In the Washington Post of August 17, Chris Richards declared that the performance by Aretha Franklin of the title cut on her 1972 gospel-soul album, “Amazing Grace” “deserves to be compared to everything Michelangelo ever painted.” Now I am not prepared to go that far, but when I learned she had died, it as this particular song by her on that album (which I have in vinyl from when it first came out) that I wanted to hear and played prior to seeing this over-thee-top remark by Richards.
Nevertheless, it is an incredible performance. She has been underappreciated for some time partly because she has been so widely imitated for so long. Her basic sound has become simply what most singers, especially female ones, do all the time, with even the cheesy pop Idol shows turning what has become a cliche into a joke.
So her great innovation was to introduce into US pop music melisma, the making multiple notes out of a single syllable of text. This has become an overdone cliche. But it was Aretha who moved this standard of gospel music with its African origins into pop music, with possibly only southern Indian Carnatic vocal music matching this tradition.
In any case, Aretha’s 1972 album version of “Amazing Grace” is the ultimate expression of gospel Melisma, far beyond what anybody else has ever done, even if it does not quite match “everything Michelangelo painted.”
Barkley Rosser
The “Amazing Grace” album and song date from 1972.
Not to knock Aretha, but there’s more than one saint; Ella Fitzgerald for example.
It helps to remember that Buonarati’s reputation had its ups and downs over the years. He was always considered good for his era, but it was the mid-20th century when he became Michelangelo. I think there was a big exhibition of his work in New York. It was one of the first big museum blockbuster shows. There was also The Agony and The Ecstasy, originally a book, then a movie. Lots of media hype.
He was a pretty good painter and sculptor though.
Barkley:
You have certainly given Aretha the credit she desires and have ratcheted up from my basic in remembrance post. I would not worry so much about imitators. Those of us who have been around recognize Aretha as well as Fitzgerald. Kind of hard not to.
Kaleberg.
Well, it is intereting that it is Michelangelo was compared to Aretha, not as a sxcupltor. Yes, his standing has standing as a painter has varied some over time, but since “David” and the “Pieta” appeared he has pretty much been viewed as the greatest sculptor of all time with no period that was not the view. And I do not think there was a period when he was called “Bumnarrati” rather than “Michelangelo.”