{"id":31433,"date":"2026-09-08T05:30:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T09:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=31433"},"modified":"2026-09-08T10:27:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:27:49","slug":"blu-ray-review-soul-to-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/08\/blu-ray-review-soul-to-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Blu-ray Review: Soul to Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-31434\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/soul_to_soul.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"492\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/soul_to_soul.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/soul_to_soul-213x300.jpg 213w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Questlove did the worlds of arts and culture a major service when he shepherded <i>Summer of Soul<\/i> onto the screens. Not only did that archival concert film shine a light on an incredibly important and rich musical story, but it provided a kind of proof of concept that such a film wold find an audience. And it\u2019s against that backdrop that the rarely-screened <em>Soul to Soul<\/em> has now resurfaced, and in restored form, no less.<\/p>\n<p>With a back story that has a feel akin to one part Harlem Cultural Festival (the subject of <i>Summer of Soul<\/i>) and one part <i>B.B. King in Africa<\/i> (pieced together with outtakes from <i>When We Were Kings<\/i>), <i>Soul to Soul<\/i> documents a 1971 all-star concert festival in Ghana. With a can\u2019t-miss lineup \u2013 Ike and Tuna Turner, Wilson Pickett, Santana, The Staple Singers, Voices of East Harlem, Les McCann &amp; Eddie Harris: WOW! &#8212; it would have been hard to go wrong. And they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p><i>Soul to Soul<\/i> combines footage that provides context for the event with onstage concert footage. Viewers will get enough of the story \u2013 and the performers\u2019 reaction to it \u2013 to understand what it\u2019s all about. And the performances are beyond compare. Pickett is predictably on fire, as are Ike and Tina. Santana&#8217;s performance might even rival their celebrated Woodstock gig (me, I\u2019d give the slight edge to this one). The Staple Singers remind us why they\u2019re so beloved. The Voices of East Harlem are nothing short of exciting. And while McCann and Harris don\u2019t perform their signature \u201cCompared to What,\u201d they still turn in a bravura set. The local\/indigenous performers are not to be missed as well.<\/p>\n<p>Inevitably, the film only shows bits of the concert. But there&#8217;s enough there to thrill and inspire modern-day audiences. The outtake of Ike and Tina is eye-popping in its, well, naughtiness. And the omission of one headliner \u2013 Roberta Flack \u2013 is unfortunate. (Though she appeared in the original film, Flack wouldn\u2019t allow her performance to be included in the restored cut). But the restorers found an inspired way to cover the (narrative) gaps left by her omission.<\/p>\n<p>Rob Bowman\u2019s lengthy liner note essay is required reading. The restored print balances current-day visual values with enough grittiness and graininess to preserve the vibe of the original footage. <i>Soul to Soul<\/i> is a must-see film for anyone who appreciates late-\u201960 and early \u201870s soul at its most real and visceral.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Questlove did the worlds of arts and culture a major service when he shepherded Summer of Soul onto the screens. Not only did that archival concert film shine a light [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,49,65,69],"tags":[5940,1310,2759,2031,2891],"class_list":["post-31433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvd","category-new-release","category-review","category-soul","tag-ike-and-tina-turner","tag-les-mccann","tag-santana","tag-staple-singers","tag-wilson-pickett","cat-25-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31433"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32392,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31433\/revisions\/32392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}