Soul to Soul (1971) User Reviews

Fantastic!

[santegeezhe · 9/10 · 1 November 2007]

If you're a soul music fan or have any interest in black history and culture, this film is a must-see.

Filmed in 1971 at the "Soul to Soul" festival in Ghana, West Africa, this is a fine film in the tradition of music documentaries such as "Monterrey Pop" and "Woodstock". Not only does it feature incendiary performances by the likes of Ike & Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, Santana, The Staples Singers, The Voices of East Harlem, and Les McCann & Eddie Harris, but it also features wonderful performances by many African artists. Additionally, it features wonderful documentary footage of the American artists interacting with their Ghanaian hosts and fans, as well as footage of everyday life in Ghana. It makes for fascinating viewing.

I would give this film a full 10 stars except for the somewhat shoddy editing of this re-release. The footage has been lovingly restored and looks and sounds great, but it has a slapped together feel due to the awkward transitions between scenes. I'd be curious to contrast the original print with this edition since I suspect that many changes have been made (the exclusion of Roberta Flack's segments being one obvious example).

In any event, this is still an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable film which will delight any soul music fan. Enjoy!

historical

[lampic · 9/10 · 28 December 2013]

A documentary about historical, once-in-lifetime concert where some of greatest Afro- American musicians performed in front of 100 000 Ghana audience as part of country's independence celebration. According to booklet, this idea has been in making for some time before all the necessary arrangements made it possible (Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Louis Armstrong were among invited) until in 1971. finally everything fell in the place. Locals were overjoyed to see American stars ascending in the middle of Ghana and clearly excited, welcomed them as royalty, as long gone members of family - for musicians, on the other hand, this was cathartic experience as they visited Africa for the first time.

To say this documentary is fascinating would be understatement - you could watch it again and again, always finding new details about people's reactions, their faces, smiles and sorrows. DVD commentaries are also very illuminating as musicians reminisce about this visit and how they saw it. Most of American musicians knew nothing about African music but to be honest audience in Ghana seems to be not familiar with them either - except Wilson Pickett whom they saw as Soul God (and watched him with mouth open), however the welcome at the airport was clearly spontaneously joyous and heartfelt. Ghana was not a wealthy place but locals gave what they had in abundance - music, song and dance, prompting American visitors to join them in celebration. Movie follows American crew as they spend few days in Ghana, visiting local villages and places before they actually performed on concert - you can clearly see "WTF?" expressions on Ike & Tina's faces as they came in the middle of some local village with people running around with a large Elephant bone totem or hear sorrow in Mavis Staples voice as she explains visit to old slave castle.

Concert itself was a huge celebration - Ghanaian audience might not have been familiar with performers but they quickly recognized The Staple Singers as "Old man and his family". The Voices of East Harlem probably reminded them of their own dancing and chanting. Ike Turner's blues was maybe alien music genre to them but they loved his guitar playing (he was brilliant, instantly recognizable guitarist) and if men gaped mouth open at Ikettes, women clearly loved regally authoritative Tina. Now,Tina was nothing less exciting than Wilson Pickett but his recordings were known in Ghana, so when he appeared all Hell broke loose and audience exploded - in all honesty, American musicians probably did their usual concert routine but audience reaction (and a fact that concert took place in Ghana) was tremendous and made a huge difference.

Audio comments are very interesting as we hear musicians having a different perspective on what they saw and how they felt. Carlos Santana's white musician (Michael Shrieve) remembers how Wilson Pickett didn't want a white visitor to his hotel room party and how Ike Turner had argument with him about it. Ike Turner himself remembers Pickett making a fuss of insisting on his own dressing room (which was not possible). Mavis Staples remembers recognizing African faces in features of folks back home and so on. It must have been curious experience for visitors to see and feel Africa but there was surely a cultural shock and a occasional food poisoning. Absolutely fascinating to watch, though from today's perspective of course its technologically imperfect and footage had to be re-edited since Roberta Flack insisted her involvement had to be erased - she was part of concert but now doesn't want to have anything with it, well OK Roberta, if you dislike idea of being immortalized in a historical movie, it's up to you.

A pretty good, but flawed and occasionally tedious 70's R&B concert documentary

[Woodyanders · 7/10 · 29 July 2006]

A cluttered, splintered and technically shabby 96 minute music documentary ragbag depicting a 15-hour special concert held in Ghana to celebrate that African country's 14th anniversary of independence. Many popular jazz and rhythm and blues artists are prominently featured herein, all of whom come through with 100% on the money performances which are sloppily sandwiched between drably shot, sometimes interesting, but more often pretty tedious footage of tribal dances, resident talent acts which vary from authentically earthy (the medicine man with the musical ball is simply amazing) to slick and touristy shallow, star singers sampling Ghanaian cuisine, extensive background historical detail on the South African slave trade, a walk through dilapidated ruins, and pit stops at villages complete with excess shopping and amiable chats with locals.

Luckily, the concert footage seriously cooks with high octane unleaded gas. The Staple Singers cut to the heart of the matter with the stirring workers' rights anthem "When Will I Get Paid?" and the rousing gospel rock number "Are You Sure?," while Roberta Flack wrenches the emotions with the poignant mid-tempo break-up tune "Trying Times." The Voices of East Harlem engage in a fantastic impromptu a capella street jam and cut loose on the thrilling "Run Shaker Life." Santana, assisted by excellent guest percussionist Willie Bobo, lay down the blistering instrumental "Jingo" before ripping away into a sensationally sensual, smoldering and spirited rendition of the great "Black Magic Woman." Rumpled old bluesmen Les McCann and Eddie Harris do a wonderfully spontaneous beat box duet on the plane en route to the concert and team up on stage for the fine raspy-throated blues scorcher "Heyjorler." Ike and Tina Turner deliver a positively smoking set which includes the cracked New Orleans R&B novelty gem "Ooh Poo Pah Doo," the classic "River Deep, Mountain High," and the especially awesome lowdown gritty blues wailer "I Smell Trouble" -- the latter highlighted by Ike's incredibly fiery protracted guitar solo. Lastly, Wilson Pickett closes the concert on an exciting note with a spectacularly incendiary version of "Land of A 1,000 Dances," much to the enjoyment of a totally with-it audience.

Although marred by uneven direction by Denis Sanders (who also helmed the Big E concert picture "Elvis: That's the Way It Is" and the immortal 70's drive-in cult hoot "Invasion of the Bee Girls"), occasionally slack pacing, a crucial lack of narrative cohesion, Erik Daarstad's shaky cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmund was one of the cameramen), and Sidney Levin's limp editing, the documentary's overall sincere tone, strong sense of time and history, the flavorsome evocation of an exotic foreign milieu, and, of course, the powerhouse strength of the concert performances make this flawed, yet still solid film well worth seeing.