power And The Glory' paired Mahalia with the Percy Faith Orchestra).

But though performances became increasingly erratic, her onstage performances were as dynamic as ever, often "getting the spirit" and pushing her massive frame into a "holy dance" to the amazement and delight of the sell-out audiences.

In 1961 she undertook a major European tour, even recording a live album in Stockholm, and swept all before her. A special stop-off from her touring schedules was a trip to the Holy Land. In 'Mahalia', Laurraine Cureau describes the moving scene when, after an exhausting trek, the famous gospel singer arrived with her entourage at the site of Calvary. "Now she knew this was the way, Mahalia's senses reached out. She was walking where Jesus staggered with the cross. These high walls had heard the mockery. The guide stopped and pointed them out, the Church Of The Holy Sepulchre built where St Helena found the remains of the cross. That was it. Halie (Mahalia) Jackson a living witness to all she had sung about, to the glory of her Lord. The fact that a press photographer was trailing her, snapping pictures, disturbed her not at all."