Wattstax  

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“Brothers and Sisters, I don't know what this world is coming to” --Jesse Jackson introducing the Soul Children on Wattstax

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Wattstax was a benefit concert organized by Stax Records to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 1965 riots in the African-American community of Watts, Los Angeles. The concert took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, 1972. The concert's performers included all of Stax's prominent artists at the time. The genres of the songs performed included soul, gospel, R&B, blues, funk, and jazz. Months after the festival, Stax released a double LP of the concert's highlights, Wattstax: The Living Word. The concert was filmed by David L. Wolper's film crew and was made into the 1973 film titled Wattstax. The film was directed by Mel Stuart and nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Documentary Film in 1974.

Contents

Festival

At around 1:45 p.m., the Coliseum grounds began filling with attendees. Guards stamped tickets and told concertgoers where their seats were located. The stadium's seats filled up quickly, while the production team was making sure everything was ready. The concert's orchestra (dubbed The Wattstax'72 Orchestra) and its composer, Dale Warren, sat until 2:38 p.m. ready to play their warm-up instrumental titled "Salvation Symphony". At 2:38 p.m., the first song was performed to a crowd of 112,000 (mostly African-American).

Performing artists

Production credits

  • Directed by: Mel Stuart
  • Produced by: Larry Shaw, Mel Stuart
  • Executive Producers: Al Bell, David L. Wolper
  • Associate Producer: Forest Hamilton, Hnic.
  • Consultants: Rev. Jesse Jackson, Tommy Jacquette, Mafundi Institute, Rev. Jesse Boyd, Teddy Stewart, Richard Thomas, John W. Smith, Sylvester Williams, Carol Hall
  • Cinematography: Roderick Young, Robert Marks, Jose Mignone, Larry Clark
  • Edited by: Robert K. Lambert, David Newhouse, David Blewitt
  • Assistant Director: Charles Washburn
  • Concert Unit Director; Sid McCoy
  • Production Coordinator: David Oyster
  • Music Supervisor: Terry Manning
  • Music Recording: Wally Heider, Inc.
  • Post Production Supervisor: Philly Wylly
  • Concert Artist Staging: Melvin Van Peebles
  • Music Conductor: Dale Warren
  • Lighting: Acey Dcey
  • Production Staff: Jim Stewart, Johnny Baylor, Gary Holmes/Mind Benders, Humanities International, Edward Windsor Wright

See also





Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Wattstax" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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