Summer of Soul
August 11, 2021 10:10 PM   Subscribe

In 1969 Harlem, a Music Festival Stuns [ungated link] - "Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples and others shine in a documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival from Questlove." (via) [1,2,3; fanfare]
Sometimes these archival-footage documentaries don’t know what they’ve got. The footage has been found, but the movie’s been lost. Too much cutting away from the good stuff, too much talking over images that can speak just fine for themselves, never knowing — in concert films — how to use a crowd. The haphazard discovery blots out all the delight. Not here. Here, the discovery becomes the delight. Nothing feels haphazard...

And you’re sitting there in awe at how the film hasn’t lost you. It’s got its own rhythm. The images, the music, the news, the reminiscences, the commentary often come at you at once. And with another director what you’d be left with is noise, with mess. This is certainly where Thompson’s being a bandleader — a band-leading drummer; a band-leading drummer who D.J.s — matters. The onslaught operates differently here. The chaos is an idea.

On one hand, this is just cinema. On the other, there’s something about the way that the editing keeps time with the music, the way the talking is enhancing what’s onstage rather than upstaging it. In many of these passages, facts, gyration, jive and comedy are cut across one another yet in equilibrium. So, yeah: cinema, obviously. But also something that feels rarer: syncopation.

This festival took place the same summer that Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon. The movie deftly accounts for the dissonance between the two events. It’s the answer to the brief, shrewd passage in Damien Chazelle’s “First Man” that intercuts the landing with Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on the Moon.” These two movies would make a searing double feature of the same moment in American progress, on the ground and up in space. Of course, it’s hard not to leave this movie fully aware that, at that point, in 1969, with the country convulsed by war, racism and Richard Nixon, the power of those artists assembled in New York right then makes a firm case that Harlem was the moon.
Questlove on Restoring Black Music History and Making One of the Year's Best Films - "The Roots drummer discusses Summer of Soul, his new documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, and the ongoing fight to give Black musicians their rightful due."[4,5]
posted by kliuless (37 comments total) 41 users marked this as a favorite
 
I don't know what to add to this beyond saying 'Go see the movie!'
It's terrific.
posted by MtDewd at 2:34 AM on August 12, 2021 [7 favorites]


I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. But I wish they would have shown more of the complete performances. The music was fantastic, but way too chopped up by commentary by (sometimes) people who weren't even there. It's not that the commentary and stories are extraneous. I just wanted to see and hear and see more of the performances in their entirety. Still, I highly recommend it.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:30 AM on August 12, 2021 [5 favorites]


I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. But I wish they would have shown more of the complete performances.

Fingers crossed, this sounds like the sort of documentary that will lend itself to a massive home video release with hours upon hours of bonus footage. I can't imagine that Questlove wouldn't want to share this with the world.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:43 AM on August 12, 2021 [6 favorites]


If there wasn't so much talking over the music, I would have enjoyed it more.
posted by DJZouke at 5:14 AM on August 12, 2021 [1 favorite]


The most moving part of the film are when the performers get to see the film of themselves 40 years prior. It's really lovely.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:19 AM on August 12, 2021 [15 favorites]


Obvs streaming services have their own problematicness, but this soundtrack and associated playlists are on Spotify and that makes the day better
posted by toodleydoodley at 6:36 AM on August 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


Because of the Next Picture Show podcast, I went back and re-watched the Woodstock movie a week after seeing Summer of Soul and was struck by how mostly mediocre the performances were at the "White Woodstock" and how amazing almost every single performer was at Summer of Soul.
posted by octothorpe at 6:40 AM on August 12, 2021 [7 favorites]


Agree with the Cheese - watching Marilyn McCoo watching younger self (as well as other performers) was my favorite moment of connection.
posted by drewbage1847 at 6:53 AM on August 12, 2021 [4 favorites]


I watched Summer of Soul when I was recuperating from my second vaccine shot and it was a transforming experience, completely taking me out of my self and my surroundings, into the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969.

Besides being a document of a time, place and a couple of generations of transcendent musicians, just by its existence it is a devastating critique of the United States. That a film like this took over half a century to get made can only be attributed to the structural oppression of the film and music industries, and society at large.

It’s a uniquely uplifting and joyful film, but it achieves liftoff thanks to a fuel mix of sorrow and anger.

I’ve never seen a concert film like it. Heck, never a film like it, period.
posted by Kattullus at 7:09 AM on August 12, 2021 [10 favorites]


Yeah, absolutely loved this. Never knew that Stevie Wonder was a kick-ass drummer.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:03 AM on August 12, 2021 [9 favorites]


Cora Atkinson is credited as co-producer, but she’s the real driving force of this film. And no, the footage wasn’t “lost”— Interview with Joe Lauro.
posted by Ideefixe at 8:29 AM on August 12, 2021 [4 favorites]


A friendly reminder to not forget about 1973's Wattstax, and its concert film, where Los Angeles filled a 100k seat stadium to have a concert to commemorate the Watts Riots.
Trailer for the film's 30th anniversary remaster
Rufus Thomas - 'The Breakdown' & ' Do The Funky Chicken' [10m YouTube] from the film
posted by bartleby at 8:52 AM on August 12, 2021 [10 favorites]


The Spotify playlist.
posted by PhineasGage at 9:22 AM on August 12, 2021 [4 favorites]


So glad I got to see this in a real movie theater instead of watching it on streaming. The quality of the films/tapes is really high, considering that they sat around for a long time, and on the big screen everything is amazing to watch.
posted by briank at 9:27 AM on August 12, 2021


Never knew that Stevie Wonder was a kick-ass drummer.

Stevie played the drums on most of his classic recordings!
posted by atoxyl at 9:38 AM on August 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


Man, just watching the trailer makes me tear up. (Something about watching Amazing Grace just flipped a switch inside, I guess.)
posted by gottabefunky at 9:46 AM on August 12, 2021 [1 favorite]


It's such a great movie, and one of the wonderful things about it is that virtually every three minutes, there's something that comes along and you want to see a half hour about that. Whether it's watching a longer version of a great performance, or like the history of how the NYT style guide changed from 'negro' to 'black'. I couldn't agree more that the video of people watching their 40 year old younger selves was wonderful, and I'm sad there wasn't more of it.

And yes, there was talking over the performances -- there's a ton of ideas crammed in this movie. But there were some crucial bits that weren't talked over. I'm surprised nobody's yet mentioned the passing of the torch from Mahalia Jackson to Mavis Staples during "Take My Hand, Precious Lord". And of course, nobody talks over Nina Simone.
posted by Superilla at 9:58 AM on August 12, 2021 [5 favorites]


I didn't know much about this festival before I saw the movie (and I'm a big nerd about both history and black music), but Questlove is one of my favorite artists, and I totally adore of a lot of the people who performed. The movie just blew my mind. Rhythms inside rhythms inside rhythms. I cried, more than once.
posted by box at 10:15 AM on August 12, 2021


Agree that the performances were too interrupted by quick cuts, voice-overs, etc. But each artist was just so awesome! It was a _cultural_ festival, not just a music festival, so the movie tried to capture that too, I suppose. The clothes they wore on-stage were also amazing. And I wonder if Nina Simone's passionate call to arms against the police was one of the reasons the film was never distributed.
posted by TDIpod at 10:18 AM on August 12, 2021


When I first saw the poster for this and the incredible lineup, I thought, Huh, the Fifth Dimension, maybe they're better than I remember? But despite their riveting outfits(!) and the current-day interviews with two of them, in which they're totally lovely and affable and in which they acknowledge how different they were from the other acts, I still found it jarring to hear them sing "Let the Sunshine In" and their other musical-theater-type vocal arrangements, which are like nails on a chalkboard for me.

I listen to a lot of 70s funk, and I've watched a bunch of documentaries (musical & otherwise) from this time, and the presence of the Fifth Dimension is kind of challenging for me to think about. In a movie that's so much about Black identity, to hear music that sounds... like that? It makes me think of a quote from Chris Rock that I chew on a lot. Here's one version of it, from a Chris Rock / Questlove discussion in the NYT about Rock's 2014 movie Top Five, which Questlove worked on as music producer:
[about Top Five] "... it's really black but not necessarily about race. It’s hard to get white people to agree to do anything black that doesn’t have to do with race. That’s why white people don’t get R&B, 'cause there’s no struggle in it."
I think about that distinction a lot. It rings true for my own experience growing up in a white family that listened to a lot of Black music that was all about struggle in one way or another: spirituals, politically conscious Motown, Max Roach, all sorts of blues. It's a set of expectations and preferences I bring that lets me immediately appreciate the Staple Singers, say, but roll my eyes at the Fifth Dimension, and I'm aware that it's a limiting sort of view.

I wouldn't call Fifth Dimension R&B (the only music I can think of that's less soulful is John Philip Sousa)--but they're sure not about struggle, and their presence here reminds me that I've still got a narrower view of Black music than I want to. I appreciated hearing them talk about the heat they got from both Black audiences and from radio stations who were surprised to learn they weren't white--even though I still don't enjoy the songs themselves.
posted by miles per flower at 10:59 AM on August 12, 2021 [2 favorites]


Also, hard agree that this movie is amazing, despite some quibbles it sounds like others have too. The crowd footage is phenomenal and well edited, the sound is surprisingly good, and I could watch the Gladys Knight & the Pips number all. day. long. So self-assured and joyful!
posted by miles per flower at 11:01 AM on August 12, 2021


Something else about the Fifth Dimension: for a brief period, they were really, really popular. Like, 'Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In' spent six weeks at #1 on the charts, and it was the #2 Billboard single in 1969.

The #1 was The Archies' 'Sugar Sugar.' Now, that's what I call 'less soulful than the Fifth Dimension.'
posted by box at 11:07 AM on August 12, 2021 [2 favorites]


I'd like to see a soundtrack released. I hope where it gets a DVD release that there are extended full performances.
posted by zzazazz at 11:11 AM on August 12, 2021 [1 favorite]


The Fifth Dimension was the most surprising part for me. I grew up hating those songs- I had no idea if the Fifth Dimension were white or black, I just knew that I thought those tunes were insipid. But I had chills watching them perform "Let the Sunshine In". I still don't love it, but I could see why it meant so much for Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis jr. to perform that song there, in that way.

But yeah, there's a lot of material, and I hope we get to see more:

There were so many little tidbits and stories. Probably the funniest story I didn’t share—that wound up on the floor— involved the two women who snuck off to see Sly & The Family Stone and lied to their parents about it. One of them gets home, she commits the perfect crime, goes to bed and her mom happens to watch the 11 p.m. news. And who’s in the front row losing her mind at the concert but her daughter? [Laughs.]
posted by oneirodynia at 11:13 AM on August 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


Bonus: Mos Def "Sunshine"
posted by oneirodynia at 11:19 AM on August 12, 2021 [1 favorite]


The Mahalia to Mavis hand off was amazing to watch. That's how I know I'm not a performer - if someone turned up the pressure on me like that, I'd wilt. Mavis blooms.
posted by Emmy Rae at 11:27 AM on August 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


It rings true for my own experience growing up in a white family that listened to a lot of Black music that was all about struggle in one way or another: spirituals, politically conscious Motown, Max Roach, all sorts of blues.

I think it's important to keep in mind that Motown was a label explicitly designed to appeal to white audiences. For years they wouldn't put the artist's photos on the records. The artists, musicians, and performers were given lessons on how to behave. They had an all-white marketing department. Berry Gordy jr. didn't want to release What's Going On because it was too political; he eventually gave in after a seven month standoff.

Obviously the fact that a black man created and nurtured one of the most (the most?) significant catalogs of American music and crushed the idea of "race records" is a big fucking deal. But what put Motown on the map unfortunately necessitated avoiding making white people uncomfortable. That doesn't diminish any of these artists or their music, but Motown couldn't have gotten off the ground if white people had thought it was "political".
posted by oneirodynia at 11:49 AM on August 12, 2021 [6 favorites]


I think what I am trying to say while feeling very inarticulate and clumsy is that when you are a non-white person living under white supremacy, all music is related to some sort of struggle, whether that's apparent to white people or not. Look how deep it cut for the Fifth Dimension to be categorized as "white" for the music they made. They loved those songs, and they loved singing them. And the fact that both white and black people thought those songs weren't "black enough" hurt them.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:07 PM on August 12, 2021 [5 favorites]


I have to admit - I liked the Fifth Dimension segment and while they're highly polished and smooth - I think you'd have to go for Up with People to hear what it would sound like with no soul because they were playing their asses off and having fun with it.
posted by drewbage1847 at 1:33 PM on August 12, 2021 [5 favorites]


A friendly reminder to not forget about 1973's Wattstax, and its concert film, where Los Angeles filled a 100k seat stadium to have a concert to commemorate the Watts Riots.
Trailer for the film's 30th anniversary remaster


Thank you for posting this, for those of you with HBO MAX, there is a lot of music programming including Wattstax, which is a very cool documentary I had seen years ago. Watching it last year, I did some research and found out that the 'normal' people talking in between Richard Pryor and the music are actually actors, which was surprising, but it's still an amazing historical document even if they aren't just average peeps.
posted by chaz at 1:40 PM on August 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


If you like Summer of Soul and Wattstax, you might check out Amazing Grace and Soul Power.
posted by box at 1:50 PM on August 12, 2021 [1 favorite]


If you like Summer of Soul and Wattstax, you might check out Amazing Grace and Soul Power

Or maybe When We Were Kings. It's got the "Rumble in the Jungle," between champion George Foreman and underdog challenger Muhammad Ali, with Ali's charisma set to maximum. It also features the Zaire 74 music festival that's in Soul Power.
posted by kirkaracha at 2:14 PM on August 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


> Because of the Next Picture Show podcast, I went back and re-watched the Woodstock movie a week after seeing Summer of Soul and was struck by how mostly mediocre the performances were at the "White Woodstock" and how amazing almost every single performer was at Summer of Soul.

I had the same experience when I finally saw the Monterey Pop film a few years ago...part of the reason Otis Redding slayed so hard at that thing was because he and Booker T. & The MGs were approximately 1000% tighter than a lot of the sloppy white hippie bands (looking at you, Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe and the Fish).
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:31 PM on August 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


Or Monterey Pop, where your reward for enduring Scott McKenzie's cornball ass is getting to visit with your old pal Hugh Masakela, then see a transcendent Otis Redding performance followed by an iconic one from Jimi Hendrix.
posted by box at 2:31 PM on August 12, 2021 [2 favorites]


In regards to the chopping of the performances with commentary, I think it’s more of a feature than a bug that it left me craving more of this music. I’ve been listening to little but the various Summer of Soul playlists on Spotify all summer. I agree that the artist reactions and commentary are fantastic and some of they key performances are mostly left intact. I don’t think this film could have been made including all of the full performances I wanted to see, but it sure as hell made me want to seek out those performances. There are lots of YouTube videos of the same artists around the same time period to check out. And i agree that after this introduction, a release of more unedited performance footage would make for a hell of a series with a deeper dive into the artists and music.

I love music documentaries, is this the best ever? Certainly better than Woodstock, The Band’s Last Waltz, Rattle and Hum, or Hard Day’s Night. Once you get to films like Stop Making Sense and Hedwig, comparisons are meaningless, but Summer of Soul is at least that good and more essential as an historic document of a nation’s history.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 6:55 AM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


Look how deep it cut for the Fifth Dimension to be categorized as "white" for the music they made. They loved those songs, and they loved singing them

Not knowing much about them, I always thought of the Fifth Dimension as a joke of a band that took themselves way too seriously and it was really endearing to see them be so humble. “We were just these kids who loved to sing!”
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:01 AM on August 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


Oh man, y'all posted about this while I was camping and I almost missed the thread. This movie is beautiful and definitely worth seeing. The interview that opens and closes it is such a touching moment. And yeah, Marilyn McCoo watching herself is something else.
posted by fedward at 1:05 PM on August 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


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