Bucks Writs - Fall 2021 - 28

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SUMMER OF SOUL
Movie Review
By Scott L. Feldman
IT TOOK SOME FIFTY LONG YEARS, BUT
QUESTLOVE MADE IT HAPPEN. High quality footage
from a series of Summer 1969 concerts finally saw the
light of day in a new music documentary that was exciting,
informative and danceworthy for its entire two hours .
The Harlem Cultural Festival was a series of six free Sunday
afternoon concerts which took place from June 29 to
August 24, 1969 . It featured some of the greatest voices
and bands of the day, including Stevie Wonder, the Fifth
Dimension, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Gladys Knight
and the Pips and B .B . King .
First time director, Ahmir " Questlove " Thompson, best known
as the drummer for The Roots, felt great responsibility in
presenting the archival footage along with contemporary
performer and attendee interviews . " I want artists to know
the lesson that we need to learn is that message and activism,
those things matter . Those things matter . We can't lose that . "
The original event and the movie are somewhat unfortunately
referred to as " the Black Woodstock . " This
first came about courtesy of the Producer and original
filmmaker, Hal Tulchin, who used the moniker as he unsuccessfully
tried to market his video recordings at the time .
It seems misguided, in large part as the mythology of the
seminal Yasgur's Farm concert seems to have eclipsed the
reality and was more a creation of the widely celebrated
Woodstock movie, released a year later . And yet, there
are certain comparisons and contrasts to be made . To this
viewer, the greatest difference performance-wise was in
the number of female artists performing at the Harlem
concerts, both as named front women and ensemble
members . In all, over half of the musicians were female . At
Woodstock, female artists were very much the exception:
Joan Baez, Melanie, Janis Joplin and Grace Slick .
Sly and the Family Stone's performance was particularly
electrifying . Perhaps the only contemporary band that was
both interracial and mixed gender, Sly Stone was always
ahead of his time . Of course, Sly was Prince before Prince
was Prince: a slightly built but prolific, prodigious and
dynamic singer, songwriter, performer, multi-instrumentalist,
bandleader and personality . And he wore a lot of purple!
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Other Summer of Soul highlights include Stevie Wonder
playing drums (worth the price of admission right there),
The Staples Singers (Mavis Staples' interview is enlightening)
and David Ruffin (as a solo act, having recently left
the Temptations) . Perhaps the most memorable segment
was current interview footage of Marilyn McCoo and
Billy Davis Jr . watching their performance as The 5th
Dimension for the first time ever . They were emotional
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