Joyful Noise in Israel

Mahalia Jackson, 49, says that until recently she assumed that Jerusalem was in heaven. Last week America's great Negro Gospel singer carried her "joyful noise for the Lord" to Israel, and the effect she made on Israelis was just what it had been all spring on the audiences of her first extended European tour--mesmeric.

In London, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Essen admirers stomped and hollered for encores. In Hamburg she had to go back onstage in her street dress and Indian moccasins to sing two final songs. In Berlin the manager of the Sportpalast assured her that he had not heard so much audience noise since Hitler ranted there in 1938. He seemed to prefer Mahalia.

Although Mahalia had always wanted to visit Israel, as the time for the concert drew near she began to worry: "I never thought about Israel not being Christian."

But the 2,000 people who jammed Tel Aviv's main auditorium last week were with her from the first song.

The ample dark figure in the white gown with the gold-cross necklace lifted her majestic contralto through My Home Over There ("There's gonna be peace one day ), The Holy Bible, Ain't Goin' Study War No More, bending her notes in the manner of the great blues singer Bessie Smith. Occasionally, she stepped away from the microphone to let her big voice boom through the hall without the aid of electronics. When she got to Joshua Fit ae Battle of Jericho, the walls of the auditorium almost came down. Mahalia escaped only by improvising a song: Mahalia's Not Gonna Sing No More.

It has been that way ever since 1947 when New Orleans-born Mahalia Jackson recorded a Gospel song called Move On Up a Little Higher for a small record company. The disk sold a whopping 2,000,000 copies, and Mahalia who had sung Gospel songs in neighborhood churches since her childhood, turned her mention from her Chicago beauty shop to push her professional career. From the start audiences recognized her, as did London's New Statesman, as "the most majestic voice of faith" of her generation. The obvious sincerity of Mahalia's belief moves audiences even when they cannot understand her words. "I believe everything," said she. "I believe Joshua did pray to God and the sun stood still " On her Israeli trip she became frightened while traveling over the twisting roads of the rugged Judean Hills, until a "Spirit" reprimanded her: "If Joseph could bring Mary over these rough mountains on a donkey, you oughta be ashamed of yourself, Mahalia." In fact, the whole trip was like a homecoming. "The very first gospel singers," says Mahalia Jackson were them angels who sang 'Peace on earth, good will to men.' "

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