 |
| Images courtesy of Liberation Hall |
In the winter of 1971, several American, soul, jazz and
gospel artists ranging from Ike & Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, Santana, The
Staple Singers, The Voices of East Harlem and Les McCann & Eddie Harris
ventured overseas to Ghana, West Africa to partake in a legendary concert
experience project entitled Soul to Soul. As much a gift of performance art, music and culture
given back to the West African people as it was an enriching return to ancestral
homeland and rekindling longstanding cultural roots for the artists themselves,
it was a major concert event paving the way for such equally seismic African music
revues as the eventual Zaire 74 concert which featured B.B. King and the
Pointer Sisters among the performers.
There to capture the performances in front of over 100,000 Ghanaians
seeing them for the very first time was two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker
and documentarian Denis Sanders in easily one of the greatest soul music concert
films ever produced.
As much of a concert revue featuring many of the
aforementioned artists as it is a soul-searching journey for those involved in
going through local villages, meeting kings and enjoying traditional meals,
song and dance with many of the residents of Ghana, Soul to Soul is
something of a travelogue through 1970s West Africa. Filmed in 16mm under the direction of
cinematographer Erik Daarstad and sharp juxtaposed editing between interviews
on the plane to Africa, the landing and initial greeting and reception, concert
numbers and subsequent traveling within villages by editor Sidney Levin
(reedited for 2025 by Steve Scoville to comply with the Roberta Flack estate
who demanded her scenes be removed) unfolds like a tapestry of culture and
music. Picture quality is variable as
with many concert films captured on 16mm including some shots with hair or dust
on the gate and the 2.0 stereo track sounds adequate if not a little scratchy
on some of the vocals and instrumentation but it shouldn’t detract from the audiovisual
viewing listening experience.
It should also be known it is as educational for the artists
involved as it is for us as they venture down through some of the country’s
darker chapters including the issue of slavery and imprisonment with rumination
on a particularly disturbing monument that destroys the hearts and minds of any
and all who come near it. Having this
mixture of regarding the country’s violent past history with slavery interlaced
with the music tour sort of gives an even greater contextual and emotional
weight than the film would’ve had without it.
By the end of the journey, you’re as profoundly moved as the murderer’s
row of performers are who take back with them from Africa to America following
their concert far more than they brought when they first arrived. Not to mention all of the indigenous Ghanian
musical acts including Guy Warren, the Damas Choir, The Psychedelic Aliens and
the Anansekromian Zounds which are integrated with the African-American
performances on stage.
Released in 1971, this legendary concert film somehow
remained unavailable on home video until 2004 when the Grammy Foundation
granted David Peck and his restoration team access to the original film
elements for Soul to Soul which required extensive digital
scanning. Circa 2025, via boutique label
Liberation Hall, the film has been restored once again with extensive extras
including outtake performances, running audio commentaries and a new 32-page
booklet about the film by Grammy winning author Rob Bowman. As aforementioned, the scratchy raspy quality
of the audio might present an issue for some listeners and home theater
audiophiles but if you take it in stride you’re in for a wonderful concert film
documentary experience by one of cinema’s unsung heroes of the medium. Despite the absence of the Roberta Flack
performances for aforementioned legal reasons, the disc is stacked with
additional supplemental features and despite the sonic shortcomings is an indelible
addition to anyone’s multifaceted concert film libraries.
--Andrew Kotwicki
