Events

Sarah Brown’s debut solo album is a tribute to Mahalia Jackson, gospel music’s first
superstar whose soul-soothing spirituals were delivered with sophistication and spell
binding style.

Sarah’s album is also remuneration for the nourishment Mahalia’s music has given
her, of the hope and sanctuary through hard times faced over the years. Growing up
in a volatile household with an abusive father, Brown found catharsis in Mahalia’s
albums as a teen. “When everyone was out I would put her records on the
gramophone and sing and scream along and when I was singing and screaming, I
was escaping, I was free, I felt no fear,” she says. More recently, she came through a
messy divorce. “I was broken again,” she says. “My dreams were shattered but I
turned to Mahalia and her songs provided the rainbow and salvation I needed.”

The seed that grew the album was planted back in 2000, when Brown was singing
backing on the Roxy Music reunion tour. Waiting for soundcheck, she stood on the
stage as Roxys’ pianist Colin Good was warming up on an old blues tune by Ma
Rainey. “And as he played I was immediately transported back to when I was eight
and in church on a Sunday and these matriarchal figures, these big black mamas
dressed like Audrey Hepburn, were bellowing out their Mahalia Jackson hymns, they
were crying out from their very souls and as I listened to Colin I was crying too, lost
in the music and I vowed I’d pay my own homage to Mahalia one day,” she says. “I
needed to say thank you.”

About Sarah Brown

From Aylesbury, Sarah Brown was raised on her sisters’ Mahalia Jackson and Aretha
Franklin records. She honed her expressive voice and range from a young age in the
local Pentacostal church then when her parents split she moved with her mum to
Luton and at 17 joined The Inspirational Choir Of The Pentecostal First Born Church
Of The Living God. One of their featured singers, Brown sang with the group for 10
years, appearing on their 1985 debut album Sweet Inspiration and on Madness’ 1983
Number 2 hit single Wings Of A Dove. In the 90s she sung with Incognito, as a part
of an ensemble with Quincy Jones at the 25th Montreux Jazz Festival and made up
one part of jazz duo Lush Life. An in demand sessioneer, she has also sung with Pink
Floyd, George Michael, Stevie Wonder and Simply Red and toured with Roxy Music,
Simple Minds and Duran Duran.

Support act will be Al Hughes