Tammy McCann Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Present "Who Is Mahalia Jackson?", March 16, 3:00 pm

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No jazz singer on the scene today bridges the Saturday night function with the Sunday morning church service like Chicago Vocalist Tammy McCann. For more than 20 years, McCann has paid homage to gospel pioneer Mahalia Jackson, and now she and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will perform Who Is Mahalia Jackson? on Saturday, March 16, 3:00 pm, at Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th and Broadway, New York, NY.

McCann has created a fresh and soulful tribute that embodies Mahalia Jackson. This concert celebrates not just her music, but her experiences and her contribution to the world. It showcases Ms. Jackson's signature tunes, original songs, and some wonderful arrangements.

In addition to their love of God and spirit-filled voices, both Jackson and McCann traveled from the South, (Louisiana and Mississippi respectively) to make their homes in Chicago, where Thomas Dorsey created the modern gospel music sound. McCann again followed in Jackson's footsteps when she took Jazzmobile's SummerFest stage at Marcus Garvey Park (formerly Mt. Morris Park) where Mahalia Jackson performed at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, featured in the Questlove-directed documentary, Summer of Soul.

For McCann, her tribute is an evolution in progress that grew organically, while remaining true to its spiritual core. "I usually did the tribute with an organ and backup singers and a choir, " And then, a couple of years ago, right before the pandemic, I took my jazz rhythm section with me for my gospel tour to Italy and Switzerland. The music really blossomed. So that's what gave me the idea to see how far I can take this. How far can I push the boundaries and still feel like I'm residing in the sacred realm of Mahalia? And that's where Yes Mahalia! came from."

McCann's set list will include selections made famous by Jackson, and will also include compositions that suit the secular, as well as the sacred. Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, Wade in the Water, Come Sunday, How I Got Over, Take My Hand, Precious Lord and others will be featured on Saturday's program.

"To me, there is a synergy between the Mahalia Jackson sound, and the sonic energy that a big band brings to bear, " McCann says. "You have this voice that was so unique, so powerful, partnering with the sonic energy of a big band. I felt, why hasn't anybody done this before?"

For McCann, Jackson's music also connects her to her family, and to her musical roots. "My affection for Mahalia Jackson stems from the influences of my grandmother and my mother, " McCann says. "They kept me connected and steeped in our family church, St. Paul Church of God in Christ in Chicago. So, her music was either coming from a record player or from the mouths of my mother and my grandmother. I was baptized in Mahalia Jackson's music from an early age. Her music is particular … it is sacred, and for someone like me, who dwells in the secular realm, it is important to me that the listener recognizes that they have stepped into Mahalia's realm; that this is a place of reverence."

McCann has traveled to many spaces and places. She is a classically-trained vocalist and graduate of Chicago's Kenwood Academy High School and went to Virginia Union University, where she heard Thelonious Monk. She moved back home and started gigging, when jazz masters Von and George Freeman took her under their wing. The fruits of McCann's labor paid off when she was named Chicagoan of the Year in Jazz in 2020 by the Chicago Tribune.

With seven recordings as a leader, including her 2023 CD Do I Move You?, McCann has worked with numerous jazz stars including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ramsey Lewis, Laurence Hobgood, and Von Freeman. McCann connects the sacred with the secular with one, swinging arc that traverses the past and the future. Former jazz critic Howard Reich of the Chicago Sun Times, wrote that McCann has, "a voice that soars in all registers, at all tempos, on all occasions…" and her biggest supporter, the late Stanley Crouch, proclaimed that McCann's, "pitch is superb … clear on the top … startling at the bottom, while all the steps in between are polished with swing … I have not heard a voice like hers in decades."

As her work with Mahalia Jackson aurally illustrates, Tammy McCann's voice is an instrument, highly honed by years of craftsmanship in the spirit of Mahalia Jackson.

"To me, Mahalia is always set apart, " McCann says. "You always knew that she was a craftsman when she opened her mouth. And so, in my homage to her, I must also be a craftsman."

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