Aretha Franklin stops at the Taj Mahal Oct. 6. She chats with Atlantic City Weekly on her biopic, the upcoming presidential election, her favorite singers and a getaway long ago with Bob Dylan.
You performed at the 2009 Inauguration of President Obama. What do you remember from that experience?
It was just one great momentous morning and it was terrifically cold. I wished he had it inside, which would have been wonderful. But, traditionally, it was the thing to do.
How do you feel Obama’s been as president?
I think that he has done the very best job that he could with what he has had to work with and what things were when he arrived in office. It was in a terrific mess wasn’t it? I think that he has tried to do the best by everyone.
Are you voting in the upcoming election?
Well I always vote, of course. I vote. Everyone should vote. If you don’t vote you have no right to complain.
Prior to the casinos, there were lots of great nightclubs in Atlantic City, like the Club Harlem.
Oh yes, the Club Harlem, that’s right. That was really back in the day!
You played there.
Oh yeah, absolutely. I did the breakfast show there. Sure did. They had the best chicken wings. Wow! And the hot sauce; oh man, were they good.
And they were available at breakfast time?
[Yes], with grits, eggs [and] toast. At four in the morning.
A lot of singers, such as Sam Cooke in August 1964, had residencies there. Did you? Or was it a one-off show?
No, I just performed there with Larry Steele and his revue. I was a very young artist then. Yeah, I just loved the Club Harlem though, that was a great room.
Any other fond memories of Atlantic City?
Well, I really just love coming to Atlantic City. The Boardwalk is too fabulous. Just walking the Boardwalk stopping to buy some salt-water taffy, you know. I went and bought a beautiful camera [on] the Boardwalk [a way down] from the hotel [once]. The shopping is really, really cool. … [I]t’s just always so festive. Usually when I come the weather is great. This is the latest in the year that I will have come, I think. I am usually there during the summer.
Both you and Bob Dylan were signed by John Hammond Sr. to Columbia Records in the early 1960s.
That’s right. At Columbia Records. And Streisand was there at the same time. We all really came along together.
Did you ever hang out with Dylan?
No, I didn’t. But we went down to Puerto Rico one year for the Columbia Records convention, and all of the artists were out on the beach at midnight, you know. So we had a really super time, swimming at midnight and running up and down the beach. You know how young teenagers are.
Is there any lesson from the 1960s, in general, that may have a helping hand in helping today’s world.
From the ’60s? Just offhand I can’t think of any. Not right offhand, I’m sure there must be, there has to be something though. I just can’t think of any right offhand. But the ’60s were a very interesting period in American history, certainly. We had “love children” and hippies and Aretha and Bob Dylan.
And “Respect.”
Yeah, absolutely, I mean everybody needs that. Even little three and four year olds want respect in their own little way, certainly attention. Maybe we should call it that.
Who is the most captivating singer you’ve ever heard perform?
You mean besides me? (Laughs) Well, I certainly enjoy myself, I must tell you that. And I appreciate the fact that people enjoy myself. Some of the other singers that I have enjoyed, one among many: Judy Garland. I think was one of the greatest singers of all time. Of course there are others: Barbara Hendricks, classical, whom I enjoy. And Kathleen Battle, whom I enjoy. Renee Fleming, classical. Have you heard her? She’s terrific, make a point of hearing her.
Aretha Franklin
Where: Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City
When: Sat., Oct. 6, 8pm
How Much: $60, $75 and $120
Kelsey and Kim Jackson, with help from fellow local Allen Thomas, have been drawing crowds to Atlantic City’s Kentucky Avenue with jazz, soul and R&B.
It was a great turnout and Ralph Hunter was in rare form last Saturday when the African-American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey was honored with the U.S. Postal Service’s unveiling of the Rosa Parks commemorative stamp on the 100th anniversary of her birth.
Rock Art Show at Hamilton Mall Feb. 8-10; Horseback Riding on the Atlantic City Beach
The Atlantic City region hosted Aretha Franklin, Nicki Hilton and Mike Trout, plus more!
When casinos first began presenting classical entertainers on stages more accustomed to Don Rickles and Tom Jones, the popular misconception was that highbrow artists needed to dumb down their performances for the gaming crowd. After all, does scotch and soda really mix with Ludwig von Beethoven and Igor Stravinsky? Turns out they do, according to Itzhak Perlman. The violin virtuoso, conductor and teacher won’t alter his usual program when he performs Sat., Nov. 28, at Resorts Atlantic City. He’ll do the same material in the Superstar Theatre as he would in Avery Fisher...
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A banner with the name Slappy White on it hung across Kentucky Avenue all summer. The late comedian and actor (who died in Brigantine in 1995) was booked for the entire season at Atlantic City’s famed Club Harlem. On this particular summer night, however — July 24, 1964, to be precise — hanging above the banner was yet another banner. It read: “Sam Cooke.”
So often the nostalgia associated with Atlantic City’s past is spoken of with a special brand of sincerity — particularly a section of Kentucky Avenue between Arctic and Atlantic avenues, where the jazz clubs once ruled the day (and nights)...
Summertime, and the groovin’ is easy. Tourists fatten the regular jazz crowd cramming Kentucky Avenue, where the night never dies. Inside Club Harlem, they press against the bar and each other, as the organist and his quartet tune up on the bandstand. The music comes fast and the band is tight and the organ looses a torrent of sound. And there’s an added bonus for posterity: the live session is being recorded for an album, a rare occurrence in Atlantic City. This was the scene on the Saturday night of Aug. 9, 1969, when master jazz organist Lonnie Smith and company cut Move Your Hand, an exemplar of ’60s soul jazz, for the legendary Blue Note label. The title song, which became a hit, borrowed its lyric from a joke that Smith’s drummer told about a substitute preacher who couldn’t deliver the sermon because someone else’s hand was covering the text. (The joke is less than hysterical, but the number’s a grabber.) “One night, I was playing a little lick and just happened to say [“move your hand”] to the fellows in the band,” says Smith, now 67 and as busy as ever. “People loved it and always requested it.” It became...
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"The business has changed drastically in comparison to the era that I was recording. I feel it is more visual than audio that is being used as the marketing tool for today’s recording artists. "
FEW DAYS PASS WHEN I don't think about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I have a short list of people who I want to be proud of my work. Aretha Franklin, my high school English teachers (especially Mrs. A...
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1. I Love You But... said... on Oct 4, 2012 at 02:29AM
“"I don’t do things that I feel abuse the voice." : Girl are you high? You chain smoked from when you were a teenager until well into your 50's. It's a miracle you never developed lung cancer!”
2. Big Arehta Fan!! said... on Oct 4, 2012 at 03:21PM
“This is the greatest cover ever! How can I get S copy? I don't live in Atlantic CitY”
3. go Queen said... on Oct 9, 2012 at 09:41PM
“I`m sure she meant she was not `currently `doing things to abuse her voice. She gave up smoking almost 20 years ago and more recently gave up foods and drinks that was causing her to have acid reflux problems .”