{"id":7919,"date":"2019-04-30T06:14:42","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T10:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7919"},"modified":"2019-05-15T10:14:25","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T14:14:25","slug":"big-screen-music-amazing-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7919","title":{"rendered":"Big Screen Music: Amazing Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Don\u2019t miss these documentaries about legendary musical\nperformers in theaters now. They are indisputable testimony about the power of\nmusic to overcome barriers and speak to the heart. Tomorrow: A Tuba to Cuba<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazing Grace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eagerly anticipated since its impending availability was announced some months ago, Aretha Franklin\u2019s performance of gospel music, recorded and filmed at two successive nights at the Watts New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, 1972, sat unwatched for nearly fifty years. These two nights provided the live recording of the most successful gospel album in history. \u00a0Originally filmed by Sidney Pollack and crew, \u201ctechnical difficulties\u201d with the soundtrack prevented its actual viewing until the project was resurrected by Alan Elliott (trailer<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, those difficulties are solved and Franklin\u2019s genius as\nan interpreter of gospel is like a blinding light. She receives strong support\nfrom the other musicians, the powerful Rev. James Cleveland, and the Southern\nCalifornia Community choir and its charismatic leader, Alexander Hamilton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was delighted to see and hear from her father, Rev.C.L. Franklin, too. I’d heard a lot about his role as an early leader of the civil rights movement in Detroit. Aretha felt his influence felt her entire life. There\u2019s a lot going on in every scene, with her family, the congregation, the other musicians, the filmmakers, and, on the second night, Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts in the audience, but Aretha remains calm and centered in all this hubbub. It\u2019s the music and its message that preoccupy her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point in her career, with 11 number one singles and five Grammys, she could have done anything. She gave this her all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics rating: 99%; audiences 90%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Don\u2019t miss these documentaries about legendary musical performers in theaters now. They are indisputable testimony about the power of music to overcome barriers and speak to the heart. Tomorrow: A Tuba to Cuba. Amazing Grace Eagerly anticipated since its impending … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Big Screen Music: Amazing Grace - the performances that became the best-selling gospel album of all time. Unwatched for almost 50 years. Now in theaters.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1288,58,74,266,207,104],"tags":[1558],"class_list":["post-7919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-documentaries","category-emotions","category-history","category-music","category-the-morgue","tag-gospel-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Amazing-Grace.jpeg?fit=341%2C431&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-23J","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7920,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7919\/revisions\/7920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}