Soul'd Out: The Complete Wattstax Collection

Various Artists

Released on 24/02/2023 by Craft Recordings
Main artist: Various Artists
Genre: Soul
Distinctions: Pitchfork: Best New Reissue

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1968 was a tragic time for Memphis. Just before Christmas '67, Otis Redding, the biggest star of local soul music label Stax Records, was killed in a plane crash. In April 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. Also that spring, Stax lost control of its catalog of recordings to Warner. Undeterred and unwilling to fail, new label co-owner Al Bell decided to build a roster of acts that included The Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes, and Johnnie Taylor.

Four years later, Bell and his Los Angeles-based colleague Forrest Hamilton conceived the idea of a benefit concert event in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Watts to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the riots that devastated the area. Bell knew that Wattstax would not only expose the label's artists to a larger national audience but would also bring unity to the Black community and "… make them feel valued as human beings and to feel a sense of pride as Black people living through tumultuous times."

The massive festival held August 20, 1972 (coincidentally, Hayes' 30th birthday) in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with a crowd of 112,000 was documented in an award-winning film and a pair of double albums most of whose material has been reissued several times since. (Performers who could not make the stadium show because of illness or scheduling conflicts played three shows later that fall at the Summit Club in Los Angeles that were also recorded.) Most artists, all of whom played for free, tapped into the spirit of the event and took their artistry to a higher level. Though fans had to be exhorted to stay off the field several times, the show ran relatively smoothly and the consistency is impressive.

Old guard Stax artists led the way. Carla Thomas, most famous for her duets with Redding, bops her way through "I Like What You're Doing (To Me)," the kind of upbeat soul number that brought out her best. Her father Rufus Thomas follows a high energy take of his biggest hit "Do the Funky Chicken," with another hilarious ornithological gyration, the even jumpier "Do the Funky Penguin." Eddie Floyd revs up a version of his biggest hit from the pre-1967 Stax catalog, "Knock On Wood." The Staple Singers, the stars of the new Stax, perform spirited versions of two of their biggest hits, "Respect Yourself" and "I'll Take You There," while fellow label newcomer, blues guitarist Albert King, rips through "Killing Floor" and "Angel of Mercy." Some of the lesser-knowns also get their licks in as Rance Allen leads his hot electric guitar through a gospel/soul/funk rave up of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Up Above My Head." Although the Bar-Kays played their own wah-wah guitar anthem "Son Of Shaft / Feel It" earlier in the program, Isaac Hayes, in his iconic shades-and-chains outfit, closes Wattstax with a set that includes two versions of his biggest hit "Theme from Shaft."

The additional Summit Club sets are superb, with each performer upping their game, all of it captured in better sound than the outdoor concert. The Sons of Slum (once known as the Supersonics), who back The Emotions, sustain comically fast tempos on a medley that begins with "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," a big hit for Stax competitor Motown, and closes with a cover of Sly Stone's "Dance to The Music." Little Milton opens his set with a ferocious "Open the Door to Your Heart" before finding another huge groove later in "Grits Ain't Groceries (All Around The World)." Billed as containing everything recorded under the Wattstax banner, including all previously unreleased stadium and club tracks, this supersize reissue should be the final word on the celebration. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

Soul'd Out: The Complete Wattstax Collection

Various Artists

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