Featuring Sly & the Family Stone, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, and many others
Directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson
Music and Lyrics by various
Having enjoyed No Maps on My Taps last Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, I thought I'd try another documentary about the black musical experience in America. This time, we skip ahead to 1969, the year after King's assassination. TV producer Hal Tuchin filmed the Harlem Cultural Festival, a celebration of Afro-American culture and music. It was made into two television specials at the time, then promptly forgotten. It wasn't until 2004 that film archivist Joe Lauro convinced Tuchin to digitalize the footage, and it took until 2019 for it to be bought from the owners following Tuchin's death. Was this history worth digging up, or should it have remained buried? Let's begin at Mount Morris Park (now Martin Garvey Park) in New York's Harlem neighborhood as the show is about to begin and find out...
The Story: The biggest names in soul, R&B, and blues converged on six weeks of sold-out shows at Mount Morris Park. The joy of the sold-out crowds is contrasted with their lives on the mean streets of Harlem and East Harlem. Harlem was rocked by riots in 1964 that left the neighborhood battered and scarred, but there was hope for the future as they celebrated how blacks fought to reclaim a culture and a music all their own.
The Song and Dance: Wow. It's a damn shame this was overshadowed by Woodstock and other major music festivals that year. There are some amazing performances you just aren't going to see anywhere else. They did an incredible job restoring the footage. I imagine it had to have been in bad shape after being locked up for 50 years, but it looks like it was filmed last week, with glowing colors and audio that beautifully captures every moment onstage. It's wild just to see the relatively conservative then-mayor of New York John Lindsay contrasted to the ultra-hip festival coordinator Tony Lawrence (who was also one of the acts).
Even more than the music, it was fascinating hearing about this event from not only surviving performers, but people who actually attended. Their memories of how it felt to see this gathering of a culture that had until a few years before largely been forced underground helps show what a watershed this was to black New York audiences at the time. Several people called it "more important than the moon landing"...because this was about those of us on Earth in the here and now, not just far-away possibilities.
Favorite Number: Stevie Wonder kicks things off with a wild drum solo and his electric rendition of the Isley Brothers hit "It's Your Thing." Legendary bluesman B.B King tells us "Why I Sing the Blues" and shows us why he was King of the Blues. Gospel group The Staple Singers really get the crowds into their swinging numbers "Give a Damn," "Help Me Jesus," and "It's Been a Change." The Edwin Hawkins Singers add their own praise to "Oh Happy Day." Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples joins group Operation Breadbasket for Tommy Dorsey's "Precious Lord Take My Hand."
Gladys Knight & the Pips really rock their cover of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." Mixed-race group Sly & the Family Stone show why they're "Everyday People" with their vibrant performances of that major hit, "Sing a Simple Song," and "Higher." Afro-Puerto-Rican performers Mongo Santamaria and Ray Baretto show off another side of Harlem in their colorful polka-dot shirts with their Latin-influenced "Afro-Blue," "Watermelon Man," "Together," and "Abijdan." Jazz songstress Nina Simone steals the show with her intensely personal "Backlash Blues," "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black," and "Are You Ready?"
What I Don't Like: Boy, do I wish they hadn't waited 50 years to do this. We might have heard from a lot of the actual performers, instead of mostly people who saw the show and a few major stars (like Gladys Knight). There are times with pinkish fringing on the edges of the frame or slightly blurry images when you're reminded this is footage from 1969. Watch out for violence and racial slurs that go along with many discussions of this era.
The Big Finale: If you have any interest at all in black culture or the history of rock, R&B, soul, and gospel in the 60's, you owe to yourself to catch this glorious celebration of a time and place where people found joy in a music that was uniquely theirs.
Home Media: It'll be available on DVD and digital February 8th. For now, it's a Hulu exclusive.
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