This weekend I had the great honour of seeing Aretha Franklin perform live
at the Toronto Jazz Festival. It would foolish to expect a 20 year old
Aretha Franklin to show up and dazzle the crowd. But it didn't matter to
the crowd, they loved every moment of it.
No, Aretha Franklin is no longer the greatest singer in the world, but she
still is the Queen of Soul. She might not hit the notes, she might not have
the stamina to carry the show. But this is where professional musicians and
amateurs and seperated. 3 songs in, I could see that time has caught up to
Aretha and she was tired to the bone. But to the average listener you
wouldn't be able to tell the difference. She let the band carry the song
and she hit certain lines and notes here and there, while inbetween getting
her strength back. And not once did she let the pain show, not once did she
give up. A lesser musician would have been done right then and there.
Either giving up and not knowing what to do. No, this is the strength that
is Aretha Franklin today. She can no longer live off her voice or her body
anymore. What she now lives on is her name and what's inside of her. People
come to see her because they still love the happiness that Aretha Franklin
brought to their lives. But why they still are happy at the shows is not
because she can sing but because of the charisma that she still has. You
can't manufacture that. She is still a sassy old gal and the fans love it.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
I think we all found it.
Seeing her on stage at the age it makes me wonder what i'll be doing if I
ever get old. I don't expect to playing my bass my whole life, nor to I
expect to be on stage when I get old. What I do expect is to continue to
make music on a piano. In terms of musical tastes, I'm still going to
listen to Master of Puppets until I die but i don't expect to be
headbanging. It's strange, although my main instrument is the bass I still
consider myself a pianist rather than a bassist.
