Cast
Bettye LaVette — Singer
Alice Russell — Singer
Nona Hendryx — Singer
Zara McFarlane — Singer
José James — Singer
Antibalas
Martin Perna — Artistic Director, saxophonist
Program notes
At the age of 14, in 1956, Aretha Franklin signed her first contract with a record company (Columbia Records). Today, the singer is the best-selling female artist of all time (75 million vinyl sales) according to Rolling Stone magazine, ahead of Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.
One year after her death in the summer of 2018, the Jazz à la Villette festival chose to pay tribute to the Queen of Soul. Under the direction of Antibalas, an Afrobeat band from Brooklyn attached to the Daptone label, the evening included Bettye LaVette (who paid tribute to the singer at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation); Alice Russell (a torchbearer for neo-soul via her album To Dust); Nona Hendryx (her disco hit "Lady Marmalade" gained international recognition); Zara McFarlane (her album Arise delved into the Jamaican soundscape) and José James (his acclaimed solo album No Beginning No End marked a cross between funk, soul, R&B and gospel). Together, they pay respect to the Queen of Soul (just a little bit!).