Search - Aretha Franklin :: Yeah

Even faked, a great LP

John Ellis | New York, NY United States | 08/02/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This 'live' nightclub date with a jazz trio, revealed to be a faked on the Columbia compilations that have since come out, is nonetheless a great LP, maybe the best single Columbia LP from Aretha. John Hammond discovered her and just wanted great music, but the label couldn't decide if she was a show tune singer, jazz or r&b and never figured out she was all of the above and deserved her own category. This is the most jazzy Aretha ever and if she'd wanted to concentrate on this one area of her talent, she would still be ruling it. Hopefully Columbia will issue the undoctored recordings complete some day soon. The clicking silverware and audience murmurs as if they were ignoring her are actually distracting on a couple of songs, which given that it was dubbed in are overkill besides being ridiculous. To this day, Columbia is mishandling her legacy there."