Each instrument's note, with its distinct tone, stacks one on top of another and builds a sound so bountiful and lush, they swaddle the listener's ear. The horns blast, starting and stopping at the exact same moment, as if a machine is playing them, not humans. The boom-clack of the drums helps band members keep time.
In front of the band stands the show stealer, gyrating, dancing, doing the splits and pushing through the microphone his unique style of speak-singing. Sometimes, honestly, you have no idea what the performer is saying, but it doesn't really matter. It's real music, so it's all good.
At one point, when the band is perfectly in sync and the crowd is grooving, instead of words, the performer sings inarticulable syllables over and over. The crowd goes wild.
James Brown grunts, "Say it loud," and the audience, made up of all kinds of people, responds appropriately: "I'm black, and I'm proud."
There was something special about the music of the 1970s. Soul and funk were at their pinnacles. And for three nights in 1974, heaven came down to Kinshasa, Zaire, for one of the greatest musical experiences of all time. It wasn't just a concert; it was a statement.
Most people know October 1974 in Zaire for the "Rumble in the Jungle," the fight of epic proportions between two of America's greatest heavyweight boxers of all time: Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. The fight was a big deal. Don King wouldn't have had it any other way. Boxer Foreman injured his finger during preparation for the fight/festival, and the fight had to be postponed, but the bands played on.
"Our festival must go on," Hugh Masekela said when asked about potentially postponing the concert because of the boxing match. "The stage is being built. It's impossible for us to delay, not one day. It's impossible for us to delay a minute."
Masekela and Stewart Levine masterminded "Zaire '74" and made the blistering hot performances something for the movies. And now they are.
"Soul Power" explores what some have called the African American music event of the 20th century. Jeff Levy-Hinte, the film's director, condensed more than 125 hours of footage into a 93-minute documentary about the "Rumble in the Jungle" soundtrack.
The three-day concert event included performances by well-known performers from the United States and elsewhere like Bill Withers, The Spinners, B.B. King, James Brown, Miriam Makeba and Celia Cruz.
There are bits of politics interspersed throughout the film, including the hurdles concert promoters had to cross to produce the concert. The cameras overhear a few of the stars' opinions about how it feels being in their "homeland."
Muhammad Ali looks into the camera and says, "I've never felt more free in my life." But it's all ultimately a precursor to the music: from B.B. King's classic "The Thrill is Gone" to Bill Withers' acoustic-driven "Hope She'll Be Happier" to James Brown's "Soul Power."
"Godd*mn it! You are somebody," Brown exclaims to the camera, ending the film. If you need a reminder that Brown (or King or any of the others who were on the bill at Zaire '74) was somebody, see this film.
See "Soul Power" Friday, Dec. 3 or Saturday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. at the Russell C. Davis Planetarium (201 E. Pascagoula St.), $9.
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