“Away in a Manger” – Mahalia Jackson w/ Percy Faith (Columbia – 1966)
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I can never play Nat’s “Cradle” without following with “Away in a Manger” by Mahalia Jackson. Back in the `60s before we had so many Christmas songs and albums to choose from, these beacons of Black pool genius illuminated our way…and it got no higher than Sister Mahalia. Standing before Percy Faith’s strings, horns and bells, this was the sound of the union of all mankind on one powerfully peaceful night.
