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For six weeks in the summer of 1969, the same summer as Woodstock, the Harlem Cultural Festival was headlined by artists including Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, and B.B.
You may know Thompson as a member of the Roots and as the musical director for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” If you’ve read his book, “Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove,” you’re aware that he’s also inquisitive and a first-rate music geek, making him the perfect person to crate-dig through the musical and cultural history documented in this film.
There are jams from the likes of South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela, Cuban percussionist Mongo Santamaría and conga drum master Ray Barretto, and there’s Mavis Staples thrilling at the chance to sing the hymn “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” with gospel great Mahalia Jackson.
“It was just an unreal moment for me,” Staples recalls of performing the hymn with her idol for an audience comprising tens of thousands of Black people, an extraordinary gathering.
And even some of the people who were there have had trouble believing they saw it.
“You put memories away and sometimes you don’t even know if they’re real,” says Musa Jackson, wiping away tears as he talks to an off-camera Thompson.