L is For Love You Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin is the most celebrated female artist in the history of recorded music.

She had uninhibited expression full of beauty, raw power, expressive character, vitality and hope. She was regarded as a legend in the making by the tender age of 16. She always gave all that she had to give when she was on the stage.

Aretha had the greatest impact on the soul sound because folks who heard her would marvel at the wonder of her voice that just grabbed people by the collar. She transcended all musical boundaries starting out in the church with Gospel, then being acknowledged as the next Billie Holiday and the new Queen of the Blues singing jazz and blues, to later move into the R&B and crossing over into the pop sphere, being reigned the Queen of soul for winning the title of Best Female Vocal Soul Performance for eight years in a row and also was inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.

I have been listening to her more and more ever since her transition from earth to her new

home in heaven and I am finding more and more reasons to love her voice. The clarity, the rifs, the sheer perfection of what she was able to put out when she sang was nothing short of amazing.

She said, “artists covering her songs was the most sincere form of flattery” (Aretha Franklin). The other night at an event with my band, the JNote Band, I did just that, dedicating her song to her life and everything that she was able to accomplish in this world with the gift that God gave her.

She said that if she could get a young singer to be inspired by her singing then she has done her job. She did just that and more. Job well done Aretha. You have truly inspired a wealth of talented individuals in this world and I truly R-E-S-P-E-C-T who you were as a woman and a vocalist.

The song we covered was “Rocksteady." Please feel free to check it out here: https://youtu.be/AElN-yUFyjo

This cover of her tune was performed at Shrine World Music Venue in Harlem, NY on August 17, 2018. Aretha Franklin died on the 16^th of August. It was only right for us to pay tribute to an artist that we all collectively as a band really loved a lot. The band features me, Stephanie Jeannot on vocals, Richie Johnson on drums, Mark Payne on bass, Prrrl on keys and Phil Smith on guitar. The awesome footage was captured by my good friend, William Rivers.

“Rocksteady” is only one of the many of her songs from her 50-year long career and there are songs I am only now discovering she sang, as I continue to read through a biographical writing about her life by Mark Bego entitled: Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul which features a little under 600 pages about the Queen herself.  

I started reading it a few days ago because I was asked by one of the public libraries, to put on a full-length tribute show dedicated to Aretha that will be about 90 minutes of a tribute to her life and I don’t think it would be appropriate to do something of that magnitude without knowing more in depth about who she was, besides what I already know based on the media and her songs that I like to sing. It is an interesting book so far. I have managed to read about 35% of the book which is good because my song list and everything that happens on the stage for it is going to be based on that and other researched information I come across and though 65% of a book left to read is not that much to read, there is a lot to be done to put on a show like this. But I'm working on it. 

Maybe you are interested in reading this book too. Feel free to check it out here:

All I can say is that I hope I do her justice because she deserves it so please, keep me in your prayers everybody as I embark on this journey that won’t be as easy as it seems. But I was asked, and I am going to do what I was asked to do. 

Thank you for reading my blogpost everybody. Peace and blessings!