In Memoriam: Solomon Burke, 1940–2010

In Memoriam: Solomon Burke, 1940–2010
by Aaron Greenwald

"He is Solomon the resonator ... the golden voice of heart, wisdom, soul and experience. He's one of the architects of American music." —Tom Waits

In early February 2008, Duke Performances presented Solomon Burke, who died on Sunday, Oct. 10, in a double bill with the Dixie Hummingbirds. Solomon was reared singing gospel music in Philadelphia, and the Hummingbirds have long been ambassadors of that city's terrific church music scene. I sat backstage next to Solomon for the Hummingbirds' set, and he thanked me for the opportunity to see these old friends once more.

At that point in his career, Solomon's contract stipulated that the local promoter provide a throne. Height, width and depth for this piece of furniture were all, rest assured, specified. Solomon had played the Bull Durham Blues Festival four years before, and Lee Hawley in the Duke Scene Shop had built a throne to proper Solomon Burke specifications back then. We retrieved Solomon's seat from storage, and it was ready for King Solomon's arrival.

Solomon needed that throne because, at well over 400 pounds, he was incapable of supporting his own weight for the duration of a concert. (Solomon had, I later learned, spent several weeks over the years at the Duke Diet and Fitness Center.) In order to get him onstage, we turned off the lights. My colleague Paul Overton rolled Solomon onto the stage in a wheelchair. By the time the lights came up, he was in his throne, a gargantuan man in a red sequined suit.

Read the Full Essay @ The Independent

Amazing Grace: Aretha @ Her Peak

Aretha at Her Peak
by Mark Anthony Neal

In January of 1972, two months short of her 30th birthday, Aretha Franklin walked into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles to record a live gospel album. Backed by the Southern California Community Choir, under the direction of her longtime friend and mentor the Reverend James Cleveland, Franklin’s recording eventually sold over 2 million copies and remained the best-selling Gospel album of all time for more than twenty years. Firmly established as the “Queen of Soul”—and still more than a decade away from the caricature that she has become, Aretha Franklin was at the peak of her artistic powers when she recorded Amazing Grace. More than 35 years after its release, the album stands as the best testament of Franklin’s singular genius.

Having earned six Grammy Awards, nearly a dozen gold singles and several gold albums, Franklin was easily the most commercially successful black woman vocalist ever. Culled from sessions recorded in late 1970 and throughout 1971, her album Young, Gifted and Black marks the beginning of what might be called her most sustained period of artistic genius.

Franklin’s decision to record tracks like Elton John’s “Border Song,” Jerry Butler’s “Brand New Me,” Lennon and McCartney’s “The Long and Winding Road” and Nina Simone’s “Young, Gifted and Black,” alongside originals like “Day Dreamin’,” “All the King’s Horses” and the infectious “Rock Steady” was as much about an artist who had warranted the right to record anything she wanted, as it was about a woman who felt she finally had control over her life and career.

Franklin is adamant in her memoirs that Amazing Grace didn’t mark a return to church, in a spiritual sense: “When I say ‘took me back to church,’ I mean recording in church. I never left church. And I never will.” (p.150) Franklin’s very first recording, “Never Grow Old,” was done in her father’s church in 1956. Her first album, Songs of Faith, contained recordings of live performances while she was on tour with her father. In the years between that release and Amazing Grace, Franklin had, with others, been largely responsible for mainstreaming the black Gospel aesthetic in popular music and culture.

Read Aretha at Her Peak (Part One) @ Soul Summer
Read Aretha at Her Peak (Part Two) @ Soul Summer