Aretha Franklin, live at the piano, at the pinnacle of her powers.
That summation should motivate just about anyone with an interest in popular music over the last 60 years to ease on down to the Tivoli Theater, 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday, for “Amazing Grace,” the latest offering in the Bobby Stone Film Series.
The 87-minute film, directed by Sydney Pollack over two nights in 1972 within the New Temple Community Church in Los Angeles, was long thought lost to the ages after a technical issue made the synching of sound to picture all but impossible.
Digital advances over the decades finally eliminated that hurdle.
“Amazing Grace” is a stunning gospel throw-down—brimming with the dynamics and out-of-sight singing that made Aretha ARETHA, from rafter shaking shouts and vocal gymnastics to gently emotive purrs most often associated with deep soul ballads like “Natural Woman.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she brought with her a band hand-picked for the event— some of the finest musicians then working in popular music: Bernard “Pretty” Purdie on drums, Cornell Dupree on guitar, bassist Chuck Rainey, Poncho Morales on congas, organist Ken Lupper, as well as one of Aretha’s key gospel mentors, the Rev. James Cleveland, hosting and at times joining on piano and singing.
The band’s backing gives the gospel program a full and somewhat more modern sound without losing the essential beauty of the songs and the gospel classics, particularly the call-and-response between choir and lead vocalist, and a choir strong and confident enough to match blows with arguably the greatest vocalist of our time, Ms. Aretha Franklin.
The evenings are not without ample “rock n’ soul energy”—after all, as musicologists will readily tell you, that energy originated in the southern gospel church dating to at least the 1920’s.
When Aretha rocks “Climbing Higher Mountains” halfway through the second night’s program, you may feel you’ve been transported to one of Aretha’s ground-breaking Filmore West appearances, given the full-on double-time soul-clapping, a mid-section of vamping and a call-and-response tete-a-tete with the Rev. Cleveland, one of Aretha’s earliest gospel mentors, that quickly bolsters the room’s already simmering temperature.
The Southern California Community Choir, with a heavy rep of its own in gospel circles, is led by Alexander Hamilton, a lithe dervish of swirling energy, clearly inspired with the musical company he’s keeping. His dance-like moves, while never disrespecting the worshipful setting, add an unexpectedly entertaining visual element.
The eye is never hungry for engagement: Aretha, resplendent in colorful, African-inspired flowing robe, is a life-affirming sight, and the choir on the more aggressive songs sways and shimmies, conveying an electrifying surge that permeates the small sanctuary.
Aretha and her ensemble repeatedly bring the modest gathering of congregants to spontaneous heights of shouting, clapping and praise in the finest gospel tradition.
And who would ever take Aretha’s pianistic skills for granted? She seems never to drop a note or chord, and her keen sense of rhythm and modulation squeeze every life-affirming ounce from her choices of material.
Qualms? You could certainly make the case for a somewhat tighter edit, omit some of the cutaways to the audience—from enthralled hard-core gospel churchgoers, to an occasionally mugging camera-hog or the final-night slice of rock royalty, Stones drummer Charlie Watts and a lightly swaying, finger-popping Mick Jagger unassumingly posted in the back pews—but these visual diversions mostly enhance the atmospherics of this unquestioned cultural treasure.
In some ways, the Tivoli showings can be considered a circle completed. Early in her career, before Aretha had spent 10 years on Columbia records, and before she finally moved to Atlantic records for her 1967 breakthrough LP—I Never Loved A Man the Way I Love You—Aretha from age 11 toured frequently during holidays and school breaks across the South and Midwest with her father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin, until signing a contract to record secular music for Columbia Records at age 18.
Those gospel circuit tours included at least one (and probably more) Chattanooga appearances. We know of one for certain because the promotional poster for that evening at Howard High School, including the then exclusively gospel family group, the Staple Singers, has been widely circulated on the Internet, and was reprinted within the definitive Aretha biography, Respect: the Life of Aretha Franklin, 2014, by David Ritz.
As early as age 8, as Ritz recounts, her father would sometimes roust Aretha from late night slumber to come downstairs and perform for dignitaries visiting the Franklin home—everyone from Mahalia Jackson and Harry Belafonte to Sam Cooke, Clara Ward and Lou Rawls, as well as various figures of the growing Civil Rights Movement, including the Rev. Martin Luther King and associates.
“Amazing Grace” powerfully documents Aretha at an early career peak, on the heels of a dizzying five year run from 1967-1972: 12 #1 R&B singles as well as a dozen hits crossing over to the top 10 of the pop charts, and 14(!) LP’s selling consistently in the tens of millions.
The commercial and star-making power of that brief run has been matched only by an elite clutch of hit-makers who can be tallied on one hand.
But as she said at the time and her calmly masterful performance confirms, Aretha was determined to remind her fans that she would never abandon her deep church roots.
Nearing the end of his seven-minutes of commentary, her father, after briefly dabbing perspiration from his daughter’s brow, offers an insightful—and humorous—anecdote, that confirms Aretha’s abiding gospel bonafides:
“I am glad that Rev. Cleveland decided, and he and Aretha got together to make this gospel album—I’m gonna say this and then I’m finished.
I went in the cleaners one day in Detroit to pick up some clothes. And, um, Aretha had appeared on a recent television show. And she (the cleaners clerk) told me, ‘I saw your daughter Aretha last night.’
Yes, I said, and how did you like it?
‘Oh, it was all right . . . But I’ll be glad when she comes back to the church!,’ he quotes the dry-cleaners clerk.
After a long, pregnant pause and mild chuckle, the Rev. Franklin continues:
“I said, ‘listen, baby, lemme tell you somethin’ ‘laughing mischievously as the crowd shouts and laughs knowingly. ‘If you wanna know the truth, she hasn’t ever left the church!’ (Shouts and another burst of applause.)
‘All you have to do is to have something in here (gesturing to his chest) and the ability to hear, and the ability to feeland you will know that Aretha’s still a gospel singer!’ (More shouts, applause.)
‘And the way she sings in—this—church, is the way she sings anywhere she sings.’”
Aretha opens with the classic, “What A Friend We Have in Jesus,” followed by “Wholly, Holy,” a Marvin Gaye-penned gospel-pop mood piece widely known by way of the multi-platinum “What’s Going On” LP; “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” follows— both songs with spiritual underpinnings, but an appeal well beyond gospel’s core.
Of course, regardless of the provenance of the songs, Aretha’s inimitable voice and delivery are the elements that just keep on giving. Rich, resonant and always on time, she commands the keys, the choir and the musicians with an ease that can only come with decades of dedicated practice, coupled with pure God-gifted talent.
Lest we forget, the woman we see before us was a mere 30 years old—a good three decades from beginning to relinquish her regal stature in the popular music pantheon.
The Queen of Soul is gone, but Amazing Grace will surely remain among the most emotionally impactful touchstones of Aretha Franklin’s towering musical legacy.