Summer Of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) Highlights From Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

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“When we talk about Black erasure and racism, people often think that it's like a mob that's literally burning history,” Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson tells Apple Music. “But in this case, it was a situation where it's a casual 'eh, it's not a big deal'—which is even just as dangerou.” The Roots drummer and late-night TV fixture is referring to 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival, a series of events that took place in uptown Manhattan’s Mount Morris Park. Much of the footage and even the footprint of these shows seemed lost to the age, a set of circumstances Thompson sought to thwart by directing the Oscar-nominated 2021 documentary <i>Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised).</i> “I knew this was my chance to correct history,” he say. Taking place over the same summer as the now-infamous Woodstock concerts upstate, this iteration of the seminal yet heretofore largely unsung event series featured some of the most important names in jazz and soul music, several of whom appear on the film’s soundtrack. Among the performances captured here are momentous sections of sets by Nina Simone, Sly & The Family Stone, and The Staple Singer. Latin jazz giants Ray Barretto and Mongo Santameria tear through some of their signature song, while former Temptations singer David Ruffin belts out his old band’s classic “My Girl.” .

via Apple Music

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