Soul To Soul (film)
Encyclopedia
Soul To Soul was a concert held in Accra
, Ghana
on March 6, 1971 by an array of American R&B, soul
, rock, and jazz
musicians. It is also the name of a 1971 documentary film recording the concert.
, W. E. B. Du Bois. and George Padmore
— lived in the African nation for a time. In the mid 1960s, Angelou approached the government of Kwame Nkrumah
and suggested bringing a number of African-American artists to Ghana for the annual independence celebrations. Nkrumah was deposed before action could be taken, but when the American father-son team of Ed Mosk and Tom Mosk approached the Ghana Arts Council in 1970 with an idea for a concert, the Council agreed. A massive 1970 concert by James Brown
in Lagos
, Nigeria
had prompted the Mosks' confidence in the idea.
Of the musicians invited to perform, Wilson Pickett
was by far the biggest star in Ghana, where he was known as "Soul Brother No. 2." (James Brown was, of course, Soul Brother No. 1.) Organizers also unsuccessfully sought performances by Americans Aretha Franklin
, James Brown
, Booker T & The MG's, Louis Armstrong
and gospel singer Marion Williams
. In addition, Fela Kuti
was approached, but did not perform.
The show was held in Black Star Square (now Independence Square) on the Gulf of Guinea
and ran 14 hours, finishing at 6:45 a.m. with a gospel set by The Voices of East Harlem.
Several at the show remarked that Santana
, despite having only one black member, played the most "African-sounding" music of the night. Some have argued that the band's merger of Latin rhythms with rock music strongly influenced the development of Afrobeat
.
The concert also featured performances by several Ghanaian acts:
In addition, Les McCann and Eddie Harris played part of their set with a Ghanaian calabash
player and medicine man named Amoah Azangeo.
While $50,000 was budgeted for paying the American performers, only $1,000 was set aside for the local musicians.
The film was eventually restored thanks to a program by The Grammy Foundation that seeks to preserve important films about music, and it debuted again in February 2004 at an event at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
. It was released on DVD on August 24, 2004. The new release does not include any performances by Roberta Flack
, who requested their removal. But it does include a soundtrack album on CD, which features tracks from all the Western performers excluding Santana and Flack, plus the Kumasi Drummers, the Damas Choir, and Kwa Mensah. It also includes a new song entitled "Soul To Soul (2004)" by Earl Thomas.
Accra
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
on March 6, 1971 by an array of American R&B, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, rock, and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musicians. It is also the name of a 1971 documentary film recording the concert.
Concert
Ghana, after declaring its independence in 1957, had made a variety of efforts to connect with African-Americans, some of whom — including Maya AngelouMaya Angelou
Maya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...
, W. E. B. Du Bois. and George Padmore
George Padmore
George Padmore , born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse, was a Trinidadian communist who became a leading Pan-Africanist in his later years.-Early years:...
— lived in the African nation for a time. In the mid 1960s, Angelou approached the government of Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...
and suggested bringing a number of African-American artists to Ghana for the annual independence celebrations. Nkrumah was deposed before action could be taken, but when the American father-son team of Ed Mosk and Tom Mosk approached the Ghana Arts Council in 1970 with an idea for a concert, the Council agreed. A massive 1970 concert by James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
in Lagos
Lagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
had prompted the Mosks' confidence in the idea.
Of the musicians invited to perform, Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
was by far the biggest star in Ghana, where he was known as "Soul Brother No. 2." (James Brown was, of course, Soul Brother No. 1.) Organizers also unsuccessfully sought performances by Americans Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
, James Brown
James Brown
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, Booker T & The MG's, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
and gospel singer Marion Williams
Marion Williams
Marion Williams was an American gospel singer.-Early years:Marion Williams was born in Miami, Florida, to a religiously devout mother and musically inclined father. She left school when she was nine years old to help support the family, and worked as a maid, a nurse, and in factories and...
. In addition, Fela Kuti
Fela Kuti
Fela Anikulapo Kuti , or simply Fela , was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.-Biography:...
was approached, but did not perform.
The show was held in Black Star Square (now Independence Square) on the Gulf of Guinea
Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf....
and ran 14 hours, finishing at 6:45 a.m. with a gospel set by The Voices of East Harlem.
Several at the show remarked that Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, despite having only one black member, played the most "African-sounding" music of the night. Some have argued that the band's merger of Latin rhythms with rock music strongly influenced the development of Afrobeat
Afrobeat
Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funk and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularised in Africa in the 1970s. Its main creator was the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who gave it its name, who used it to...
.
Musicians
The American artists were mostly African-American and represented a variety of musical styles:- Wilson PickettWilson PickettWilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
- Ike & Tina TurnerIke & Tina TurnerIke & Tina Turner were an American rock & roll and soul duo, made of the husband-and-wife team of Ike Turner and Tina Turner in the 1960s and 1970s. Spanning sixteen years together as a recording group, the duo's repertoire included rock & roll, soul, blues and funk...
- Les McCannLes McCannLes McCann is an American soul jazz piano player and vocalist whose biggest successes came as a crossover artist into R&B and soul.-Biography:...
and Eddie HarrisEddie HarrisEddie Harris was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ... - The Staple SingersThe Staple SingersThe Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples , the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha , Pervis , Yvonne , and Mavis...
- SantanaCarlos SantanaCarlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, featuring Willie BoboWillie BoboWillie Bobo was the stage name of William Correa , an American jazz percussionist.-Biography:William Correa grew up in Spanish Harlem, New York City. He made his name in Latin Jazz, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz, in the 1960s and '70s, with the timbales becoming his favoured instrument...
on timbaleTimbalesTimbales are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing, invented in Cuba. They are shallower in shape than single-headed tom-toms, and usually much higher tuned... - Roberta FlackRoberta FlackRoberta Flack is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music...
- The Voices of East Harlem
The concert also featured performances by several Ghanaian acts:
- Guy WarrenGuy WarrenGuy Warren of Ghana or Kofi Ghanaba was a Ghanaian musician, best known as the inventor of Afro-jazz and as a member of The Tempos.- Biography :...
, a.k.a. "The Divine Drummer," also known as Kofi Ghanaba, one of the first African musicians to play alongside American jazz musicians - The Damas Choir, perhaps the nation's most prominent vocal group since the 1940s, led by Ishmael Adams
- Charlotte Dada, sometimes spelled "Dadah" or "Daddah," best known in the West for her soul cover of The BeatlesThe BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "Don't Let Me Down" - Kwa Mensah, a pioneer in highlifeHighlifeHighlife is a musical genre that originated in Ghana in the 1900s and spread to Sierra Leone, Nigeria and other West African countries by 1920...
music and the older palmwine style - The Kumasi Drummers, a group from the Ashanti RegionAshanti RegionThe Ashanti Region is the third largest of 10 administrative regions in Ghana, occupying a total land surface of 24389 square kilometers or 10.2 per cent of the total land area of Ghana. In terms of population, however, it is the most populated region with a population of 3,612,950 in 2000,...
- The Aliens, Ghana's best known rock band, sometimes known as The Psychedelic Aliens or The Magic Aliens
- The Anansekromian Zounds, the house band for the Ghana Arts Council
In addition, Les McCann and Eddie Harris played part of their set with a Ghanaian calabash
Calabash
Lagenaria siceraria , bottle gourd, opo squash or long melon is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable, or harvested mature, dried, and used as a bottle, utensil, or pipe. For this reason, the calabash is widely known as the bottle gourd...
player and medicine man named Amoah Azangeo.
While $50,000 was budgeted for paying the American performers, only $1,000 was set aside for the local musicians.
Film
The concert was filmed and released in August 1971. It featured extensive excerpts from the concert performances, along with documentary footage of the musicians interacting with local Ghanaians in the days before the show. The film played in limited release around the world for the next two years but was not a financial success and did not cover the costs of putting on the show.The film was eventually restored thanks to a program by The Grammy Foundation that seeks to preserve important films about music, and it debuted again in February 2004 at an event at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
. It was released on DVD on August 24, 2004. The new release does not include any performances by Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music...
, who requested their removal. But it does include a soundtrack album on CD, which features tracks from all the Western performers excluding Santana and Flack, plus the Kumasi Drummers, the Damas Choir, and Kwa Mensah. It also includes a new song entitled "Soul To Soul (2004)" by Earl Thomas.