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FLINT, MI (WDJT) — A Gospel recording artist and producer shares how his childhood dream of getting to play with Aretha Franklin finally came true at the age of 43, right here on stage in Flint.
The year was 1996,when the Music Minister at New Jerusalem Full Gospel Baptist Church got the call.
Jeffrey LaValley said he left choir practice early that day for an experience the accomplished artist says he’ll never forget.
“I was literally sitting right here and my cell phone went off,” said LaValley.
He went ahead and answered his phone, a rarity during choir rehearsal, when he saw the 313 area code.
It was Darryl Houston, Aretha Franklin’s keyboardist:
“He asked me do you know anybody that can beat tambourine? Aretha wants two people to play tambourine tonight,” he said.
LaValley said choir member Duane Bailey agreed to join him.
“We literally picked up tambourines from the choir stand and left rehearsal to go and meet her and rehearse with the band,” he explained.
Never mind that he wasn’t on keyboard:
“They could have asked me to play spoons or beat on a box,” he said, “I was on stage with Aretha Franklin so it didn’t matter what they asked me to do, I was happy to be in the spot.”
The concert venue was the IMA.
“She knew how to command the audience,” LaValley said,”and captivate them and capture their attention…that’s the key to being a great artist.”
Aretha Franklin returned to Flint in October of 2005 singing at the New Jerusalem Full Gospel Baptist Church as part of a fund raiser for Bishop Paul Morton who had lost three churches in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Jeffrey said he was seated on stage right behind the piano for the entire performance.
“All of a sudden, she went into this spontaneous moment of old testimony time singing, and she wore this place out,” he said.
LaValley said the news of her death stunned him:
“There will never be another Queen of Soul,” he noted.
LaValley said he has no doubts about what she’s doing now:
“There’s a new voice in the heavenly choir that’s resilient, it’s strong, and it’s singing praises to the King that she loved.”
Jeffrey said he got another phone call about seven years later, inviting him to play the organ for Aretha Franklin as she sang the Star Spangled Banner at Pistons’ GM Joe Dumar’s retirement party at the Palace in Auburn Hills.
He did not turn down that opportunity to perform with Aretha Franklin either.
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