Summer of Soul

I was spellbound watching this piece of soul churning, black history unfold before me. After more than half a century, the suppressed footage of Harlem’s spectacular festival vocalising the dissenting views of African Americans’ unrelenting oppression, whilst pushing for social justice, finally surfaces onto the world’s main stage in the form of a docu-concert.  

In true Harlem Renaissance style, Questlove’s masterpiece, ‘Summer of Soul’,  lifts the souls of oppression to a new found height, reaching out to spread the message of how self-determination and pride, a new social consciousness and new commitment to political activism, will never die. 

Talented African American, Ahmir Khalib Thompson (aka Questlove) is a crafted drummer, songwriter, DJ, music journalist, and author, whose directorial debut, a masterful revisualisation of Harlem’s 1969 Cultural Festival, deservedly landed him Sundance’s 2021 Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award.  

Through the oppressed voices of those in attendance, this powerful and invigorating film encapsulates the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. Using resurrected footage that is interlinked with news clippings, alongside interviews with concertgoers, activists and performers, it transcends racial, ethnic, educational, cultural and class distinctions of “The Revolution that could not be televised” 

 Harlem Renaissance’s Beat Goes On 

The Harlem Renaissance started in the 1920’s after many African Americans, who had been liberated by slave owners, migrated to the Northern cities. It was a turning point in black cultural history instilling a new spirit that would provide a foundation for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s.  

In 1969, after a decade of civil unrest, resulting in part, from the assassinations of President John F Kennedy in 1963, followed by two Civil Rights figureheads, Malcom X in 1965 and Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, the authorities became increasingly concerned that they would not be able to contain the uproar of those alleged to have been liberated, still living in oppression, coming to a head.  

As the authorities had feared, when news of Dr King’s assassination reached the people on the streets, there was an outbreak of riots across the whole country. Presidential candidate and US Attorney General, Robert F Kennedy, heard the news whilst travelling to a campaign engagement in Illinois, and decided, against those advising him, to give an improvised speech to his predominately African American audience. Following his breaking of the news of Dr King’s death and recalling the slaying of his brother, he told the gathered crowd. 

“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice towards those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.”  (Robert F Kennedy, 4 April 1968, Illinois) 

Leaving his mourning audience with a glimmer of hope, the rally dispensed peacefully. A few weeks later, he called an off-the-record meeting with prominent African Americans to discuss the tensions surrounding race relations, thus sealing the valuable support of the African American communities that he needed to win the election and progress change. 

On 5 June 1968, whilst campaigning in Los Angeles, Robert F Kennedy was assassinated. As a result of this cold-blooded murder, minorities’, mostly African Americans’, hopes of emancipation from “The Greedy Exploiting the Needy”, lay in tatters.  The continuation of racially based homelessness, unemployment, starvation, secondary education, physical and mental abuse, military enlistments to fight in a war that was vehemently opposed, coupled with an epidemic of drug-related deaths across several poverty-stricken pockets of a number of States, was too much to endure, causing further race riots to erupt across the US. Needless to say, the authorities were now anxious to put a lid on it.     

In pursuit of the African Americans’ dreams of true liberation, revered promoter and singer, Tony Lawrence, sought permissions and funding to bring his 1967 brainchild, a free music festival for minorities in Harlem, into fruition. Armed with the knowledge that the authorities were keen to appease the ongoing unrest, he approached New York’s then liberal Republican Mayor, John Lindsay. He was granted permission by the New York City Parks Department to hold the event, and sponsorship from Maxwell House Coffee to fund it. 

The 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival was a series of 6 free music concerts, held on consecutive Sunday’s from 29thJune to 24th August 1969, in Harlem’s then Mount Morris Park. On 15th August 1969, in Bethel upstate New York, the ‘Woodstock Music & Art Fair’ was held on a 600-acre dairy farm over three days. The event’s founders had anticipated some 200,000 concertgoers would attend and managed to sell a total of 186,000 tickets, the funds of which they had earmarked to build a recording studio. However, when an unexpected crowd of 400,000 showed up, fearing the crowds would spiral out of control, they decided to let them in, free of charge. Born from this was Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 iconic documentary, ‘Woodstock’.    

In stark contrast, despite promoting the Harlem Festival as the ‘Black Woodstock’, concert producer and videographer, Hal Tulchin’s endeavours to have it aired across cinema’s and major networks was suppressed, causing this pivotal piece of Black history to lie buried in his basement for almost 50 years. That is, until he was approached by producer, Robert Fyvolent, to collaborate in the making of a documentary to mark the festival’s 50th anniversary.  Owing to Tulchin’s untimely death in 2017, Questlove was approached. Ensuring black erasure wasn’t going to slip him by, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, ‘Summer of Soul’ was born. 

Lifting the Souls of Oppression 

Breathing new life into Harlem’s Renaissance, the revised footage reverberates the melodic sounds of Blues, Gospel, Latin Jazz, R & B and Psychedelic funk, as one attendee noted, through the wafting aroma of “Afro Sheen and fried chicken”, to reach a radicalized audience, whose deep-rooted mourning seems momentarily lifted with a beacon of hope, or, as another of the festivals 300,000 attendee’s reminisced, “like a rose coming through cement!” 

Lawrence’s requests to have the NYC Police department provide security for the event fell on deaf ears, and he enlisted the help of the Black Panthers, whose multifaceted abilities to provide security with a groove, shone through. 

To kick off, the audience is introduced to rare footage of a young Stevie Wonder behind the drums thrashing out ‘Here We Go Again’, followed by the Chambers Brothers ‘Uptown’, BB King’s ‘Why I Sing the Blues’, Tony Lawrence singing ‘Knock Knock’, Herbie Mann and 5th Dimension’s ‘Aquarius /Let the Sun Shine In’.  

With a smooth transition into the sounds of gospel, Edwin Hawkins’ ‘Oh Happy Day’ and Papa Staple and the Staple Sisters ‘Help Me Jesus’ and finally, Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples’ breath-taking rendition of Rev Thomas A Dorsey’s ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord’, the song Dr King had asked Mahalia to sing the night he was brutally gunned down. The poignancy of this number truly resonates throughout their spectacularly spiritual performance.  

As the show moves on the audience is treated to some good old R & B, from David Ruffin’s ‘My Girl’ and Gladys Knight and the Pips’ rendition of ‘I heard it Through the Grapevine’, to the Psychedelic funk  sounds of Sly & Family Stone’s and Greg Erreco’s ‘Everyday People.  Moving swiftly onto a Latin Jazz vibe with Mongo Santamaria’s ‘Watermelon Man’, percussionist Ray Baretto and the Harlem Calypso Band.  To play us out is the multi-talented Stevie Wonder, jamming on the keyboard to ’Shoo,Be,Do,Be,Do’, Sonny Sherrock and Max Roach ‘It’s Time’ (For Liberation) and Hugh Masekela’s ‘Grazing in the Grass’.  

The concert reaches a crescendo with the jazz singing activist herself, Nina Simone, whose execution, of ‘Backlash Blues’, as she chants to the frenzied crowd, “Are You Ready Black People, Are You Ready?” tore the house down! 

The performances are entwined with original footage, reminiscent messages and interviews with Mayor John Lindsay, Civil Rights activists Al Sharpton and Rev. Jessie Jackson, Cyril ‘Bullwhip’ Innis, Moms Malby, Chris Rock, Selema Masekela, Charlayne Hunter-Gualt, and attendees Daryl Lewis and Musa Jackson.  

The audience is not only enlightened as to how the use of ‘Negro’ died and transitioned into ‘Black, Beautiful, and Proud’, but is left with a sense of déjà vu resulting from the film-makers’ powerful incorporation of festivalgoer’s retorts to the moon landing. 

“Never mind the moon, lets straighten out poverty” ………… “We’re not on the moon, we’re here on earth and we got to do it all together, before it’s too god damn late!” 

As Darryl Lewis reminisced “Nobody heard of the Harlem Cultural festival, nobody would believe it happened” ……. “You put memories away……. I’m not crazy.”  

He certainly isn’t crazy, but anyone missing an opportunity to see this piece of revisionist history, most certainly would be!