Experience the raw power and unmatched energy of The Bar-Kays performing "Son Of Shaft" and "Feel It" live at the legendary Wattstax Festival in 1972.
This historic performance has been optimized in High Definition (720p) with enhanced, high-fidelity audio to preserve the ultimate 70s funk explosion.
Video scenes of the crowd taken from the whole Wattstax festival of other performers too !
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'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 Bar-Kays are an American funk band formed in 1966. The band had dozens of charting singles from the 1960s to the 1980s, including "Soul Finger" (US Billboard Hot 100 number 17, R&B number 3) in 1967, "Son of Shaft" (R&B number 10) in 1972, and "Boogie Body Land" (R&B number 7) in 1980.
The Bar-Kays began in Memphis, Tennessee, as a studio session group, backing major artists at Stax Records. In 1967, they were chosen by Otis Redding to play as his backing band, and were tutored for that role by Al Jackson, Jr., Booker T. Jones, and the other members of Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Their first single, "Soul Finger", was issued on April 14, 1967, reaching number 3 on the US Billboard R&B Singles chart and number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.
On December 10, 1967, Redding and four members of the band—Jimmie King (born June 8, 1949, guitar), Ronnie Caldwell (born December 27, 1948 (electric organ), Phalon Jones (born 1948, saxophone), and Carl Cunningham (born 1948; drums)—and their partner, Matthew Kelly, died when their airplane crashed into Lake Monona, near Madison, Wisconsin, while attempting to land at Truax Field.
The re-formed band consisted of Cauley (trumbet), Alexander (bass), Harvey Henderson (saxophone), Michael Toles (guitar), Ronnie Gorden (organ), Willie Hall (drums) and later Larry Dodson lead vocals. The group backed dozens of major Stax artists on recordings, including Isaac Hayes on his album Hot Buttered Soul.
Cauley left the group in 1971, leaving Alexander(bass), Dodson (vocals, vibes), Barry Wilkins (guitar), Winston Stewart (keyboards), Henderson (tenor sax, flute), Charles "Scoops" Allen (trumpet), and Alvin Hunter (drums) to create the album Black Rock. Lloyd Smith joined in 1973, and the band changed musical direction during the 1970s, forging a successful career in funk music.
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