The legendary singer Mahalia Jackson, one of the key figures of the famous March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom for Black people, was deeply involved in the civil rights movement in the United States. The San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet, which reinvented the string quartet form, was formed in 1973, one year after the diva’s passing. Violinists David Harrington and Gabriela Diaz, violist Ayane Kozasa, and cellist Paul Wiancko celebrate the work and commitments of this essential artist with the album Glorious Mahalia.
During Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech at the March on Washington in 1963, Mahalia Jackson urged her friend: “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” Inspired by this historic moment, the Kronos Quartet explores the depth of the singer’s musical art, her impact on the civil rights movement, and her relationship with Clarence Jones and Studs Terkel, other major figures of the time. Composed by Zachary James Watkins, Peace Be Till: IV. Symphony of Social Justice features an interview with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dr. Clarence B. Jones, a lawyer and speechwriter. The latter discusses the struggle for freedom and justice in the context of the famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
The Kronos Quartet has collaborated with Terry Riley, Aleksandra Vrebalov, Tanya Tagaq, Philip Glass, inti figgis-vizueta, Fodé Lassana Diabaté, and Steve Reich. The group has a longstanding relationship with the Smithsonian Folkways label. For Rainbow, released in 2010 as part of the Music of Central Asia series, the quartet played with Alim and Fargana Qasimov and Homayun Sakhi, musicians with origins in Azerbaijan and Afghanistan. Long Time Passing (2020) pays tribute to Pete Seeger. Một Lai (2022), an opera composed by Jonathan Berger with a libretto by Harriet Scott Chessman, explores the historical massacre in Vietnam by American troops. The Kronos’s field of research ranges from the complex music of Morton Feldman to string arrangements of compositions by Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, or Thelonious Monk.
The album Glorious Mahalia highlights the historical art and advocacy of the singer. It immerses us in her experiences through interviews conducted by her friend, journalist, and historian Studs Terkel. The album also features a new arrangement of Jackson’s version of the composition by Antonio Haskell, God Shall Wipe All Tears Away. Here, the Kronos Quartet treats the original audio recording of the song by Mahalia Jackson as a score for their adaptation.
Other works on the album include compositions by Stacy Garrop and Zachary James Watkins, an excerpt from a gospel and spiritual concert in 1957 in Chicago, new and archival recordings on new compositions, and a reinterpretation of the quartet of the famous title Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, which has been covered multiple times by artists like Odetta, Richie Havens, Jimmy Scott, Charlie Haden, and Hank Jones.
