87 / BD 7 Soul Power

Discuss releases by Eureka and Masters of Cinema and the films on them.
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jbaart
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:16 pm
Location: Germany

Re: 87 Soul Power

#76 Post by jbaart » Tue Jan 26, 2010 12:43 pm

fantastic, thanks so much =D>

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Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
Location: East of Shanghai

Re: 87 Soul Power

#77 Post by Lemmy Caution » Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:29 pm

Some of the best parts of the film are the impromptu moments.
Manu DiBango playing with kids in the street, Ray Baretto jamming in a drum line on a Kinshasa market, Sister Sledge warming up, etc.
Also, there are some great moments with James Brown and Ali.

Unfortunately, there is very little of the audience and not much of the African performers in the film. The concert itself was designed to appeal to the Zaireans with plenty of African and Latin musicians, but the film seems to have been conceived mostly with Americans in mind, and the audience and the African musicians aren't well represented.

As for the NYTimes review, how do they manage to crop Miriam Makeba's hairdo out of the pic? I mean her hair should have its own credit in the film.

As for jbaart, I don't get how anyone cannot get soul music, but if that's the case, I doubt this film will help much. But the film is as much a cultural document of a time, a consciousness, and an event as it is about the music. One of the poignant elements for me, is how Zaire '74 constitutes one of the last hurrahs of this music and this cultural scene, which was soon to be eclipsed by disco, punk, heavy metal, etc. The wild cultural explosion that began on or about February 7, 1964 was rapidly coming to a close in the Fall of 1974.

jbaart
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:16 pm
Location: Germany

Re: 87 Soul Power

#78 Post by jbaart » Tue Jan 26, 2010 3:18 pm

I'm still young and haven't had a chance to listen to a lot of soul music, I might very well develop a taste for it. I'm not generally a musical guy anyways though so there you go.

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Lemmy Caution
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 3:26 am
Location: East of Shanghai

Re: 87 Soul Power

#79 Post by Lemmy Caution » Wed Jan 27, 2010 2:17 pm

Fair enough, and no reason that you (or anyone) needs to like/appreciate soul music. I just thought that so much of soul music (from impassioned singing to punctuating horns) had been assimilated into modern music that soul music was pretty easily accessible.

I don't think Soul Power is a good intro to soul music, largely because only a few of the acts really qualify as soul -- The Spinners, Bill Withers (who does his own (soulful) thing in a solo effort). James Brown is renowned as the godfather of soul, but I always thought of him as doing his own thang, sort of a continuation of chitlin' circuit R&B churning into grooves and funk.
Otherwise, the concert/film is filled with blues, salsa, African, soul-jazz of the Crusaders, and whatever else I'm forgetting.
I think that the soul music culture pervades the film (funky bell bottoms, astrology, race consciousness/back to the roots, etc.) more than soul music itself.

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manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: 87 Soul Power

#80 Post by manicsounds » Wed Jan 27, 2010 8:56 pm

This was my #2 favorite film of 2009, as I am a sucker for Soul Music, Blaxploitation soundtracks, and so forth. The pdf of the commentary, thank you!

As for what was an exaple of censoring, there is one passage in the MoC booklet that has an example of what was censored. (Being an attack of what an asshole one person was...)

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manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: 87/7 Soul Power

#81 Post by manicsounds » Fri Mar 26, 2010 8:26 am

Hey everyone who has the BD, is anyone having trouble getting it to play? I put it in, wanting to hear a track, and it won't play. Machine says "Read Error" and ejects the disc. (Momitsu region free player by the way)

well after ejecting, retrying again and again, now it's working. Wonder what the problem was. Tried other discs, and no problems with them.....
Last edited by manicsounds on Fri Mar 26, 2010 8:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Duncan Hopper
Joined: Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:16 am
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Re: 87/7 Soul Power

#82 Post by Duncan Hopper » Fri Mar 26, 2010 8:27 am

Mine plays fine.

doc mccoy
Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 8:07 am

Re: 87/7 Soul Power

#83 Post by doc mccoy » Fri Mar 26, 2010 8:54 am

Hey everyone who has the BD, is anyone having trouble getting it to play? I put it in, wanting to hear a track, and it won't play. Machine says "Read Error" and ejects the disc. (Momitsu region free player by the way)
Manic,

You did not by any chance download the latest firmware update, did you? Because apparently, according to other forums, the latest firmware update disables region free capabilities - it looks like it's still possible to retrieve a previous firmware version to restore the region free feature. You need to check DVD Talk International forum (Region Free Player - Momitsu BDP- 899 thread) and Blu Ray forum - there have been discussions about this there. It may have even been mentioned on this forum, but I'm not sure.

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manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: 87/7 Soul Power

#84 Post by manicsounds » Fri Mar 26, 2010 8:26 pm

no ididnt. not once ever updated. thats not the problen

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