Various Artists – Wattstax: Music From the Wattstax Festival and Film (3-disc set)
David Cantwell
Posted On November 1, 2007
This box not only shares its title with a 2003 Ace Records import, it includes exactly the same music and liner notes, albeit in snazzier packaging. Further, both that earlier Ace import and this new domestic reissue are missing thirteen tracks from the two volumes of Wattstax: The Living Word that were released within months of the so-called Black Woodstock, held at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1972. Some of those tracks are missing here, we’re informed, because they were studio recordings, and others because they’re available elsewhere, while the rest were simply “omitted for space reasons.” Can there be a four-disc The Complete Wattstax far behind that will render this set instantly obsolete? Caveat emptor.
With that warning out of the way, what must be stressed is that Wattstax is remarkable. These discs (and the concert they comprised, and the accompanying film) essay the black American culture with a breadth that few, if any, other single events have even attempted.
From Kim Weston’s opening rendition of the decades-old “negro national anthem” titled “Lift Every Voice And Sing” through the final state-of-the-art instance of black pride, “Theme From Shaft” from Isaac Hayes, it’s all here: Little Milton and Albert King sing the blues; the gospel of the fierce and underappreciated Rance Allen Group abuts directly with funk by the Bar-Kays. There’s comedy from Richard Pryor, political preaching from Jesse Jackson, and amazing live performances from soul acts Mel & Tim, Johnnie Taylor, William Bell, David Porter and the Staple Singers. There’s even a big-band jazz symphony courtesy of the Wattstax Orchestra.
The best is saved for last, with a trio of mini sets — five numbers that represent the finest work Carla Thomas ever did, three astoundingly funky numbers from her father Rufus, and two songs from the Soul Children — which provide an essential document of live soul.
“Brothers and sisters,” Jesse Jackson testifies by way of introducing the Soul Children, “I don’t know what this world is coming to!” Then the Children tear into the song of that very name. It’s blues, gospel, soul, funk, and R&B, all at once. In musical terms, this was exactly what the world was coming to in 1972, and still is.
