Summer of Soul, the other festival of 1969

I have often said that the late 1960s and early 1970s were a really creative time in music. You may have seen the Woodstock movie that featured a lot of artists from that period, but there was another big festival that year which is little known. The Harlem Cultural Festival was a free event over several weekends with loads of artists. It was filmed, but that was never released until now, apparently due to funding issues. I saw Summer of Soul on Disney+, but it is available elsewhere.

I have pretty broad musical tastes, but there could be something for everyone here. You have a young Stevie Wonder singing and doing a drum solo, BB King playing the blues, Motown acts like Gladys Knight and the Pips, innovators like Sly and the Family Stone and more. There is a fair bit of gospel with a great duet by Mavis Staples and Mahalia Jackson as well as African and Puerto Rican beats.

The movie includes a lot of historical context and the downside may be that some of this is done with the music in the background, so you only really get to see and hear parts of some performances. They have a lot to fit into two hours. These were tumultuous times in America with multiple political assassinations and riots as well as the Vietnam war. They speak to a lot of the artists and attendees as well as some others who commentate on it. I remember when preacher Jesse Jackson was running for president, but he was up on that stage too after witnessing the death of Martin Luther King. They even mentioned that the first manned Moon landing happened during the festival, but many Black people then thought that was a mis-use of funds. It is telling how some things have not changed that much in over 50 years.

I love a good music documentary and this is a cracker. Some really great music and interesting history.

There is a little extra clip of Stevie Wonder after the credits. I let them run as the music was god.