Aretha Franklin was one of the greatest voices in music.

Some would say the.

I was lucky enough to witness the depth and breadth of her soul three times.

Two of the reviews I wrote as a music critic for the big daily were quoted by syracuse.com the day our Queen of Soul left our world.

Thanks to my friend George Owen for including my thoughts from 2002 and 2007 in that retrospective.

Of 2002: The cranked-up thermostat surely made everyone ten degrees hotter than usual” but Franklin also made everybody “ten degrees more hip, too.”

And in 2007: Her voice is powerful, pure, rich and smooth,” Bialczak wrote and noted that Franklin’s songs were appreciated by everyone in the huge crowd, whether they had first heard them from a turntable in the 1960s or on their iPhones of today.

Aretha Franklin in my phone lens in 2015.

I also saw her in 2015, and I chronicled the night at the Syracuse Jazz Fest on this blog.

Thankful I am to have soaked in the wonder, up close.

RIP, Aretha.

May generations to come listen to your music on whatever formats are dreamed up as technology advances.

I’ll keep playing her sound in my head and heart.