Soul to Soul (film)

Last updated

Soul to Soul
Soultosoul.jpg
Directed by Denis Sanders
Produced by Richard Bock, Tom Mosk
Cinematography David Myers
Production
company
Nigram-Aura Productions
Distributed byCinerama Releasing Corporation
Release date
  • 1971 (1971)
Running time
96 min.
LanguageEnglish

Soul to Soul is a 1971 documentary film about the Independence Day concert held in Accra, Ghana, on 6 March 1971. It features an array of mostly American R&B, soul, rock, and jazz musicians. [1]

Contents

Directed by Denis Sanders, Soul to Soul was released in August 1971. [1] The film consists of extensive excerpts from the concert performances, along with documentary footage of the musicians interacting with local Ghanaians in the days before the show. [2]

Concert

Ghana, after declaring its Independence on 6 March 1957, had made a variety of efforts to connect with African diasporans, some of whom—including Maya Angelou, W. E. B. Du Bois and George Padmore—lived in the West 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. At 1970 West Africa concert by James Brown, Brown performed in Lagos, Nigeria, but he did not perform in Ghana.

Of the musicians invited to perform, Wilson Pickett was by far the biggest star in Ghana. [3] Organizers also unsuccessfully sought performances by Americans Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Booker T & The MG's, Louis Armstrong, and gospel singer Marion Williams.

The show, with broadcaster Mike Eghan as MC, [4] was held in Black Star Square (now Independence Square).

Several at the show remarked that the band Santana, despite having only one black member, played the most "African-sounding" music of the night. Some have argued that Santana's merger of Latin rhythms with rock music strongly influenced the development of Afrobeat. [5]

Musicians

The American artists were mostly African-American and represented a variety of musical styles:

The concert also featured performances by several Ghanaian acts:

Also performing (and seen on the film) were the Nandom Sekpere group from the Northern (now Upper West) region, and the whistle player Nakpi.

In addition, Les McCann and Eddie Harris played part of their set with a Ghanaian calabash player and medicine man named Amoah Azangeo.

Reception

The New York Times (19 August 1971):

"Soul to Soul" will hook you. We defy anybody to watch the final half hour of this color documentary of a soul and gospel music concert, performed in Ghana, without tapping a foot. But it is the sea of rapturous black faces, those of the visiting American artists and their Ghana audiences, that makes this movie a haunting experience … Mainly and compactly, the film sticks to the concert, brilliantly evoking the performances and crowd reactions in a flow of closeups and panoramic shots, to the stabbing, pounding pulse of the music. [1]

Home video

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 24 August 2004. The new release does not include any performances by Roberta Flack, who requested their removal. [7] But it does include a soundtrack album on CD, which features tracks from all the U.S. performers with the exception of Santana and Flack, plus the Kumasi Drummers, the Damas Choir, and Kwa Mensah.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilson Pickett</span> American singer (1941–2006)

Wilson Pickett was an American singer and songwriter.

Highlife is a Ghanaian music genre that originated along the coastal cities of present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its history as a colony of the British and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It encompasses multiple local fusions of African metre and western jazz melodies. It uses the melodic and main rhythmic structures of traditional African music, but is typically played with Western instruments. Highlife is characterized by jazzy horns and guitars which lead the band and its use of the two-finger plucking guitar style that is typical of African music. Recently it has acquired an uptempo, synth-driven sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberta Flack</span> American singer (born 1937)

Roberta Cleopatra Flack is a retired American singer who topped the Billboard charts with the No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", and "Feel Like Makin' Love".

There are many styles of traditional and modern music of Ghana, due to Ghana's worldwide geographic position on the African continent.

Guy Warren of Ghana, also known as Kofi Ghanaba, was a Ghanaian musician, most notable as the inventor of Afro-jazz — "the reuniting of African-American jazz with its African roots" — and as a member of The Tempos, alongside E. T. Mensah. He also inspired musicians such as Fela Kuti. Warren's virtuosity on the African drums earned him the appellation "The Divine Drummer". At different stages of his life, he additionally worked as a journalist, DJ and broadcaster.

Hiplife is a Ghanaian musical style that fuses Ghanaian culture and hip hop. Recorded predominantly in the Ghanaian Akan language, hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity in the 2010s throughout West Africa and abroad, especially in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Allen (musician)</span> Nigerian musician (1940–2020)

Tony Oladipo Allen was a Nigerian and French drummer, composer, and songwriter who lived and worked in Paris, France. Allen was the drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti's band Africa '70 from 1968 to 1979, and was one of the founders of the Afrobeat genre. Fela once stated that "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat". He was described by Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived". Later in life, Allen collaborated with Damon Albarn on several projects, including Gorillaz, the Good, the Bad & the Queen and Rocket Juice & the Moon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Les McCann</span> American jazz pianist and vocalist (1935–2023)

Leslie Coleman McCann was an American jazz pianist and vocalist. He is known for his innovations in soul jazz and his 1969 recording of the protest song "Compared to What". His music has been widely sampled in hip hop.

The Ga-Dangbe, Ga-Dangme, Ga-Adangme or Ga-Adangbe are an ethnic group in Ghana, Togo and Benin. The Ga or Gan and Dangbe or Dangme people are grouped as part of the Ga–Dangme ethnolinguistic group. The Ga-Dangmes are one ethnic group that lives primarily in the Greater Accra region of Ghana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GTV (Ghana)</span> National public broadcaster of Ghana

GTV is the national public broadcaster of Ghana, run by the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. It commenced operations on 31 July 1965, and was originally known as GBC TV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cab Kaye</span> English jazz musician (1921–2000)

Nii-lante Augustus Kwamlah Quaye, known professionally as Cab Kaye, was an English jazz singer and pianist of Ghanaian descent. He combined blues, stride piano, and scat with his Ghanaian heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beattie Casely-Hayford</span> Ghanaian engineer, entrepreneur and media expert (1922–1989)

Beattie Casely-Hayford was a Ghanaian engineer. He was the first director of the Ghana Arts Council, a co-founder of the Ghana National Dance Ensemble, and a director of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).

Yacub Addy was a Ghanaian traditional drummer, composer, choreographer and educator who collaborated with many musicians in various genres, including Wynton Marsalis. He has been referred to as "the leading ambassador of Ghanaian music and culture".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teddy Osei</span> Ghanaian saxophonist and musician (1937–2025)

Teddy Osei was a Ghanaian musician who was a saxophone player, drummer and vocalist, and best known as the leader of the Afro-pop band Osibisa, founded in 1969. Born in Kumasi, Osei was introduced to musical instruments while still a child. He began to play the saxophone while attempting to create a band with his college friends in the coastal city of Sekondi. After graduating from college, he worked as a building inspector for a year before creating a band called "The Comets." The Comets enjoyed brief popularity before Osei travelled to London in 1962. He received a grant from the Ghanaian government to study at a private music and drama school for three years, before being forced to leave by a regime change in Ghana. In 1969, he founded Osibisa along with several other musicians. The band remained popular through the 1970s, before experiencing a decline, although it continues to perform today.

The history of African Americans in Ghana goes back to individuals such as American civil rights activist and writer W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), who settled in Ghana in the last years of his life and is buried in the capital, Accra. Since then, other African Americans who are descended from slaves imported from areas within the present-day jurisdiction of Ghana and neighboring states have applied for permanent resident status in Ghana. As of 2015, the number of African American residents has been estimated at 3,000 people, a large portion of whom live in Accra.

Anthony Owura-Akuaku, known by his stage name Nenebi, is a Ghanaian spoken word artist, poet, songwriter, performer, and storyteller. He began his entertainment career at the age of 11 when he started reading self-written poetry on Garden City Radio in Kumasi. In January 2013, Nenebi turned down his dream job as a columnist for Graphic Showbiz, Ghana's leading entertainment newspaper, to focus on his poetry and songwriting career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernard Woma</span> Ghanaian gyile player

Bernard Woma was a well-known Dagara gyile player from Upper West Ghana who spent many years teaching the instrument and introducing it to audiences around the world. He was born in the village of Hiineteng, in the Upper West Region. Bernard began playing the gyil around 2 years old, and as he grew older he became well known for his musical abilities. In 1982, Bernard, moved to Accra and began to play the gyil for the Dagara community. Where he was later offered the position as a xylophonist for Ghana’s National Dance Company. In 1997, he founded and became the Artistic Director of Saakumu Dance Troupe in Ghana. Bernard’s guidance and leadership, attracted many people from around the world to come study from him. He was then invited as a guest at the State University of New York, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and two master's degrees in African Studies and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. He was xylophonist and lead drummer of the National Dance Company of Ghana and of Saakumu Dance Troupe. He performed with New York Philharmonic, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Albany Symphony Orchestra as well as Berliner Symphoniker in Berlin, Germany, and KwaZulu Natal Symphony Orchestra in Durban, South Africa. He performed his gyil concerto composition "Gyil Nyog Me Na" in 2006 at Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall, New York. He also founded Dagara Music and Arts Center in Accra, Ghana.

<i>Soul to Soul</i> (soundtrack) 1971 soundtrack album by Various

Soul To Soul is the soundtrack to the concert film Soul to Soul released on Atlantic Records in 1971.

Mike Eghan is a Ghanaian broadcaster, also known as "The Magnificent Emperor". In a career as a disc jockey and radio presenter spanning six decades, Eghan hosted programmes for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and for the BBC World Service in London. He was the master of ceremonies for the historic concert in Ghana Soul to Soul, which took place in Black Star Square in 1971 and showcased many prominent African-American artists alongside Ghanaian musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chief Moomen</span> Ghanaian writer

Abdul Moomen Muslim known professionally as Chief Moomen is a Ghanaian poet, playwright and creative entrepreneur. He is best known for creating the Ghanaian historical epic - WogbeJeke: Our Journey, a theatrical reenactment of the history of Ghana from ancient to modern times, directed by Joyce Anima Misa Amoah. In March 2017, the play was chosen as the official theatre showpiece to celebrate Ghana’s 60th Anniversary.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Thompson, Howard (19 August 1971). "Rousing 'Soul to Soul'". The New York Times .
  2. "Soul to Soul (1971) | Full Cast & Crew", IMDb.
  3. "Soul to Soul Concert in Ghana 1971". Voices of East Anglia. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  4. Arts Council of Ghana, Soul to Soul, Black Star Square, Accra, Ghana, 6th March, 1971 : with American and Ghanaian soul, R&B, gospel, jazz, latin rock and dance groups, featuring Wilson Pickett (and others) : M.C., Mike Eghan, Accra : Moxon Paperbacks, 1971. OCLC   6030924.
  5. ClapboardArchipelago (7 March 2021). "50 Years Ago Today [6 March 1971] The 'Soul to Soul' concert, celebrating African singers and music, takes place in Accra and features acts such as Ike and Tina Turner, Carlos Santana, and Wilson Pickett". r/ghana. Reddit. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  6. Lusk, Jon (26 April 2022). "Kofi Ghanaba: Drummer who pioneered Afro-jazz". The Independent .
  7. Haynes, Monica (24 September 2004). "New on Video: 'Soul to Soul' documents historic 1971 music festival in Ghana". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette .