Actually, as Miss Franklin's career continues to take shape, its breadth and range become increasingly impressive. Starting with the pop singing of her early Columbia days–much of it amazingly good–she has recorded straight soul music, jazz, pop, white rock, and finally, on her last, slightly over-rated album, Young, Gifted and Black, her own brand of black MOR. She
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is eclectic but, like Ray Charles, capable of putting her own stamp on anything she touches.
And yet, for anyone who has seen her in flawless concert, hearing Amazing Grace reveals how often her eclecticism has been due to an erratic artistic temperament. Every Aretha Franklin album of the past has had at least one moment of genuine, incontestable human inspiration–but too many have only that one, or perhaps two at most. She has always suggested more than she has delivered and it is only on Amazing Grace that the order is reversed: She delivers more than anticipated.
As is well known by now, Aretha's background is in gospel music. She learned religion from her father, the Reverend C.L. Franklin, who has recorded over 70 sermons on his own and who makes a cameo appearance here, and singing from Clara Ward, among others, after whom she modeled her early style. She returns to gospel with a vengeance but in a modernized form that incorporated her experiences in popular music. And she does it with unsurprising ostentatious conception involving a full rhythm section and the awesome Southern California Community Choir, a beautiful group that provides dramatic support during some of the album's truly cosmic moments.
Together they don't sound like any other gospel–their music lacks the sectarian quality, the lack of ornamentation, the simplicity of the older recordings. But these qualities are made up for with a new set of virtues generated out of the horizons of Aretha's vision, the sheer, unending size of it. If her approach to gospel is different than, say Marion Williams', it is surely no less holy.
And while the sound is occasionally unorthodox, the material is largely from the basic repertoire, including many songs Aretha has been singing all of her life. In nearly every case, I found myself struck first by the comprehensiveness and depth of the arrangement and then by the brilliance of her lead voice. As she hits note after note that I always knew was there but had never heard before, the distance between listener and participant falls away. Her performance is a virtuoso display of gospel pyrotechnics, done with control and imagination.
The fast numbers, the songs of unqualified joy, hit with tremendo
This album was originally released in 1972, with select cuts from two gospel performances Franklin gave in Los Angeles. Complete Recordings, released in 1999, released the entire body of live recordings, uncut -- introductions and all. It's a must for die-hard Aretha fans, and would make rewarding listening for the rest.
