Spirituals & Gospel: Dedicated to Mahalia Jackson
It's moments like these when you wish you hadn't used words like "spine-tingling," "passionate," and "gritty" in other reviews. By the time of these 1996 duo sessions, Staples's voice had gotten grainier and earthier than it was during her glory days, and is all the more expressive and heart wrenching because of it. Meanwhile, Peterson's work on Hammond B-3 and piano is nothing short of astonishing--urgent, soulful, and pulsating--yet it never overwhelms Staples's burning pleas. Billed as a tribute toMahalia Jackson, these 13 familiar cuts are soaked to the bone with blues inflections that deftly illustrate the intimate relationship between blues and spirituals. The pair's inspirational sermon will make believers out of even the most resolute cynics.--Marc Greilsamer