Muhammad Ali. Don King. James Brown. Three of the world’s most visible, most entertaining (on more than one level) men, in Kinshasa, Zaire, in 1974. Ali was there to fight George Foreman for the heavyweight championship in the legendary Rumble in the Jungle, King was organizing both the fight and a three-day music festival to be led by Brown.
Foreman was injured and the fight was postponed for six weeks, but the concert went on as scheduled, and its story, "Soul Power," is a superb documentary film, not to mention a chance to experience a great musical event. Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, who wrote and directed, was in Kinshasa as the editor on director Leon Gast’s "When We Were Giants," a documentary on the fight and winner of an Oscar some 20 years later.
Ali, the most famous man in the world by his own admission, is his clowning, public face, but "Soul Power" belongs to the men and women who sing and dance. We join many of them at JFK Airport for the trans-Atlantic flight, an all-night jam session started by Celia Cruz and the Fania All-Stars, quickly picked up by other musicians and their friends and fans.
The logistics of setting things up proved a nightmare, but the singers and groups, including Brown, B.B. King, Miriam Makeba, Bill Withers and the Spinners, the Crusaders and others offer joyous music. Brown is, of course, the star, with four numbers, and we see and hear more than a dozen songs and nine different acts.
Given the fact that we’re seeing an image coming from film more than 30 years in a vault and perhaps 40 years old, the quality is surprisingly good and "Soul Power" is a joy in every respect.
At the Plaza Frontenac
–Joe