Aretha Franklin, the personification of soul music, and the most identifiable and influential voice in American music over the past 50 years, has died at 76.
The Memphis-born daughter of a preacher, C.L. Franklin, and initially a gospel singer, Aretha Franklin developed into a song stylist who melded rhythm and blues, jazz and various popular idioms into a sound and emotive pitch that resonates throughout this country’s – and the world’s – musical vernacular.
An obituary and outline of her remarkable career by The New York Times’ Jon Pareles:
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