It's been all but forgotten that the 1974 Muhammad Ali–George Foreman bout in Zaire — the event captured so memorably in When We Were Kings (1996) — was the occasion for a three-day soul-music blowout. The entire event was filmed, and this concert movie offers highlights of it for the very first time. It's great to see James Brown in his funk-peacock prime (and the Spinners in their mellow glory), though the general spirit of the festival is more potent than most of the performances. What's infectious in Soul Power is the almost shocking optimism of its America-meets-Africa '70s world-beat vibe.
