Summer of Soul

[CraigS63]

Thanks for the tip on this one @digitaldrummer !
I had no idea this happened. Quite a bit of talent on this one. 1969 was a great year for music (this festival got overshadowed
by Woodstock).



https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11422728/

[drumsound]

Some pretty incredible stuff in that movie. I believe ?uestlove is seeing some award nominations for it.

[digitaldrummer]

I believe ?uestlove is seeing some award nominations for it.

I would hope so!

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I love that all the performers in this doc are a little funny looking (like real people) and sound amazing. Contrasted to the pop stars of today who all look like models and may or may not be passable performers.

[drumsound]

I love that all the performers in this doc are a little funny looking (like real people) and sound amazing. Contrasted to the pop stars of today who all look like models and may or may not be passable performers.

Sad but true.

[emrr]

Gotta watch this one again and make sure I didn't hallucinate what I think I saw.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

The Mahalia Jackson/Mavis Staples duet on that suuuuuuper slow blues was unbelievable.

[markjazzbassist]

finally watched this, it was lovely. some highlights were Ben Branch, i love his gospel records, he used a lot of the chicago chess/cadet session players (like phil upchurch). the mahalia/mavis duet was worth the price of admission alone. i really loved the musical diversity, gospel, latin, soul, funk, jazz, it was great to see them stick to genres instead of the "something for everyone" bonnaroo/coachella/modern festival lineups.

the thing that stood out the most was the quality of the vocals. no autotune, no correction, no pitch issues, not a single one. like David said previously, looks were not the most important, the talent was never in question. i hear modern shows and i hear pitchiness, off key singing, etc, can't hear the piano to find the pitch, it's amateur. every single performer was nailed on pitch, on key, and delivered with 100% spirit and emotion. it's easy to see why this is considered the golden era.

i read an interview with questlove afterwards and he said he's been hit up by 15 people since who have archive footage and he's working on 5 of them now. he said he realized as a music nerd this is his calling, to document and archive this stuff.

[drumsound]

finally watched this, it was lovely. some highlights were Ben Branch, i love his gospel records, he used a lot of the chicago chess/cadet session players (like phil upchurch). the mahalia/mavis duet was worth the price of admission alone. i really loved the musical diversity, gospel, latin, soul, funk, jazz, it was great to see them stick to genres instead of the "something for everyone" bonnaroo/coachella/modern festival lineups.

the thing that stood out the most was the quality of the vocals. no autotune, no correction, no pitch issues, not a single one. like David said previously, looks were not the most important, the talent was never in question. i hear modern shows and i hear pitchiness, off key singing, etc, can't hear the piano to find the pitch, it's amateur. every single performer was nailed on pitch, on key, and delivered with 100% spirit and emotion. it's easy to see why this is considered the golden era.

i read an interview with questlove afterwards and he said he's been hit up by 15 people since who have archive footage and he's working on 5 of them now. he said he realized as a music nerd this is his calling, to document and archive this stuff.

I agree with all of this. and I hadn't heard about the last paragraph, and that excites me!

[emrr]

Watched it again, yes, I did see all that. Astonishing.

[Nick Sevilla]

I love that all the performers in this doc are a little funny looking (like real people) and sound amazing. Contrasted to the pop stars of today who all look like models and may or may not be passable performers.

Well we all have to remember that being Unique was something to strive for back then. This era was before the (mostly white male) accountants fully took over the record labels, in the early to mid 1970s. That really destroyed Uniqueness.

[markjazzbassist]

I love that all the performers in this doc are a little funny looking (like real people) and sound amazing. Contrasted to the pop stars of today who all look like models and may or may not be passable performers.

Well we all have to remember that being Unique was something to strive for back then. This era was before the (mostly white male) accountants fully took over the record labels, in the early to mid 1970s. That really destroyed Uniqueness.

AMEN!