LIBERATION HALL RECORDS
ANNOUNCES THE RETURN OF SOUL TO SOUL, THE 1971 CONCERT FILM FEATURING ELECTRIFYING PERFORMANCES BY IKE & TINA TURNER, SANTANA, WILSON PICKETT, THE STAPLE SINGERS, LES McCANN & EDDIE HARRIS, AND THE VOICES OF EAST HARLEM
SOUL TO SOUL
Blu-ray
DVD
5/12/26
Soul to Soul documents African American R&B, gospel and jazz artists on a trip to perform before 100,000 West Africans in Ghana
Liberation Hall, in partnership with Reelin’ In The Years Productions, will release Soul to Soul on Blu-ray and DVD on May 12
CD, Vinyl & Digital albums will be released on March 6, the actual 55th anniversary of the concert Soul to Soul, a vibrant and historically significant 1971 concert film featuring performances by Ike & Tina Turner, Santana, Wilson Pickett, The Staple Singers, Les McCann & Eddie Harris, and The Voices of East Harlem, is soon to be available for the first time in over 20 years. The concert film makes its global Blu-ray debut, while the accompanying soundtrack will be on vinyl, CD, and via digital platforms.
Watch the Soul to Soul trailer on YouTube.
Pre-order all formats at Bandcamp. Pre-order the Blu-ray & DVD at Amazon. Pre-order LP, CD & digital at Amazon.
In February 1971, several dozen African American soul, jazz, and gospel artists embarked on a journey that would change the lives of everyone involved. They traveled from New York City to Ghana, West Africa to take part in a 13-hour concert entitled Soul to Soul. The concert was a celebration of 14 years of Ghana’s independence from British rule. For most of these artists, it would be their first trip to Africa. For the African American musicians, this was a journey about personal roots, the ancestral homeland, history, discovery, loss, pain, and joy.
Directed by Academy AwardⓇ winner Denis Sanders and produced by Tom Mosk and Richard Bock, the resulting concert film/documentary had a limited theatrical run in late 1971. In 2004, Reelin’ In The Years Productions President David Peck secured permission for a DVD release from the producer and copyright holder of Soul to Soul. With the help of a clearance specialist, he was able re-clear all the artists seen in the 1971 film.
Now, more than 20 years later, Soul to Soul will have another chance to connect with audiences via a partnership between Reelin’ In The Years Productions and Liberation Hall. Steve Scoville of Blue H2O Productions restored the original edit by reconstructing each scene using the high quality 2K transfers from the original film elements, which were shot in the 4:3 aspect ratio. The film’s soundtrack has been digitally remastered by Randy Perry.
Above all, Soul to Soul is an electrifying concert film that features its players at the peak of their powers. Over 100,000 Ghanaians attended the celebration of the meeting of the cultures of the two continents. The Ike & Tina Turner Revue, featuring frontwoman Tina furiously shimmying alongside the Ikettes, delivers fiery renditions of “River Deep-Mountain High,” the project’s first digital single; “Soul to Soul,” a cut specifically written for this concert; and a cover of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” (the latter track appears as a special Blu-ray outtake). Wilson Pickett, the most popular American artist known to West Africans at the time, took the stage at 4:30 AM to deliver a rousing finale of “In the Midnight Hour,” “Funky Broadway,” and “Land of a 1000 Dances.” Gospel, soul, and R&B family group The Staple Singers were on hand to perform “When Will Be We Paid” and “Are You Sure” just five months before they recorded their legendary hits “I’ll Take You There” and “Respect Yourself.” Pianist Les McCann and tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris introduced many members of the audience to jazz via spirited performances of “The Price You Gotta Pay to Be Free” and “Hey Jorler,” the latter featuring local Ghanaian artist Amoah Azangeo. The Voices of East Harlem, an ensemble featuring young gospel singers, contributed “Run, Shaker Life.”
Santana, with guest percussionist Willie Bobo, was the wild card. The San Francisco group only had one African American member but, paradoxically, given its reliance on Afro-Cuban and other Latin American rhythm constructs, played the most African-sounding music (“Black Magic Woman”/”Gypsy Queen,” “Jungle Strut”) of any of the American guests. In Rob Bowman’s expanded liner notes for the Blu-ray, he quotes musicologist John Collins as stating, “They had a big impact on the local guitarists. The students were really fascinated by what Santana was doing with Latin music and rock… The obvious equation was, if you can unite Latin music with rock, you can do the same with African music. That’s actually what happened.”
Interspersed between these stunning performances, the camera crew followed the American musicians as they visited local villages, met kings, and shared food and dance with the Ghanaian community.
In his August 19, 1971, film review for The New York Times, critic Howard Thompson wrote: “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… 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.”
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Soul to Soul (Blu-ray: LIB- 2193 | DVD: LIB-2190)
BLU-RAY & DVD TRACKLIST:
Wilson Pickett
“In the Midnight Hour”
“Land of 1000 Dances”
Santana
“Jungle Strut”
“Black Magic Woman”/ “Gypsy Queen”
Ike & Tina Turner
“River Deep-Mountain High”
“Soul to Soul”
“Ooh Poo Pah Doo”
“I Smell Trouble”
The Staple Singers
“When Will We Be Paid”
“Are You Sure”
Les McCann & Eddie Harris
”The Price You Gotta Pay to Be Free”
“Hey Jorler” (with Amoah Azangeo)
The Voices of East Harlem
“Run, Shaker Life”
Blu-ray bonus features:
• 32-page booklet with expanded liner notes by Rob Bowman
• Outtake performance: Ike & Tina Turner – “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”
• Four separate commentary tracks:
1) Mavis Staples (The Staple Singers)
2) Les McCann with Kevin Griffin (The Voices of East Harlem)
3) Producer Tom Mosk with reissue producer David Peck of Reelin’ In The Years Productions
4) Ike Turner, Michael Shrieve (Santana), Obo Addy (Ghanaian drummer), Kevin Griffin, and Les
McCann.
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Soul to Soul: Music from the Original Soundtrack
CD & DIGITAL TRACKLIST (LIB-2191)
Ike & Tina Turner
“Soul to Soul”
“River Deep-Mountain High”
“I Smell Trouble”
The Voices of East Harlem
“Run, Shaker Life”
“Choose Your Seat and Set Down”/ “Walk All Over God’s Heaven”
Les McCann & Eddie Harris
“The Price You Gotta Pay to Be Free”
The Staple Singers
“When Will We Be Paid”
“Are You Sure”
“He’s Alright”
Santana
“Jungle Strut”
“Black Magic Woman”/ “Gypsy Queen”
Wilson Pickett
“In the Midnight Hour”
"Funky Broadway”
“Land of 1000 Dances”
LP TRACKLIST (LIB-2191):
*Due to space limitations, the LP features 10 tracks
SIDE A:
Ike & Tina Turner
“Soul to Soul”
“River Deep-Mountain High”
The Voices of East Harlem
“Run, Shaker Life”
The Staple Singers
"When Will We Be Paid”
“Are You Sure”
“He’s Alright”
SIDE B:
Santana
“Black Magic Woman”/ “Gypsy Woman”
Wilson Pickett
“In the Midnight Hour”
“Funky Broadway”
“Land of
