Until now, we had to be satisfied with the highlights with two albums released in 1973 and the music of the documentary "Wattstax" shown the same year and directed by Mel Stuart.

Insufficient for more than seven hours of show.

Half a century after the release of the film, the Stax label, at the origin of the event, publishes various discs, which range from the simple best-of with unreleased tracks to the gargantuan collector's box set.

It all started in 1971, when Stax, home of Otis Redding or Isaac Hayes, based in Memphis, opened a branch in Los Angeles.

Al Bell, leader of Stax, then takes the pulse of the inhabitants of the Watts ghetto.

In 1965, the arrest by white police of a young black man, Marquette Frye, during a traffic check followed by an altercation with relatives, sparked a revolt in this deprived neighborhood.

Balance sheet: 34 dead, 4,000 arrests, tens of millions of dollars in damage.

A shop destroyed in the poor neighborhood of Watts, after violent riots, on August 24, 1965 in Los Angeles, California © - / AFP/Archives

Al Bell, still alive today, described in the booklet of residents having "lost hope" six years after clashes with the authorities, as "on the verge of suicide".

"It's the click: Al Bell gathers around him to organize the following summer an event in order to restore strength to this community", explains to AFP Guy Darol, French author of "Wattstax, August 20, 1972, a black pride", who gives lectures on the subject.

"I am someone"

Charity concerts on that Sunday stay with connoisseurs like the Black Woodstock.

There was, however, a precedent in 1969 around Afro-American music with notably Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone.

The Harlem Cultural Festival brings together over six spaced days several hundred thousand people in total in an open-air park in New York.

This meeting, extirpated from limbo recently by the documentary "Summer Of Soul" by Questlove (drummer of The Roots, producer, etc ...), has therefore been erased from the shelves of those curious about Afro-American music by Wattstax three years later.

(lr) Joseph Patel, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, David Dinerstein and Robert Fyvolent honored for the documentary "Summer of Soul" about a memorable concert in Harlem in 1969, during the Oscars ceremony, March 27, 2022 in Hollywood © Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Archives

"Wattstax, still unknown to the general public, takes precedence among specialists over Harlem by its scale, with 112,000 people for a day with musical and political connotations", explains Guy Darol.

In the Coliseum stadium in Los Angeles in 1972, the Reverend Jesse Jackson is the master of ceremonies between shows.

This figure of the struggle for civil rights will hammer his famous formula into the microphone: "I am somebody" ("I am someone").

Reverend Jesse Jackson in August 2000 in Los Angeles © PAUL J. RICHARDS / AFP/Archives

"Initially, the festival was to be called Wattstock, in reference to Woodstock, but becomes Wattstax because most of the artists come from the Stax label", recalls Guy Darol.

"Demonstration of Power"

On the bill, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Rufus Thomas, Albert King, The Bar-Kays, among others.

That's Stax's collection of gospel, blues, soul and funk gems.

There are two cult moments.

Isaac Hayes, the "Black Moses" ("Black Moses"), massive torso under gold chains, begins "Shaft" in front of a crowd galvanized by Jesse Jackson.

A tube played twice in a row in full, under the pretext of a barely perceptible technical problem on disc.

Isaac Hayes' outfit is "the starting point of dress-code in hip-hop, including in its bling-bling dimension, while the singer's journey, who comes from poverty and helps the poor, protects it from all criticism", comments Guy Darol.

The other highlight is the Rufus Thomas concert.

The delirious public left their seats to rush in front of the stage, which was not expected.

We hear the singer improvising punchlines to restore calm.

The Los Angeles Coliseum stadium in 2007 © GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP/Archives

"The atmosphere does not degenerate", says Guy Darol, "and Wattstax remains a completely peaceful demonstration of power by the African-Americans present that day".

© 2023 AFP