Re: 87 Soul Power
Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 6:29 pm
Some of the best parts of the film are the impromptu moments.
Manu DiBango playing with kids in the street, Ray Baretto jamming in a drum line on a Kinshasa market, Sister Sledge warming up, etc.
Also, there are some great moments with James Brown and Ali.
Unfortunately, there is very little of the audience and not much of the African performers in the film. The concert itself was designed to appeal to the Zaireans with plenty of African and Latin musicians, but the film seems to have been conceived mostly with Americans in mind, and the audience and the African musicians aren't well represented.
As for the NYTimes review, how do they manage to crop Miriam Makeba's hairdo out of the pic? I mean her hair should have its own credit in the film.
As for jbaart, I don't get how anyone cannot get soul music, but if that's the case, I doubt this film will help much. But the film is as much a cultural document of a time, a consciousness, and an event as it is about the music. One of the poignant elements for me, is how Zaire '74 constitutes one of the last hurrahs of this music and this cultural scene, which was soon to be eclipsed by disco, punk, heavy metal, etc. The wild cultural explosion that began on or about February 7, 1964 was rapidly coming to a close in the Fall of 1974.
Manu DiBango playing with kids in the street, Ray Baretto jamming in a drum line on a Kinshasa market, Sister Sledge warming up, etc.
Also, there are some great moments with James Brown and Ali.
Unfortunately, there is very little of the audience and not much of the African performers in the film. The concert itself was designed to appeal to the Zaireans with plenty of African and Latin musicians, but the film seems to have been conceived mostly with Americans in mind, and the audience and the African musicians aren't well represented.
As for the NYTimes review, how do they manage to crop Miriam Makeba's hairdo out of the pic? I mean her hair should have its own credit in the film.
As for jbaart, I don't get how anyone cannot get soul music, but if that's the case, I doubt this film will help much. But the film is as much a cultural document of a time, a consciousness, and an event as it is about the music. One of the poignant elements for me, is how Zaire '74 constitutes one of the last hurrahs of this music and this cultural scene, which was soon to be eclipsed by disco, punk, heavy metal, etc. The wild cultural explosion that began on or about February 7, 1964 was rapidly coming to a close in the Fall of 1974.