Triad Musicians Remember The 'Queen Of Soul,' Aretha Franklin

Triad musicians are celebrating the life of the “Queen of Soul” today.

The publicist for Aretha Franklin announced that she died at her home in Detroit at the age of 76.

Most people probably remember the singer for the sheer power she brought to the stage. Anthems like “Respect” and “Think” are inescapable musical touchstones and for good reason.

According to Greensboro saxophonist Wally West, when she directed that power at you, it's something you'd never forget.

West organized a horn section to accompany Franklin for her 2000 concert at the War Memorial Auditorium. When it came time for him to play, he says he was beside himself.

“Here we are on stage. The lights are bright, the sweat is dripping off of us, and Aretha turns around and points to me,” he remembers.

“It's my turn to play, and I stand up, and it's almost like I'm having an out-of-body experience. And I remember getting a big smile from Aretha. And I sat down, and I almost felt like I was going to pass out because it was just such a euphoric experience.”

Maestra D'Walla Simmons-Burke, the director of choral and vocal studies at Winston-Salem State University, experienced that euphoria as well, albeit in a different way.

She counts Franklin among the greatest artists in the history of American music. And she had a chance encounter with the singer last summer in Detroit.

Much to her surprise, Franklin, unprompted, recognized Simmons-Burke's name, which is attached to an all-female a capella group she founded.

“When it was my time to meet [Aretha Franklin], and I announced my name, she asked, ‘Oh, so do you have that group, The Burke Singers?”

Simmons-Burke said yes, and Franklin encouraged her to continue her path in education. It was a surprise on top of an already once-in-a-lifetime encounter.

“I did everything except curtsy,” she says. “She always seemed to be a down-to-earth person, and she was truly that. But meeting the Queen of Soul was like meeting the Queen of England to me.”

But power behind royalty doesn't always have to mean big, or loud, or anthemic.

In fact, UNC Greensboro saxophone professor Chad Eby says Franklin's precise musicianship – that perfect control of her instrument – could leave just as deep an impression.

“She knows it's the quality of her voice, her vibrato, her use of dynamics, her use of subtle improvisation,” he says. “Subtle improvisation when delivering a melody that she knows that she can make it into something new nearly every time.”

“You know, the older generation, like Aretha and Stevie Wonder, they had those skills, but they used them sparingly, so they always had power. And I think she epitomized knowing when to do what you can do, and when to hold back a little.”

According to Eby, that command – of both her voice and of the audience – was on full display during a show in the 1990s, where he had the honor of playing with Franklin.

He remembers the moment the band was supposed to start in on Celine Dion's “My Heart Will Go On,” which Franklin was covering that day.

“I hated that song so much. And then, as soon as she started to sing, it was so moving that by the time we reached the climactic moments of the song, I was in tears, in spite of the fact that I was playing,” Eby says.

In her storied career, Aretha Franklin went on to receive the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And she made history in 1987 when she became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

That, to borrow a word, is a whole lot of respect.