Aretha Franklin Sang, Played Piano To Honor ‘Sophisticated Lady’ Natalie Cole At Sold Out Concert [Video]


Natalie Cole, a nine-time Grammy award winner, passed away on New Year’s eve at the age of 65. On New Year’s day, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin paid tribute to Cole by singing and playing “Inseparable,” one of the late singer’s hits from the 1970s.

Franklin appeared in front of a sold out crowd of 7,000 at Mohegan Sun’s Arena, in Uncasville, Connecticut. Three hundred seats had to be added to accommodate the audience.

Aretha is well-known for many hits, including “Respect” and “Chain of Fools,” and audiences love to hear her belt out those tunes. Since she appeared at the Kennedy Center singing songwriter Carole King’s “Natural Woman,” the classic song has experienced a revival, although it is now over 50 years old.

Many know Aretha as a singer, but she is also a songwriter and a versatile pianist. She does not always play the piano when she sings, but she did in the tribute to Natalie Cole per Showbiz 411. She asked the audience for a moment of silence before relaying that Cole had passed away.

And I, God knows, I hate to be the bearer of this news, but to those of you who don’t know, Ms. Natalie Cole passed yesterday. And we will always remember this very classy and sophisticated lady. I just wanted to play a few bars of one of her million-selling records, and let us have a moment in silence in remembrance for the very lovely and gifted, Ms. Natalie Cole.

The term “Sophisticated Lady” was a reference to Cole’s 1977 Grammy award winning hit. Other adjectives used to describe Natalie Cole are sweet and classy.

Natalie Cole, at the SeriousFun Children's Network, Hollywood, California, May 14, 2015. [Image: Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty]
Natalie Cole, at the SeriousFun Children’s Network, Hollywood, California, May 14, 2015. [Image: Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty]
Many celebrities shared thoughts on Cole’s life via Twitter. Mariah Carey posted a younger picture of herself with Natalie Cole. The two had a genuine admiration and respect for each other.

Cole was well-known for the “Unforgettable” virtual duet with her late father, Nat King Cole.

Natalie Cole was born on Feb. 6, 1950, to Nat Cole and his wife, Maria Cole, who had sung with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Natalie grew up surrounded by music and celebrities, and she made her recording debut as a child, singing with her father on a Christmas album. But after Nat Cole’s death in 1965, she turned away from music. She majored in child psychology and graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1972.

Natalie Cole was born on February 6, 1950 to Nat “King” Cole and Maria Hawkins Ellington, who once sang with the Duke Ellington orchestra. She was raised in an affluent area of Los Angeles.

Natalie sang on her father’s Christmas album at a young age, and by the time she was 11, she was already performing.

Despite a blossoming career in music, Natalie Cole attended the University of Massachusetts, graduating in 1972, with a major in child psychology and a minor in German.

When Cole was 15, her father passed away from lung cancer. The young woman who sang in clubs, demonstrating a unique musical style, stated “I had to do my own songs in my own way,” noted the New York Times. Chicago-based music producers Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy noticed her in the early 70s. She later married Yancy, but they divorced in 1980. Yancy later died of a heart attack in 1985.

Cole’s early musical style was R & B and soul, but later she recorded music, in her signature style, which sounded much like her father’s generation, which spanned pop, classics and Latin. Her last album, 2013’s Natalie Cole en Español, paid homage to Cole Español, a Latin album Nat King Cole released in 1958.

In 1989, Cole married Andre Fischer, record producer former drummer of the band Rufus, and the marriage ended in 1995. In 2001, Cole married Bishop Kenneth Dupree, and that final marriage ended in divorce in 2004.

Natalie Cole is survived by a son, Robert Yancy, and two sisters, Timolin Cole and Casey Cole.

[Image: Monica Schipper/Getty]

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