posted by Robert J. Carmack    #@blue2jazzguy

photo by associated press

Congratulations!! Aretha Franklin receives an honorary degree from Harvard University  May 29 2014.  There are Divas and there are DIVAS, Aretha Franklin isn’t just the Queen of Soul, she’s THE Voice of  All Ages. Gospel, Soul, Pop, and dare I say it, Opera?? Yes, Opera as the late Italian tenor Pavarotti once requested Aretha’s presence to stand in for him at a TV show singing two Arias. Ms Franklin shocking most people, as she easily handled the  difficult music with grace and panache’.  I first heard Aretha  as a teenager on a TV show ,Steve Allen Show in 1964. a moving jazzy-blues song entitled, It Wont Be Long.

In those days She was on the Columbia records label , and they thought they could market her as a jazz singer ,since she played piano  they would just add some…