Jeffrey Levy-Hint’s rough-hewn, hugely enjoyable Soul Power
is both a tantalizing footnote to When We Were Kings, the 1996
documentary about George Foreman and Muhammad Ali’s 1974 “Rumble in the
Jungle,” and a celebration of the nearly forgotten three-day music
festival that took place in Zaire six weeks before the big fight.
There’s more good music in 93 minutes here than in all the Woodstock
footage available.
Levy-Hint assembles his film without voiceover or commentary,
resulting in an altogether more immersive thing than most music docs.
The scenes detailing the business arrangements for the concert can’t
hope to measure up to the performances, but once the concert gets
rolling, privileged moments abound: Manu DiBango’s impromptu
street-corner showcase with local African kids; B.B. King, looking
professorial in glasses, as he works through his proposed set list
backstage; Ali soliloquizing about hungry, underfed African flies and
buying into Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko’s illusory paradise; the
sheer flamboyance of the Spinners’ matching Shazam sportcoats; Celia
Cruz and the Fania All-Stars keeping everyone awake on the 14-hour
flight by jamming endlessly in the aisles; Don King expounding on his
“mode of operandi”; Miriam Makeba proudly proclaiming every syllable of
her impossible-for-Europeans-to-pronounce name to a joyful crowd; James
Brown asserting, “Don’t bury me while I yet live.”
One complaint: Why did Levy-Hint include all of a minor Bill Withers
acoustic number while only showing a couple of minutes of the amazing
performances from Afropop giants Franco and Rochereau? One hopes the
DVD will resolve this issue.
