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Soul Power

Zaire 74
With an extraordinary line up of the greatest African and African-American artists of the day, the epic Zaire 74 festival preceded the Ali/Foreman fight in Kinshasa. Original footage of the events delivers true Soul Power.


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Soul Power


SOUL POWER

The story behind Soul Power is remarkable indeed and we can all give thanks to Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, a film editor, for having the vision to rescue the reels of surplus footage abandoned during the creation of Leon Gast’s Academy Award winning When We Were Kings, the film that brilliantly documents the “rumble in the jungle” that took place in Zaire in 1974 between boxing titans Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.


Soul Power trailer

In fact, the hundred of hours of footage that he rescued, re-constructed, lovingly re-mastered and digitalized has allowed him to make his directorial debut and alert a new generation, thirty five years after the event, to an astonishing concert which united The Godfather Of Soul – James Brown with BB King, Bill Withers, The Crusaders, Celia Cruz & the Fania All Stars, Miriam Makeba and Congolese master musicians Franco and Tabu Ley Rochereau.

This gig was a big deal. The fight was about Ali winning back a Heavyweight title that had been stripped from him for refusing the draft to fight in Vietnam. He was fighting for what he believed was rightfully his and the whole of Zaire was behind him. It was 1974, black nationalism in America was an established force for change and the departure of these musicians to perform in a specially built stadium in Mobutu’s Zaire was a powerful statement.

Looking back, he is stunned at his own naivety but at the time festival producer Stewart Levine (who conceived the project with Hugh Masekela) was convinced a film of the whole thing would be something everyone would want to see. He believed it would raise the image of black music in America and cement its relationship to its African roots and watching this film it’s easy to see why, especially as it gathered momentum. The organizers and the musicians were on a mission and even when the fight had to be postponed they took off from the USA as scheduled. On an overloaded plane, high on hope, herb and a little alcohol the party continued right across the Middle Passage back to Africa. Celia and the Nuyorican posse were in full effect!

Preparations were well advanced on their arrival. The combination of local workers and hard hat Americans (plus the odd cockney) had created a stadium that was tailored to US rock and funk standards. Ali was on top form, Bundini Brown waxed lyrical, Stokely Carmichael was in the area and the local Zairois sported flares and checks like their US soul brothers but played Congolese rumba outside the hotel. An impromptu jam session takes place in the market around conguero Ray Barretto and, to the film makers’ credit we constantly get a real taste of life in 70s Zaire.

The concert is a genuine blast. Bill Withers’ acoustic set provided Levine’s “favourite single moment”, while in the cinema we (my brethren & I) were universally given the musical shivers by BB King’s intro to The Thrill Has Gone. Big Black got deep on the congas. Miriam Makeba derided the colonialist conversion of the Xhosa song, Qongqothwane into the Click Song while Cuba and Puerto Rico bridged the Atlantic deploying Yoruba rhythms, great vocals and a powerful horn section. Franco and Tabu Ley delivered sweet but effortlessly complex big band rumba to which Tabu Ley’s dancers seriously got down! It was left to the GFOS (yes, it was studded across the chest of Mr. Brown’s stetch jump suit) to deliver the fully fledged FUNK and believe me the JBs do deliver. They have the power of a mighty funk fuelled afrobeat train and Mr James Brown drops an array of deadly dance moves while providing enough vocal Soul Power to drive the stadium wild.


BB King – The Thrill Is Gone


Celia Cruz & Fania All Stars - Quimbara

Appropriately, Soul Power is being premiered in the UK at Glastonbury amid another form of festival mayhem. If you’re in the area … enjoy! If you’re not in the area seek it out on the big screen before it finally arrives later this year on DVD, which you’ll probably snap up and file alongside Rumble In The Jungle and The Night James Brown Saved Boston.

Paul Bradshaw – Straight No Chaser

The film will be premiered at this year’s Glastonbury Festival 26/27/28 June and will be screening at cinemas nationwide from 10 July 2009.

www.soulpowerfilm.co.uk



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