Amazing Grace (2018)

Directed by: Alan Elliott, Sydney Pollack | 87 minutes | documentary, music | Starring: Aretha Franklin, James Cleveland, CL Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Bernard Pretty Purdie, Chuck Rainey, Clara Ward, Mick Jagger, Sydney Pollack, Charlie Watts

‘Communion’ is a beautiful English word that stands for ‘connection’, in Dutch often a flattened policy term. “Communion” certainly applies to the communal experience that gospel music can bring about. That’s what ‘Amazing Grace’ is about: community between singing churchgoers, accompanied by Aretha Franklin (1942-2018) and her band, with the Southern California Community Choir in a Los Angeles church in 1972.

In addition to the title song, they also perform ‘Wholy Holy’ by Marvin Gaye. The fathers of the greatest singers of all time were, not coincidentally, Christian pastors. Recording, concert and church service – including sermon by the Reverend CL Franklin, become one in this pure documentary. ‘Amazing Grace’ is after all a concert registration, and also the recording of the most successful gospel album of all time, with the same title.

Aretha looks tired, is sweating profusely, or are they tears? The ecstasy shown by the audience is real; music brings pride and comfort to the black community, especially in the difficult years following the death of Martin Luther King. The song ‘Amazing Grace’ is itself a Christian hymn, rooted in the eighteenth-century Protestant tradition. In the hands of Aretha, the song actually does heaven, albeit spiritually; Carole King’s worldly ‘You’ve got a Friend’ also becomes gospel when Aretha sings it.

You would expect serious faces during a recording, the combination of intense concentration of the musicians and the spontaneous clapping and singing ‘church goers’ in the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church is unique. Something is being shared here, and something is being created that is greater than the sum of its parts. Before we get religious: that goes for many pop concerts. But we are talking about Love for Music with capital letters, as sung in our language by Raymond van het Groenewoud. Not a match of course, dear believers, but passion every hour.