Aretha Franklin's guest performance at Fillmore West, the legendary rock palace of the West Coast, which soon closed its doors, is outstanding. Everyone knew who was travelling there and yet in these three nights in spring 1971 everything was different: Instead of the show band left behind in Detroit, King Curtis And The Kingpins, one of the far and wide most potent bands, accompanied by the summit strikers Cornel Dupree (g) and Bernard Purdie (dr), took to the stage.

In the background, the Memphis Horns, a powerful blower that whistles its razor-sharp backings up to dizzying heights, were working hard. Billy Preston on the organ lets spiritual tension emanate from his fingertips, and Ray Charles, who happened to be in the audience by chance on one of the evenings, gets his performance with the meaningful title "Spirit In The Dark". Little commentary is needed on the cover heroine. Because without the superb albums of the late 60s Aretha Franklin would neither have been promoted to the first Soulsister of the country nor called to Fillmore.

Recording: February 1975 live at Fillmore West, San Francisco, by Ray Thompson

Production: Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin

"Emotional music of a serious musician - something like that is missing in of today!" (Good Times, April /

May 2014)

"From this super record exist felt 100 reissues and new editions - these here in the folding cover plays itself in every respect right to the front." (Audio, July 2014)

AllMusic rating: