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Rousing 'Soul to Soul'

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August 19, 1971, Page 0Buy Reprints
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"Soul to Soul" will hook you. We defy anybody to watch the final half hour of this color documentary of a soul and gospel music concert, performed in Ghana, without tapping a foot. But it is the sea of rapturous black faces, those of the visiting American artists and their Ghana audiences, that makes this movie a haunting experience.Most fortunately, Denis Sanders, who did so well with his documentary on Elvis Presley at Las Vegas, was recruited to direct this project. The occasion is an American program given last March in a huge open-air theater in Ghana's capital city, Accra, to cap the African nation's 14th Independence Day festivities. Neither Mr. Sanders, the group of visitors nor the movie wastes much time with the travelogue frills and detours.We meet the group of musicians briefly in flight, see them given an airport welcome and watch them take a few excursions. And the warm, frank curiosity of the more sophisticated Americans as they are entertained by the primitive dancers and singers is fascinating to behold and typical of what follows. There is one poignant rendition of the song "Free" as two of the visitors explore an old slave fortress on the African coast.Mainly and compactly, the film sticks to the concert, brilliantly evoking the performances and crowd reactions in a flow of closeups and panoramic shots, to the stabbing, pounding pulse of the music. It would be hard to imagine better good-will ambassadors from this country to anywhere than Santana, Willie Bobo, Roberta Flack, Les McCann, Eddie Harris, the Staple Singers, the Voices of East Harlem, the Damas Choir, Amoa Azangio and the Kumasi drummers.But the highlights of the program and the real thrill of the film are the peerless Wilson Pickett, a performer with strong impact, and Ike and Tina Turner, the latter rendering one blues number, "You Are Gone," the likes of which we have never heard before. And has anybody ever commented on this woman's beautiful smile? In "Soul to Soul," black isn't merely beautiful. It's unsurpassable.

SOUL TO SOUL, a musical documentary filmed in Ghana; directed by Denis Sanders; produced by Richard Bock and Tom Mosk for Nigram-Aura Productions; presented by Cinerama Releasing Corporation. At the DeMille Theater, Seventh Avenue and 47th Street. Running time: 96 minutes. (The Motion Picture Association of America's Production Code and Rating Administration classifies this film: "G—all ages admitted, general admission.")