Franklin sings into the divine

In case you have been away for a long time, Franklin was and remains perhaps the most outstanding vocalist around, and she once again proved what she no longer needs to keep proving: She has a voice that can fill an auditorium with such beauty and power that it can justly be called "divine."

Courtesy of Arista Aretha Franklin enchanted her Thanksgiving crowd at Orchestra Hall in Detroit this past Thursday.

And the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was there, too.

Although Franklin has previously appeared with the Boston Symphony, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the National Symphony, this marked her first appearance with the DSO, and, hence, the first time singing with a symphony orchestra in her hometown of Detroit.

The DSO isn't a group that's used to being relegated to mere background music, but when Aretha takes the stage that's all that it could hope to contribute.

Fortunately for the DSO, Franklin did not appear until after an intermission, giving them time to showcase its own formidable talents. The group, led by Resident Conductor Leslie B. Dunner, opened the wholly American program with a American piece, Leonard Bernstein's overture to "Candide." That, along with a movement from William Grant Still's "Afro-American Symphony," were the only proper orchestral works. Following this were three pop orchestral arrangements of the works of Duke Ellington (a preview of next year's celebration of the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth). Ralph Hermann's "Ellington Fantasy" nicely included the standards "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" and "Take the A Train."

The first half of the show, which ought to have been the DSO's, was stolen away from the orchestra as a group of youngsters from the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts (DSA) gave a dynamically intense version of Dizzy Gillespie's proto-funky "Manteca," featuring an astonishing percussion section with a smashing collection of horns to keep up. The DSA All-Stars earned a standing ovation, not simply because the group is composed entirely of graduating students and alumni of the school, but rather because they were a group of incredibly talented musicians who proved that no matter how old you are, you can still kick ass.

Following the Aretha-free first act, the crowd was ready for the Queen to take the stage. And took the stage she did, with enough flair to put czars to shame. The woman knows how to make an entrance. While photographs of her were projected on a screen, the orchestra, which now included members of her own entourage, blasted Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra," followed up by an excerpt from "Chariots of Fire" and an arrangement of "Jesus Christ Superstar." Granted, there's no subtlety here. But this is Aretha. After this trilogy of deification, Franklin was ready to appear.

The entire literature of praise and expectation that accompanied this woman was generously supported. Her exquisite ability to make anything that comes out of her, speech or song, sound brilliantly musical, the very resonance of her voice and the power and beauty that she gives to everything she does with it, all carried through as she performed "Rock Steady" and "Angel," joined by a troupe of her own dancers.

Another key term in the praises of Franklin is versatility, and she embodied that description as she segued into the energetic "Think," where more than a handful of her fans echoed her on the chorus of "Freedoms."

One of her most treasured and enjoyable songs, "Respect," followed. Maybe all she's asking for is respect, but she sure deserves a hell of a lot more than that. She deserves idolization.

Midway through the number, she exited the stage and let the deserving band shine. You could give Aretha a K-mart karaoke machine and she would blow the roof off the arena, so it's truly remarkable to see her with a band as unstoppably groovy as the one she has. Featuring her son Teddy on guitar, her band managed to musically obliterate the DSO and almost came close to matching the power that Franklin herself brought to the stage.

One quickly gets a sense of why she is so loved and has been for so long. She possesses a huge vocal range, yet doesn't feel the need to exploit it unnecessarily (did somebody say Mariah Carey?). And she can take a song, no matter how sappy, and ensure that it won't turn into an annoyingly cheesy, empty-headed love ballad (did somebody say Celine Dion?)

She proved that to us with a song from the film "Waiting to Exhale," which in many of her contemporaries' hands would have been nothing more that soulless make-out music, but Franklin made it divine, stopping the show at nearly every other verse.

To remind us that the DSO was still there, Franklin again amazed the audience with her startling versatility by having the orchestra join her in performing Puccini's "Vissi d'arte" from "Tosca," in a repeat of her performance at the Grammy Awards where she filled in at a moment's notice for an ailing Luciano Pavarotti. Franklin oozes soul, and her voice captures that soul in everything from vacuous '50s tunes to opera.

Figuring that she had nothing left to conquer in the field of vocal performance, Franklin sat at the piano and accompanied herself in an almost unbearably emotional "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which featured a fantastically funky coda where she led her orchestra to places neither Paul nor Art ever dreamed the song could go.

Franklin ended regulation time with a rousing version of her "Freeway of Love," amalgamating itself into a rocking gospel chorus that again saw the crowd come to its feet. She left the stage for a gloriously huge ovation, milking it until returning to perform the title track from her latest album "A Rose is Still a Rose."

She closed the breathtaking show with a sweet and uncharacteristically subtle performance of the Sinatra hit "I'll Be Seeing You." After graciously thanking the DSO (for listening to her, I suppose), Franklin exited for the final time, having left a mark on the music fans in the audience that will not be forgotten.

As we dined on turkey and potatoes with our families this holiday weekend and reminded ourselves what we are thankful for, hopefully that list included our being in the presence of a truly timeless institution like the divine Aretha Franklin.

11-30-98