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Don't know much about gospel, but -- Aretha!

Aretha Franklin teaser re upcoming dvd release (when, exactly?) of Amazing Grace, featuring previously unseen Sydney Pollack footage from 1972. Forwarded by Aaron Cohen, assoc. editor of Down Beat mag, who's writing a 33 1/3rd book on the "biggest selling gospel record of all time."

I posted JazzBeyondJazz a while back about my gospel aversion, but here's a case where Aretha's music trumps my aesthetic prejudice. For good measure, here's some more of her great singing, "Tiny Sparrow" from '64, also with that spiritual tinge.

Of course what I really like is her funky stuff . . . )

Aretha will be 68 on March 25.

Howard Mandel
c 2010

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Tags: 1/3, 33, Aaron, Amazing, Aretha, Beat, Cohen, Down, Franklin, Grace, More…Sparrow, Tiny, magazine

Comment by Arty Hill on March 3, 2010 at 5:34pm: Yeah man ! And Reverend James Cleveland to boot...I think the only song of his we get on the double rhino cd is Precious Memories...do you know how many tunes he did ? Hope they're all included in the dvd !

Comment by Howard Mandel on March 3, 2010 at 5:40pm: I'm told this is Alexander Hamilton's choir in the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church. And don't know more about it than that.

Comment by Cottonseed on March 4, 2010 at 10:50am: Last Christmas season I was shopping when Aretha's Amazing Grace played out over the store stereo. It was the most self-indulgent performance I think I've ever heard. By the time it was done (an eternity) I was palpable pissed off, physically so. But, hey, that's just me!

Comment by Howard Mandel on March 4, 2010 at 5:54pm: I gotta say at Christmas time there are a ton of recordings I find detestable -- Little Drummer Boy may top the list, fighting for top "honors" with "Do You Hear What I Hear." Cloying bs music. I've blogged about this, too --under the headline "I wake up screaming.." Now, if you think Aretha's "Amazing Grace" is more self-indulgent obnoxious than that, that's your perfect right. But like I say -- James Taylor's version of "Go Tell It On The Mountain" with an extended recorder chorus? Gene Autrey's "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" (ok, that's kind of cute in a kitschy way). Aretha's got a lot of competition, come Xmas.

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