Queen Of Soul Christens Empire With Two New Albums

Aretha Franklin will go the indie route with her next two albums, one of which is nearly finished and the other is on the books for an April recording session.
Having severed ties with Sony BMG’s Arista Records and created Aretha’s Records, she is looking for three songs to replace two or three that are already in the can. She has been in contact with Jermaine Dupri, the Underdogs and Harvey Mason to have them pen tunes for the album, specifically, she says, “something very contemporary.”
In April, she will record the first Christmas album of her nearly 50-year recording career, expecting to finish the recording by May 15 and have in stores before Thanksgiving. Franklin get a bit cagey talking about how it will be released, willing to only say “it’s a noted group that works with boomers once they hit 65 — and it’s not Social Security.” (The guess is AARP.)
For her other album, Franklin has been working with Michael Powell on the songwriting and producing. She is plans to release it online herself and is looking at the possibility of releasing the CD through Time-Life.
“I did not re-sign with Arista but I wanted to,” she says, seated in her Beverly Hills hotel suite while taking in televised reports from the presidential campaign trail. “We could not meet in the middle. I respect Mr. (Clive) Davis, but we could not meet.
“I’m very happy (with the new album). I met with a number of people (who wanted to release it) but they were playing games and I have no time for playing games. We’ll go online and we’ll go on TV with 1-800 ads.”
Franklin was in L.A. to be honored Friday as the MusiCares person of the year and next week byte NAACP before she takes the stage at the Nokia Theater in downtown L.A. She performed over the weekend in Temecula, Calif.
That was the only show she performed during her six-day 2,600 mile roadtrip that took her from Detroit to Nashville to Baton Rouge, La., to San Antonio, Phoenix and L.A. Her previous, infrequent trips to L.A. saw her heading through St. Louis and Oklahoma before heading west; she says the Feb. 14 show is her last in L.A. until she resumes flying.
“It’s just a matter of when” she says of getting on an airplane. “I want to go back to Europe,” where she has not performed since 1983.
Franklin said she owed L.A. a concert after she was not 100% at a 2004 show at the Greek Theater. “I had forgotten how cold it gets after 7 p.m. I was saved by hot tea and some heaters placed by the microphone. I can’t tell you how disappointed it was to travel 2,600 miles and to be outdone by Mother Nature. This time we’re more fully prepared.”