Pittsburgh trombone player Reggie Watkins had quite the vantage point for Aretha Franklin’s funeral on Friday.

He was on the altar at the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, right behind Bill Clinton, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan for the eight-hour service.

He got the call last week to perform at the service and was there on Thursday for the run-through.

“I’ve been doing Motown shows for years,” he says. “I’ve worked Dennis Edwards, Damon Harris, The O’Jays, and I played with Aretha a handful of times. I was honored to get the call.”

On playing with Franklin in recent years, he says, “She was amazing. In those situations you have contact with the music director and getting to say ‘hi’ to her was an honor. But that was about it.”

In terms of her performance, he says, “Our favorite part was the time in the show where she would do five or six things herself and you could just put your horn and sit there and watch.”

On Friday, he got to back up a star-studded lineup that included Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Jennifer Hudson, Faith Hill, Fantasia, Ariana Grande, The Clark Sisters, The Williams Brothers and Yolanda Adams.

“At first,” he says, “you felt a sense of being star struck. After a few hours, you got used to it and it evolved into just a bunch of people being in church together.”

When he wasn’t performing, he says, he was listening intently to the eulogies.

“So many speakers articulated why she was the queen and how she was the forefront of civil rights activism.”

Watkins did some of his first national work with Maynard Ferguson and his resume now includes tours with Jason Mraz, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Postmodern Jukebox.

Joining him as part of the ensemble Friday was saxophonist Chris Hemingway, who played in Pittsburgh for 13 years before moving to back to New York.

First Published: September 1, 2018, 9:08 p.m.