One version of the Aretha Franklin story goes like this: the daughter of a prominent black preacher passed from the gospel choir to her earth-shaking soul hits of the late \'60s over a dubious causeway of nightclub jazz. The narrative reflected the prejudices of Big Chill era rock critics who barely paid lip service to her gospel roots and dismissed jazz as dad\'s music. Lately, other versions of 20th century music history are coming forward.
A good case for revising old accounts is found on the DVD Aretha \'64! Live on the Steve Allen Show, one of 12 discs in the magisterial box set Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia (released by Columbia Legacy). Baby Boomer critics have also targeted Allen, but he was an open-minded late night host within the restrictions of the era\'s network television and comes across here as an affable if distracted professor. For her part, Franklin is radiantly sexy as she climbs up and down the chords of “Love Come Back to Me” while sending the signal that she was indeed riding the tail-end of a time when jazz had claims on pop music. But then she infuses “Rock-a-Bye Baby with a Dixie Melody” with a dollop of soul and on the deep blues of “Won\'t Be Long,” she could have held her own alongside Ray Charles. Restored to beautiful black and white, Aretha \'64 is an ear-opener, showing Franklin capable of bringing her gospel voice into whatever material she sang.
With that in mind, the music on the set\'s 11 audio discs becomes understandable as one phase of a great career, not an unfortunate digression. Seven of the CDs are Franklin\'s Columbia LPs packaged in scale model versions of their original sleeves. The other four consist of albums unreleased or contain material held in the vault. The spark of gospel was with her throughout her jazz period, although she was able to play the part of nightclub singer beautifully.
