Ethereal "Silent Night"
William V. Cleland | 01/06/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Mahalia Jackson's rendition of "Silent Night" on this album is the most incredibly beautiful and stirring that I have ever heard in my life! I've seen and heard Mahalia do this song in other places and recordings but never with the power conveyed here. The recording itself captures her voice in a splendid moment frozen in time. She paces the song according to that mysterious inner cadence governed apparently from above, according to Mahalia Jackson. It is slow, passionate and almost gut-wrenching. Three other magnificent performances on here are "A Star Stood Still, Sweet Little Jesus Boy, and What Can I Give?" These four jewels round out the holiday season, transporting the listener out of the grotesque orgy of commercialism and fake sentimentality of the Christmas season. She "restores our souls," heals broken hearts and magnifies the good within humanity. Her singing really is a "balm in Gilead. . . ""