Aretha Franklin claimed the reason she postponed her January concert till Saturday night at Radio City Music Hall, was because she didn’t want to deal with New York’s freezing cold weather. Fair enough, royalty has its privileges, and the relief that the “pancreatic cancer” (I assume) which could’ve very well killed her remained in remission was not the reason for the six month break, more than made up for her somewhat silly reasoning.
Aretha told the story of her illness over a Gospel blues vamp in a powerful act of testifying and witnessing, as she described her Doctor’s amazement that Aretha was suddenly free from growths on her x-rays. The doctors were delighted and surprised by it but Aretha growled “You ain’t telling me nothing I didn’t know”. She expected and testified to it and the power of God in her life. “Can I get a witness?” She cried out, and we were the witnesses. “You don’t know why God does” was her conclusion. And Amen to that.
It was one of two moments in which Aretha turned the spotlight on her inner life. The other was a rearranged vamp through “I Will Always Love You” boiled down to the hook. She played it on the piano over and over while pictures of her late Goddaughter Whitney Houston appeared on screen. Two and a half years after Aretha performed one of the greatest concerts of all time at this very venue (read it here) on the day after Whitney died, she was still looking back. Still, perhaps always, it is on Aretha’s mind.
The rest of the show was the Aretha Franklin experience, 90 minutes including breaks. Leading a 21 piece orchestra, with four back up singers, Aretha took awhile to heat up, Jackie Wilson and Burt Bacharach covers were overwhelmed by the back up singers, but by the third song, her sister Carolyn’s “Angel” she was in complete control and didn’t lose it through to her signature finale Otis Redding’s “Respect”. At the age of 72, Aretha was in better voice than she was at 52 years old, because it takes concentration for the aural soundplays she does so well, for the scatting coda during “Angel” she takes more care with her instrument. Aretha can’t turn it on like she used to, she has to work it up. “Loving You Baby”, the first of two songs written by “Gentle Giant” Curtis Mayfield is flawless, it doesn’t have the exuberance of the recorded version, it feels more shaded, less shallow, but it is still great, and a late show “Something He Can Feel” was sooooo good, it was the first time since Neil Young at Carnegie earlier this year where I wished a song just would never end. It is a shame she didn’t go for the hat trick and sing “Sparkle”. The personal best continued with Luther Vandross’s “Jump To It”. and finally, ending the first half hour with “I Ain’t Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You”, ululating and tearing off the rafters. It was a four song tandem Aretha didn’t pull off again last night.
Aretha took a break, came back, invited Al Sharpton on stage only to discover he hadn’t made it, put a spotlight on her son who has a “radio friendly” album dropping this September, performed some Gospel, a couple of secular numbers and closed with “Respect”.
There were no real weak moments. “I’m back” she exclaimed late in the show and really better than ever. Soul music walks hand in hand with trouble, with problems, with the constant ache of life, without one you can’t have the other, and Aretha has soul and between aging, weight problems, lovers, cancer, the death of family, Aretha has even more soul and she is a great artist not simply because she has the voice to but also because she has the inner life to transmogrify sorrows into sound.
This wasn’t like the February 2012 concert, I won’t carry it with me forever. It felt a little off hand, a little business as usual, the setlist creeky. But her singing was perfection and it is always a pleasure and honor to see the great woman on stage.
Grade: B+
