For years now, London-based Soul Jazz Records have been issuing essential compilations documenting a variety of musical scenes, from reggae and roots, through Nuyorican soul, independent jazz, New Orleans funk, dubstep and many more. Their latest release is Can You Dig It?, a two disc/four platter compilation of music documenting the music and politics of Black Action Films released between 1968 and 1975.
For a Soul Jazz release, Can You Dig It? contains few musical rarities. Some of the soundtracks represented here (like Isaac Hayes’ Shaft and Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly), were chart-toppers in their day. Most of the tracks are taken from soundtracks which have been re-issued in recent years.
Even so, the package adds up to more than the sum of its parts. The quality of the music is universally excellent, and even the most familiar tracks sound fresh in this context. In bringing these songs together in one place, the compilation conveys a strong sense of how important soundtracks were in expanding the musical palette of soul, funk and jazz music during the period. And just as importantly, the package itself is beautifully put together. The music is accompanied by a 100-page booklet, which provides a history of Black Action films written by label owner Stuart Baker, along with synopses and details of the films whose soundtracks have been compiled here, and illustrations from movie posters and stills.
To coincide with the release, I had a chance to chat with Stuart Baker, to discuss the compilation and the films which inspired it.
Kurt Iveson: So, where did the idea for the compilation come from? And was the selection driven by the songs, or was it that you wanted to have certain movies represented?
Stuart Baker: It was driven by the songs, which I had known for a long time. And then I started seeing a few of the films, and I thought “Fuck me, these are some amazing films!â€. And then the more I saw of the films, I realised that they were much better than people had ever told me they were. And that’s how it came about.
KI: Were there particular films that really stood out for you?
SB: Yeah, Coffy and Cotton Comes to Harlem. Coffy was just an amazingly over-the-top film. It starts with Pam Grier’ character pretending to be a prostitute junkie, injecting herself with heroin, so that she can get taken to a drug dealer. She then blows his head off as revenge for her sister, who has become a junkie because of him. And that’s just in the space of one minute. It’s the most powerful woman I’d seen on film ever, practically, and I just thought “I’ve never seen a film like this before.†Cotton Comes to Harlem – I’d never really known about it, I watched it, it’s made in 1969, and I couldn’ quite understand how America… you know, there were no black actors or actresses in any films up until the late “60s, save for Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby and a couple of others, and suddenly this film had a whole cast of hundreds of black actors and actresses, all incredibly good actors. It has an incredibly tight story line, which I didn’ realise was written by Chester Himes, who was an African-American novelist, and it was directed by an African-American, and I thought, “what’s going on?â€. I’d been told that blaxploitation films were about white people exploiting black themes in stereotypical ways, and yet this film was amazing. And that’s what started it off, really.
KI: You make a point in the liner notes about this word, “blaxploitation’, being used to describe this set of movies. You’ve deliberately avoided using the word in the title of the compilation. Can you talk a bit more about that, and why you think it’s important to steer clear of it?
SB: Well, everyone understands to an extent what is meant by that word, you know, you know what films people are talking about. But in a sense, I don’ like the mixture of “exploitation’ and “black’, because I don’ think that’s reflected in the films, I don’ think they are exploitative. They might be genre films, they might be a horror film or a cowboy film, but that’s not exploitative, that’s a genre. It also dismisses… I mean, it’s a whole industry of African-American films from the tacky horror to the amazingly life-reinforcing humanist films, that “blaxploitation’ doesn’ explain. It’s a dismissive word for a group of films that ultimately I think are very powerful.
KI: One of things you mention in passing there, and which you bring out in the liner notes, is that the controversy over these movies at the time focused on those issues of representation – whether it was good for black people to be on screen as pimps, and drug dealers, and vigilantes, and so on. But directors like Gordon Parks Sr were making counter-arguments that these movies involved a different production model, as well as the different representations that were on the screen…
SB: Yeah, I mean while I understand where the criticism within the community about what they saw as bad representation, the actual bigger picture is about the production model that was built. It was extremely radical, in the sense that it was African-American empowerment that didn’ exist in that industry before. I think that it’s a shame that ultimately it got dismantled, partly through this criticism.
KI: Some of the big studios started to get on board with this particular style of movie, to tap into an African American market that they haven’ really tapped into previously. But how did this work? Do you know much about the cinema infrastructure in inner city America at the time? What role did the cinema infrastructure itself play in the rise, and the decline, of this style of movie?
SB: Well, most of the cinemas were owned by majors, and in the late “50s, this company called American International Pictures, which was an independent, went into the cities to try to break down the distribution network. Basically, the distribution network was locked up with major films. So, you wouldn’ get African American films from the major studios, therefore you couldn’ see them. So, American International came in and said, we’re going to go out to the drive-in movies, because they’re not owned by the majors, and we’re going to show films in these drive-ins rather than in the cinema complexes. And they managed to break down the distribution network, and they did this by showing teenage films, hot rod films, beach party films, anything that was like a micro-genre that children or kids were picking up on. And they found their way into the market. And they were the first to pick up on the fact that there was a market of young African-Americans that wasn’ being catered for.
So, after you had Shaft, which was made by a major, American International Pictures came in very quickly with films like Coffy, Foxy Brown, and Black Caesar, and it opened up the cinemas to what you could call “minority’ films. And the reason they could do that was because the majors were having trouble, they were in a bit of an economic crisis because of television, so the majors were happy to try minority films as well.
But then in the mid-70s, they had Star Wars, and they had Jaws, these blockbuster films that completely saved the industry, they were huge hits. And it meant that they didn’ need to focus on what they would count as “minority’ films any more, so they stopped.
KI: Somehow, the idea that we can blame Luke Skywalker helping to kill off this thing just about fits…
SB: Yeah, with his light-sabre!
KI: Exactly! And with the business model of these movies, apart from the way they tapped into this audience, the compilation also draws attention to the use of music in selling the films, and the use of the films in selling the music. Now, we’re really familiar with big action films having soundtracks with major pop artists, the tie-ins. Is that something that these movies pioneered at the time, or had that business model already been established?
SB: Well, you always had soundtracks to go with films, but you never had funk or jazz or soul artists because there were no black films. So, when these black action films came out, they were the first time that soundtracks had black artists. So, one of the reasons the Shaft soundtrack was so successful, was that these funk and soul artists like Isaac Hayes were given more exposure by making films. Isaac Hayes was allowed to go into the studio with a huge orchestra, that he wouldn’ normally have had access to, and arrange it in a way that no funk and soul artist had ever done before. Consequently, you got a new style of music.
KI: Yeah, “Shaft’s is one of those tracks that, if you are into this kind of music, you’ve probably heard it lots of times and take it for granted. But putting it on again today before we talked, having not listened to it for ages, it’s just epic, it’s huge…
SB: Yeah, it’s amazing! There’ a Shaft DVD, and there’ a 10 minute extra which is a little documentary about Isaac Hayes in the studio making the track, with the director Gordon Parks talking to him. They’re in a little tiny room with a band, guitars and drums, and they play it, without the orchestra arrangement, but it’s unbelievable, it sounds like nothing else on earth. It’s amazing seeing it being created, and as you say, it makes you listen to it in a fresh way.
KI: With all the different artists that you’ve got on the compilation, some of them – like Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield – were already really big names before they got into soundtracks. But did some of these artists catch a break by getting into this soundtrack business? Like, would Roy Ayers have been known widely outside of jazz circles before he did Coffy?
SB: Well, most of them were well known before – you know, the reason they got asked was because the film producers wanted to get the biggest audience possible. Roy Ayers is possibly slightly different, because as you say, he was a jazz artist, and he was starting to make cross-over records, but possibly Coffy presented him as a funk and soul artist, whereas before he was a jazz artist, so maybe in that instance, it benefited him more than someone like Curtis Mayfield who was already famous.
KI: There are some interesting gender issues here too. One of the points that you make in the liner notes is that with some of the Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson characters, there’ a real sense of seeing women presented on screen here in a way that black women in particular haven’ really been represented before. But then as you look down the track list, there are no female artists that did any of the big soundtracks. In retrospect, it feels like a bit of a shame…
SB: Yeah, I don’ really know why that is. I mean, Aretha Franklin did one soundtrack, for Sparkle, but it is more males making the music. But I mean Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson, they were pretty unique, and it’s not like every film has a Pam Grier character. I think if there is any criticism of the films, it’s that there should be more empowered women. But those two are so powerful that they almost make up for the other films, because they are just unbelievable.
KI: Yeah, imagine if Betty Davis had had a chance to do one of these movies, it would have been pretty crazy.
SB: Sure, that would have been amazing…
KI: Thinking about the legacy of these movies and their music, is there a particular reason that you thought now is a good time to bring out a compilation? Is there a particular aspect of this scene you are hoping to draw out?
SB: I’m not sure that there is. Some of the records we put out, they fit in with current fashions or whatever. But I just thought, we are in a position at this point that we can present any different period in history, and present it in a way that people will hopefully respond positively. But it doesn’ need to coincide with a particular current fashion, or whatever. I mean, what do you think?
KI: I’m not really sure either! I guess one of the things I like about the way you guys have done this is about the package, with the extended notes. Angela Davis has talked about the fact that the only thing that survives of this period in black politics is the iconography – that people think of the Afros and the crazy outfits, and forget about the politics of it. And I guess it’s nice having those notes to bring out some of those other issues about the production, and the representation, it’s good to be reminded of that aspect of what was going on.
SB: Yeah, I think that that is what it’s trying to do. And there’ really good, interesting stuff going on in this area, and people should look at it, it shouldn’ be dismissed in the way that it has been.
KI: Are you guys selling the DVDs through your shop? Are most of these movies now re-issued, and relatively easy to get on DVD?
SB: Well, here you can get some of them, but in America you can get all of them. And that was one of the reasons I thought I could do it now, was because 10 years ago you couldn’ see anything really. Now, if you’ve got a region-free DVD player, you can pretty much get any of these films, so I was able to see them in a way that I wasn’ before.
Can You Dig It? The Music and Politics of Black Action Films 1969-75 is available through Soul Jazz Records.
