A legendary 1971 concert in Ghana is captured by Denis Sanders, along with extra footage, in the 1971 film Soul to Soul, now on Blu-ray via Liberation Hall.
The Film
Soul to Soul shares a sliver of one hell of a concert. In March of 1971, dozens of United States-based musical performers travelled to the West African nation of Ghana for a huge event. Ghana was celebrating their fourteenth year of independence from Great Britain on March 6th, 1957. What better way than a fourteen-hour concert, also on March sixth? You read that right, FOURTEEN. But when you have such soul and R&B legends like Tine & Ike Turner, the Staples Sisters, Santana, Roberta Fleck (who doesn’t appear in the documentary due to her request), The Voices of East Harlem, and a showstopping Wilsin Pickett (and more!), you gotta let them play their hearts out.
Soul to Soul was released in 1971, the year of the concert, capturing the time of timeliness of the era; selling a prescient soul and vibrancy. This is big, this is sweaty, this is brimming with life and energy. At a mere 93 minutes, including non-concert footage, Denis Sanders presents the viewer with just a portion of the mighty marathon of music. But what we have is a lot, so much; it’s often overpowering. I can’t imagine going this hard for this long. But the crowd of 100,000 kept it up from (at least in movie order Ike & Tina Turner’s titular track to Pickett’s Land of a Thousand Dances). Within these known African-American artists were Ghanan performners, giving the home a voice. It’s rhapsodic, elevating, and rapurous. I feel it while watching it. I see it on the faces and bodies of the countless attendees, fully in a sense of power.
This is all about the artists. While many concert films of this sort get into the hows and whys of making it come together, Soul to Soul’s focus is squarely on the myriad of musical artists. But we’re not just watching them perform their songs, but also take in Ghana. Brief travelogue sections show Ghana to viewers elsewhere: visiting villages, meeting leaders, and seeing the past. It’s not a full overview of the country, but a good touchpoint of understanding, informing on the sea of faces in the crowd, which made up 1% of the population of Ghana (that’s the equivalent of 3.4 million people at a US concert now. That’s how popular and large this was.
The Package
Liberation Hall presents Soul to Soul in a standard Blu-ray case. The disc shares the inside with the booklet. It has a single-sided slipcase with the cover art.
The Presentation
The film shows its age and methods of filming, but damn, it looks good. The sweat, the splashes, the movement. It doesn’t blur, as kinetic as it is. It’s a 2k restoration from the original negative, carefully reconstructed with the materials. It’s 4:3 as it was originally shot. No subtitles.
The Features
FOUR commentaries (2004)
Yup. Four full-length commentaries. They are: 1) Mavis Staples of The Staple Singles, 2) Les McCann & Kevin Griffin of The Voices of East Harlem, 3) Producer Tom Mosk with David Peck of Reelin’ in the Years; 4) Ike Turner, Michael Shrieve (Santana), Obo Addy (Ghanaian drummer), and both from 2 again.
Coming into listening, I thought there’s no way each of these is full since folks came and went in performing. But nope, each is filled end to end with anecdotes, laughs, songs, and fun, helped along by the moderator. Incredibly interesting to listen to, with so much information of every sort of recollection tossed out to our ears. Each commentator has their own experience,s knowledge, and approach, so it remains fresh.
Cut song: Ike & Tina Turner, “I’ve Been Loving You So Long”
Sadly, with 14 hours of performances and in a 93-minute-long movie, this is it for cut footage. The whole was filmed; the remaining 12.5 hours? Lost to time. Sad.
New Trailer
Booklet
27 pages, stapled with a nice thick paper, this is where the meat if you want the overview of everything in and around the concert. Those 27 pages are nearly all text with some photos interspersed in small text. So yes, this is bountiful in anecdotes and stories. Every aspect one can think of to the details of Soul to Soul, is here.
Final thoughts
I continue a 2026 run of music docs with Soul to Soul, and another fine entry. The concert is amazing, what a show to see! It looks and sounds great for its time and production, and the four commentaries and booklet give all sorts of context. Soul to Soul’s Blu-ray is out now via Liberation Entertainment.