Ok, so this movie is fucking brilliant. No bullshit. If you're a fan of soul music this will be a treasure for you. Period. Endless fantastic footage that was left on the cutting room floor from 'When We Were Kings' gives birth to this new documentary. Unlike 'Kings' which is also a fantastic film, it's not about the fight, but about the musicians and the music. It doesn't have a narrative or retrospective interviews. It's completely verité and an incredible insight without voice over tones guiding it.
It's about the Zaire 74 music festival that lasted 3 days. It's a incredible line up of soul super stars and their various musical wanderings before and after the show. Precious moments with Celia Cruz, Pacheco, BB King, and James Brown jamming on a airplane. Various artist from the festival having impromptu jam sessions with kids in the streets of Zaire. It seems like a constant party, yet there's incredible insight from the people in the film. Artists give us moments of vast reflection about the current social climate, racism and race relations in the states and moments of sheer tenderness toward the people around them. In one scene Ali kisses a little girl. He is so wild and free with his affection, he is so tender and cute with her, that as a fighter and man of such stature, to see it brought tears to my eyes.
Every clip of concert footage made me feel like standing up in my seat in the movie theatre and clapping. I cried several times during the movie because there was such amazing humanity and kindness, yet also performances that were touching, incredible and simply stunning. Bill Withers is painfully deep, Miriam Makeba is vibrant and funny, and the Spinners are completely bad ass. Big Black hits a conga solo that will rock your world and Celia Cruz (and what looks like the entire Fania family) completely seduce and destroy. This MIGHT not have been the best festival, but what is collectively represented in the movie makes it look so. James is just James at this point. Never a bad show from the Godfather but, this is 74 and oddly not what his performances were like in 73. Not quite the Vegas era yet, but getting there. Earthshaking performances all around and representing well in 74 for the world to see.
All of the music and interviews have huge relevance and the entire film seems to glow with purpose. Not to mention the cinematography was utterly mind blowing. The camera captures so much life. There's one scene where a band from Zaire looks to be playing in front of a department store. It looks as though it's captured from some ridiculously rare afro funk band LP cover. I simply can't say enough about the film. Rumor has it that there's 10 more hours of footage and the makings for several more movies sitting somewhere within that footage. I can only hope they will give us more. Let's hope the DVD comes with endless outtakes and extra footage. But, PLEASE go see it. Give these folks some money and support art like this. It's once in a lifetime kind of material. Those of us in the soul community need to support. word. GO SEE THIS.
The Last time I heard Cool Chris play out he spun this treasure. I simply love this tune, and speaking of anthems mentioned in the last post here's another one. Again, excellent modern soul. All killer no filler. The night was the Sweater Funk B-day Bash for Jon Blunck. Cool Chris was the guest and played an amazing set. It was similar to his previous Sweater Funk appearance but nearly a year later with a far more developed crowd. The house was packed, the mood was right and the soul crowd was in attendance. Chris' set bounced all over the place yet came together perfectly. From playing with him many, many years ago, it has always been a pleasure to hear him out. 
From the same Lp with the funky track 'Telephone Girl' comes this mellow yet charming little tune. Assagai were from South Africa and were signed to the Vertigo label. They had only two releases and their story is pretty short. They rode a wave of popularity in the early 70's when afro rock had been born. The genius of these afro rock bands is heard throughout their elusive Lp's. Bands like Osibisa and Manu Dibango made a path for numerous artists. Thankfully the flood gate was opened and artists like Assagai recorded and prospered if only for a short stint. "I'll Wait For You" is a simple tune, and a love song, yet is an affectionate and sweet soul tune. Enjoy!
This is one of those deliciously hot tracks that's hardly classifiable and unique enough to turn heads where ever it's played. Some might remember it from the brief airwaves run it had in '77, but chances of that are slim. Most step up to the decks when I'm playing it and feel as though they know it because it is strikingly familiar in sound to everything else Paul McCartney did.
US 69 is a strange little outfit. They blended funk, rock, psych, and jazz together to make their own unique flavor. This is an excellent LP. Released on Buddah in 1969, birth year of yours truly, it's fantastic from start to finish. Even the finest psych Lp is rarely enjoyable throughout. The vocal stylings on this are great, as is the constant great lyrical references to plastic people and taking off of disguises. Other common fare of psych lyrical trends are here as well "making your mind up", and "open up your door". They were extremely experimental and one of several groups at the time blending rock with full horn sections. 
A little bit about Soul TV... I miss the days of local cable access stations like soulbeat. Or glorious paid tv slots for shows like Soul School. Where are you Calvin Lincoln? Then over the last two or three years before things went ALL Digital, there were spotty appearances of old Soul Train episodes. I found some here locally on TV20 and WBN America or something like that. Already I'm missing those best of Soul Trains. People thought I was crazy when I said I was leaving a party to catch the 2am weekly episode of Soul Train. But, for me it was religion. It was education of the highest order. It was the pleasure that IS soul music for me. Seeing how I'm a guy that tries endlessly to live in previous eras, it was the bees knees to watch Soul Train on live TV like I was there and it was coming over the airwaves in 1977. So, a few years ago I caught a lip-synched version of this song 'performed' by Faith, Hope and Charity. Its a marvelous crossover soul tune that transends time. It's long been an anthem of mine and hopefully will do some magic for you.
If you don't already know, MIKE FRANCIS is the Mother fucking man! Not only is this the smoothest vocal jazz easy listening you've ever heard, but it's topped off by some killer heavy funk production. How is it you can give Dr. Dre AND Bobby Caldwell and a run for their money in the same freakin' album. Well, my man Mike Francis can. So smooth and laid back, just wait until the breaks roll on in. Sick bass lines, tight synth stabs, you're bound to be humming 'you know you can do it you can do it you can do it you can do it' right along side Mike. This Lp also has the 84 version of 'Night Time Lady' which is brilliant, but the earlier version IS better. This is most definitely some shit you can ride to, sum real pimp shit from Italy.
This may be the only other tune that starts out with a cave man chant. The other being Blue Swede's 'Hooked on a Feeling'. But, fortunately it's much better. All respect due of course to my glam rock bubble gum brethren. But, anyways... This song has such a good feeling and vibe, and I'm an instant fan of any song that says "let's get to the floor and shoot". Kinda similar in happiness to Bill Withers 'Lovely Day'. We need more joints like that. Again, the comments section is below. I'm not issuing homework yet, but stay posted. Those of you that know, it IS all about school. I had high hopes of Mr. Sahuleka, being a dutch, hawaiian(?), japanese(?), version of Joe Bataan (Ala Afro-filipino) but, again I'm wild with musical fantasies. And, certainly featuring a few other fantastic tracks, it didn't quite pan out that way. We'll delve more into him later, but for now enjoy this nugget that's been spinning round my turntable lately. Recently scooped up on 45 as well. 
