12/27/2006
The day James Brown almost killed Black music
Filed under: Features— FYI @ 1:41 pm
The Untold Story of how The Godfather of Soul almost killed black music!-Clayton Brown Exclusive for playahata.com
The year was 1974 and there were more than enough Black entertainers on board the plane heading for the Ali and Foreman fight in Zaire.James Brown was the biggest name in music at the time and was set to headline them all.

“The Rumble in The Jungle” was a historic boxing event that took place in the May 20 Stadium in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). It pitted then world Heavyweight champion George Foreman against former world champion and that time challenger Muhammad Ali, in the most hyped boxing event ever.

The year was 1974 and there were more than enough Black entertainers on board the DC-8 plane to Zaire to fill Billboard’s Top 100 hits. Destination, the Rumble in the Jungle Zaire. The “Rumble in the Jungle” was more than a fight it was a cultural event that was supposed to represent a coming together of African and African American culture featuring the biggest names in music. They had all been gathered up for “The Zaire Music Festival” which preceded the famous “Rumble in the Jungle”. The Zaire Music Festival was one of the greatest experiences of any musicians’ career. James Brown had become the biggest name in music at the time and was set to headline them all. Don King wanted this to be the biggest event of the year and it would be if he could get the help he needed. He had personal friends like James Brown who he could get to perform and even had Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and friend Lloyd Price to organise it. If there was ever any doubt who was the number 1 soul brother in America, Brown headlining the Zaire Festival proved it was James Brown.

On tap to perform was a legendary lineup which included B.B. King, The Spinners, The OJay’s, Hugh Masekela, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, The Pointer Sisters, Celia Cruz backed by Ray Baretta and the Fanya All-Stars which included all the great Puerto Rican artist of the day, The Jazz Crusaders who were the premier Jazz Group and some African Bands. Some of the amazing musical performances are captured in the documentary film “When we Were Kings”.

The event was huge it was Don King’s first venture as a professional boxing promoter. He managed to get both Ali and Foreman to sign separate contracts saying they would fight for him if he could get 5 million dollars to be their prize. King didn’t have the money. So he began looking for an outside country to sponsor the event. Zaire’s flamboyant dictator, president Mobutu Sésé Seko asked for the fight to be held in his country, eager for the publicity such a high-profile event would bring.

James Brown the former boxer, loved boxing, in an interview with Hour.ca he was asked as part of the buildup to the Rumble in the Jungle fight “who were you rooting for? “ Brown said I was wishing it would be a tie!
Hour You were a boxer. Is stepping into the ring anything like stepping onto a stage? Brown Oh, yeah - you got a problem if you don’t know how to take a punch.
Hour Were any of your dance foot movements shaped by your early work in the boxing ring? Brown My stage movements, it all came from boxing.
Hour How did you begin your famous stage routine with the cape? Brown I got that from Gorgeous George the wrestler. He wrapped a towel around himself. The first time I saw him do that I thought it was a great idea.

Despite his love of boxing James Brown arrived late to board the plane. James Brown was the show and the plane would be unable to leave without its headliner and everybody knew it. The problem was not Brown arrived late but that he came with so much stuff equipment after everybody else. However James had sorts of entertainment equipment, which included items belonging to his group The Flames.

His famed trombonist Fred Wesley recalls the day which could have ended in tragedy “I along with the James Brown band(Flames), had flown to Kinshasa, Zaire, on the same overloaded DC-8 as Muhammad Ali and his crew. The plane was so overloaded because the organizers had tried to get all the people who participated in the music festival on that same airplane. I don’t think they had properly anticipated the amount of equipment the performers carried with them. I bet the wardrobe for the Pointer Sisters alone took up an entire bin. The plane barely got off the ground.”

In music tragedy of 2001 everybody recalls hearing how R&B Singer Aaliyah, Cessna 402b plane crashed in the Bahamas due to the plane being overloaded by an estimated 700 pounds of electrical equipment and it is rumored that many knew it. The weekend of October 30 1974, could have ended up pretty much the same way since James Brown was insisting that all his equipment make the trip. Music Legend, Bill Withers at the time could be overheard saying to Quincy Troupe author of The Pursuit of Happyness and his roommate, radio Talk show host Elombe Brath that he wanted to kill “James Brown at the time for insisting on his equipment after arriving late”. It was no secret that the DC-8 was packed to capacity. Brown had a slight reputation for cancelling shows at last second but for worthy causes, nearly all his cancellations were to perform benefit concerts for black political organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). No stranger to contributing to causes outside of himself he initiated “Operation Black Pride,” and, dressed as Santa Claus, giving 3,000 certificates for free Christmas dinners in the poor black neighborhoods of New York City. He also started buying radio stations. Brown was known to be kind and he was already ”volunteering” to do Zaire. Make no mistake he would have and considered having people removed from the plane before he left anything behind but he did not remove anybody and somehow that DC-8 made it to Zaire with the equipment Brown needed to perform. However that DC-8 could have killed the greatest talents in Black music in a single plunge but somehow I am just guessing that is part of the miracle of the Godfather and it just wasn’t his time, his time was reserved for Christmas Day 2006.


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[Edited 12/28/06 10:06am]

tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

WOW, never knew of this. Bill Withers was mad as hell.

theAudience said:

tA, good looking out.

This is a great documentary film. I just wished they had more footage of the concert. The footage of the concert makes you forget what your watchin',It made me want more of the concert . I remember seeing the "BIG CAT" Phillipe Wynne and the Spinners shot, with the BIG CAT sweating profusely and throwin' down on "I'm Coming Home". And THE GODFATHER....what do i need to say.

If you aint seen it pick it up.