1972 · album
Two nights in a Los Angeles church became a live gospel album and, decades later, a film of the same performances.
Amazing Grace was recorded at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles on 13 and 14 January 1972. Aretha Franklin’s performance belongs to a church gathering as well as a recording session. The album carried its sound outward; the later film brought the encounter within the room back into view.
Markers identify buildings or documented location references. They do not mark an exact recording room, stage position or camera angle.
Rhino identifies both recording dates and names Precious Memories, What a Friend We Have in Jesus and How I Got Over among the performances. The Complete Recordings edition, expanded in 1999, returned to material from both nights. Keeping the two evenings visible helps distinguish the historical gathering from any one configuration of the album. New Temple is the shared setting behind those releases, a place whose live performances could be selected, reordered and encountered again on record. [2]
TIME’s announcement as a distribution partner identifies James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir alongside Franklin. It credits Alan Elliott with producing and realising the film from footage captured in 1972. The later release offers another route into the same location: a viewer can encounter the performers’ shared space as well as the sound preserved on the album. Church, recording session and film setting meet in this one building, while the audio and visual records have different release histories. [1]
South Broadway, Watts, Los Angeles
13–14 January 1972
Aretha Franklin recorded the live album Amazing Grace at New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles on 13 and 14 January 1972. [2]
This is a church recording location. Respect worship and community activity, and consult the congregation about any public access. The album and film do not establish a tourist entrance or permission to enter a service or recording space.
