ROLLING STONE, AUGUST 31, 1972:
Random Notes (Concert Preview)
"Stax Records, having one of its most successful years since the Otis and Sam & Dave years, will present almost its entire roster in a benefit for the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation and the Martin Luther King Hospital in Watts in L.A.'s 100,000-seat Coliseum August 20th." | Read More »
The Bar-Kays
"Do you remember what happened here six years ago?" the man asked in apparent reference to the Watts riot of August, 1965.
"I just got here," answered the boy, who was not more than 6 years old.
"Do you know anything about the Watts festival?" the man asked.
"Yes," the youngster replied. "I was here last year."
"See," the man said to his three companions, having proved his point, "the people have forgotten the revolt — the only thing that's left is the festival."
Becoming an Institution
The Watts Summer Festival, which ended Sunday with a parade and concert, is becoming an institution in Los Angeles' black community.
Many say it is the only event sponsored for black people by black people — a time for fun and community spirit.
But, in its seventh year, there was discontent.
Some feel the original purpose of the festival has been forgotten and "commercialism" and "white infiltration" have taken over.
"In 1966, the festival was a grassroots thing — it was makeshift. People just came out and did their own thing," according to Roger Williams, who worked at the Veterans Council and Guidance Center booth at the festival.
Said Tony Kuykendall, who was in the same booth:
"Booths were out on the street instead of in the park — you could look in back of the booths and see the burned-out building. It was really hip, really free, and there was no strict police enforcement."
"In '66 I came down here and felt so good inside to see the people doing something," Williams said.
"But the whole concept has changed," Kuykendall said. "Originally, the concept was something in remembrance of the one time black people rose up and tried to say something about their experience in Los Angeles. Right now it's a testimony to the romanticism of black people."
But the festival's board of directors and many of the people who strolled through the festival buying food, clothes, jewelry and art were happy with the event.
"This is the only time of the year we can get together and have fun," said Tony Rushing, chairman of the festival's board of directors.
Concessionaires also enjoy the festival, even though some say they do not make as much money as they would like.
Pleasure For All
"The festival is designed to give pleasure to people in every class in society," said Wilson Smith, owner of the So What Shop booth.
"You can enjoy yourself and people are really involved in it — this is the community."
Some people in the social service area of the festival, who were trying to tell the black community about their services, were critical of the festival.
When the festival was on the streets, concessionaires did not have to pay for booths, they said.
When the festival moved into the park in 1969, the booths were large and only cost $100 to $150 apiece, they said, while now the booths are smaller and cost between $200 and $300.
They pointed to armed and helmeted deputies patrolling the festival in groups of four, and remembered the days when all festival security was handled through a community organized patrol.
The men in the Veterans Counseling and Guidance Center group, who passed out literature citing racism as one of the major problems in the military, were upset with the presence of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force displays at the festival.
Down the aisle, in the Tehachapi prisoners organization booth, Mark Clemmons, out of the Tehachapi institution for the day to get donations for his group and find people to write to lonely prisoners, said he felt "defensive" about the presence of the Sheriff's Department recruiting booth across the aisle and the Police Department booth a few doors down.
Police Protest
In front of the booth co-sponsored by the black policemen's organization and the Los Angeles Police Department, Tut Hayes staged a one-man protest Thursday against the department's participation in the festival.
Later that day, he and his picket signs were carted away by sheriff's deputies.
After filing a complaint with the department, Hayes returned to the festival Thursday evening:
"The fact that they let the police set up a booth is absurd," said Hayes, who helped organize the Community Alert Patrol, a community organization that provided security for the first festival.
With the poor image both the police and sheriff's departments have in the black community, coupled with the large number of arrests made at the festival each year, Hayes said law enforcement officers should not be welcome there.
Saturday morning, Hayes showed up with six more picketers.
Director Blamed
A pamphlet being distributed called "The Truth About the Watts Summer Festival" laid much of the blame for the festival's change of emphasis on Tommy Jacquette, executive director of the festival.
But Jacquette said there has been no change of emphasis and that the festival has never had political, economic or societal purposes.
"It just evolved," Jacquette added. "It was as spontaneous as the revolt of '65 itself."
Strolling through Will Rogers Memorial Park, viewing the festival he helped create, Jacquette criticized his detractors for not dealing with reality:
"For the average brother on the street, his daily needs are so great, when it comes to the festival he just wants to ride on the ride, eat a hot dog and have a couple of drinks and he's happy. He doesn't want to be bothered with rhetoric.
"A lot of pseudo intellectuals and supposed revolutionaries lose track of the people and they deal with what the people ought to be instead of what the people are."
Permanency Hoped
Jacquette said that once the festival becomes a real community institution with a permanent following, then it can become more culturally oriented.
But right now, he said, the social services and art exhibits have to close down four hours earlier than the rest of the festival because no one attends them after 8 p.m.
The presence of law enforcement officers at the festival also is part of Jacquette's "realism."
"The Crips (young black gang members) are here," Jacquette said. "The gang situation is worse now than it's been in 10 or 15 years, and the danger from the Crips is greater than that from the police."
"Some people are only here because the sheriff's deputies are here."
Jacquette said the festival does not make money.
Still Has a Debt
In fact, he said, the festival is still paying off a $2,800 debt to the Los Angeles County Recreation and Parks Department for use of Will Rogers Park last year — and that was the year the festival received a $135,000 grant from the Model Cities program.
Six months ago, it did not appear that there would be a festival this year, since many of the businesses that had contributed to the festival in other years assumed the federal grant would continue and did not make their customary contributions.
The only people who make money from the festival, Jacquette said, are concessionaires, who, at a minimum, double their $250 to $300 investment. He said the festival gets no percentage of their profits.
Proceeds Divided
A six-hour benefit concert starring Isaac Hayes and other recording artists was held Sunday to help the festival out of its financial bind.
The concert was cosponsored by the Schlitz Brewing Co. and the black-owned Stax Record Co. The proceeds are to be split among the festival, the Martin Luther King Memorial Hospital and the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation.
—Celeste Durant
Next: "Wattstax Concert at Coliseum" »
Isaac HayesIntroduction
ROLLING STONE, AUGUST 31, 1972:
Random Notes (Concert Preview)
"Stax Records, having one of its most successful years since the Otis and Sam & Dave years, will present almost its entire roster in a benefit for the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation and the Martin Luther King Hospital in Watts in L.A.'s 100,000-seat Coliseum August 20th." | Read More »
THE LA TIMES, AUGUST 20, 1972:
"Wattstax: Giving Something Back to Community"
"Not only does the concert -- the highlight of this year's Watts Summer Festival -- carry the spirit of community cooperation that characterized rock music's Woodstock, but plans are already under way in the tradition of Woodstock, to make a film and album out of it." | Read More »
THE LA TIMES, AUGUST 21, 1972:
"7th Watts Summer Festival Ends with Parade, Discontent"
"'See,' the man said to his three companions, having proved his point, 'the people have forgotten the revolt -- the only thing that's left is the festival.'" | Read More »
THE LA TIMES, AUGUST 22, 1972:
"Wattstax Concert at Coliseum"
"The highlight, predictably, was Isaac Hayes, who by now has saturated the local area with his particular brand of high-intensity soul with two sold-out concerts in two months." | Read More »
Random Notes (Concert Preview)
Random Notes (Concert Preview)
Rolling Stone, August 31, 1972
Stax Records, having one of its most successful years since the Otis and Sam & Dave years, will present almost its entire roster in a benefit for the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation and the Martin Luther King Hostpital in Watts in L.A.'s 100,000-seat Coliseum August 20th. "Wattstax '72," as the $1-a-ticket benefit is called, will feature the Staple Singers, Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Rufus Thomas, Albert King, the Emotions, the Soul Children, David Porter, the Bar-Kays, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Eric Mercury, and Mel & Tim. Also: Luther Ingram, whose "If Loving You is Wrong I Don't Want to be Right" Is headed for Number One (he also wrote "Respect Yourself"), and Isaac Hayes, who will interrupt his Moses act to be Grand Marshall. Stax and the Schlitz Brewing Company are hooking up to produce to eshow, which will be the last event of this year's Watts Summer Festival.
Next: "Wattstax: Giving Something Back to Community" »
From Rolling
Stone, August 31, 1972
© Rolling Stone LLC 1972
All Rights Reserved. Broadcast by Permission.
"Wattstax: Giving Something Back to the Community"
"Wattstax: Giving Something Back to the Community"
The LA Times, August 20, 1972
The official name of today's Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum concert spectacle starring Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers and a dozen more Stax recording artists is "Wattstax '72," by some of those associated with the ambitious project are already speaking of it as a sort of "Blackstock."
Not only does the concert -- the highlight of this year's Watts Summer Festival -- carry the spirit of community cooperation that characterized rock music's Woodstock, but plans are already under way in the tradition of Woodstock, to make a film and album out of it. The concert begins at 3 p.m.
And this time, a share of the film-concert-album proceeds -- a figure that could run into the millions -- will be channeled directly to the Watts community.
"We're involved because we feel our company has a responsibility to the person who buys our records," says Forrest Hamilton, West Coast director of Stax, the Memphis-based, soul music-oriented record company that is joining with the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. to sponsor Wattstax '72.
Phone Orders From Utah
"Stax feels that when someone buys a Stax record, we have an obligation to that person that goes above and beyond the quality of the music on the record," Hamilton continued. "We feel we have to give something back to the community. We have been wanting to do something on the largest scale possible. That's why we became involved in Wattstax."
Besides a large measure of financial stability, the concert -- with all tickets $! -- has brought more attention, prestige and excitement to the Watts Summer Festival than any other even in its seven-year history.
"We've had phone orders from as far away as Utah from people who want to see the concert," said Tommy Jacquette, the 28-year-old executive director of the festival.
From Jacquette's enthusiasm and the hectic pace of his staff in the festival's Florence Ave. headquarters, it was easy to see that things were a far cry from the days in which the festival committee literally went begging for funds to stage its week-long series of events, and held its first concerts in the Jordan High School gym.
Music has always played a large role in the festival, which was started in 1966 to build community spirit after the riots of the year before. Concerts have always provided much of the operating expenses for the festival, but nothing has matched the scope and potential of Wattstax.
That concert is the big difference this year. "One of the big problems in the past was that we did not have the money to attract the stars and superstars who would draw big crowds," said Jacquette.
Last June, something coincidental happened that changed the whole character of the concerts, and the scope of the Watts Summer Festival in the process. Jim Taylor and Richard Dedeaux of Mafundi Institute in Watts contacted Stax's Forrest Hamilton about the possibility of sponsoring a concert in Will Rogers Park for the institute.
This led to the proposal by Stax to have Isaac Hayes serve as grand marshal of the festival parade.
"Grass-Roots Level"
Hamilton recalls: "We were quite interested from a corporate point of view in having Hayes participate. He's very much involved on the grass-roots level with the people, so it was natural. We even proposed having him perform in a free concert at Will Rogers, but when we got to looking into that, it represented a tremendous amount of problems. If 100,000 people came down there, the energy level would be so high that it would be a very volatile situation.
"From there we discussed putting together another type of concert," Hamilton went on. "We talked to the Schlitz Brewing Co., which had been participating in the festival over the past few years in community relations projects. When we came in with the plan to join forces and do something really meaningful this year, they agreed to help underwrite the concert."
The idea of taking the concert to the Coliseum is multifaceted, as Hamilton was quick to indicate.
"First off, the Coliseum is geared to handle approximately 100,000 people, with ample facilities for food, drinking water, and adequate security. Stax then contacted its artists and with representatives from Schlitz and the festival committee began planning the event."
The two companies are underwriting a great deal of the concert expenses and are slated to turn all gate receipts over to the festival committee.
"If only one person steps through those turnstiles, it represents $1 of profits to the festival committee," Hamilton said.
The committee will use the money for both charity groups and for their own operating expenses.
In addition, the companies have hired new attorneys and accountants for the committee and have made their publicists available to Jacquette and his staff. Moreover, Stax will record the event. It has also procured the services of documentarian David Wolper for a 35mm picture. The firm has hired Melvin Van Peebles, the black filmmaker whose "Sweet Sweetback" recently became the highest-grossing independent film in history, to do concert staging. The Rev. Jesse Jackson will serve as MC and will read poetry. He, too, is a Stax artist.
Work on the concert has gone smoothly. With the addition of the business firms to the festival committee efforts, doors that were less receptive in the past have swung open widely. According to concert director Gary Holmes, the committee has received more than enough public service radio time. In addition, the committee has been airing Spanish-language promos.
Pleased With Look
Jacquette is pleased with the new look of the festival, feeling that something significant will come of the partnership. "Stax's involvement, in terms of the concert, has been overwhelming and we have picked up a great deal of business expertise from them. They seem to know everything they are doing all along the line.
"An agreement has been reacked between Stax and the Watts Summer Festival that will give us a three-to-five year relationship with one another, so we're planning for the future even now. We hope one day to buy our own festival grounds, where we will be able to house everything in one area," he indicated. "It's a long way from the Jordan High School gym."
--Lance Williams
Next: "7th Watts Summer Festival Ends with Parade, Discontent" »
"7th Watts Summer Festival Ends with Parade, Discontent"
"7th Watts Summer Festival Ends with Parade, Discontent"
The LA Times, August 21, 1972
A dashiki-clad man walked over to a little boy with a balloon who was strolling through the park, took his hand, and led him to a group of adults.
"Do you remember the revolt?" he asked the child.
The boy smiled bashfully, chewed the string on his balloon and did not answer.
"I just got here," answered the boy, who was not more than 6 years old.
"Do you know anything about the Watts festival?" the man asked.
"Yes," the youngster replied. "I was here last year."
"See," the man said to his three companions, having proved his point, "the people have forgotten the revolt -- the only thing that's left is the festival."
Becoming an Institution
The Watts Summer Festival, which ended Sunday with a parade and concert, is becoming an institution in Los Angeles' black community.
Many say it is the only event sponsored for black people by black people -- a time for fun and community spirit.
But, in its seventh year, there was discontent.
"In 1966, the festival was a grassroots thing -- it was makeshift. People just came out and did their own thing," according to Roger Williams, who worked at the Veterans Council and Guidance Center booth at the festival.
Said Tony Kuykendall, who was in the same booth:
"Booths were out on the street instead of in the park -- you could look in back of the booths and see the burned-out building. It was really hip, really free, and there was no strict police enforcement."
"In '66 I came down here and felt so good inside to see the people doing something," Williams said.
"But the whole concept has changed," Kuykendall said. "Originally, the concept was something in remembrance of the one time black people rose up and tried to say something about their experience in Los Angeles. Right now it's a testimony to the romanticism of black people."
But the festival's board of directors and many of the people who strolled through the festival buying food, clothes, jewelry and art were happy with the event.
"This is the only time of the year we can get together and have fun," said Tony Rushing, chairman of the festival's board of directors.
Concessionaires also enjoy the festival, even though some say they do not make as much money as they would like.
Pleasure For All
"The festival is designed to give pleasure to people in every class in society," said Wilson Smith, owner of the So What Shop booth.
"You can enjoy yourself and people are really involved in it -- this is the community."
Some people in the social service area of the festival, who were trying to tell the black community about their services, were critical of the festival.
When the festival was on the streets, concessionaires did not have to pay for booths, they said.
When the festival moved into the park in 1969, the booths were large and only cost $100 to $150 apiece, they said, while now the booths are smaller and cost between $200 and $300.
They pointed to armed and helmeted deputies patrolling the festival in groups of four, and remembered the days when all festival security was handled through a community organized patrol.
The men in the Veterans Counseling and Guidance Center group, who passed out literature citing racism as one of the major problems in the military, were upset with the presence of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force displays at the festival.
Down the aisle, in the Tehachapi prisoners organization booth, Mark Clemmons, out of the Tehachapi institution for the day to get donations for his group and find people to write to lonely prisoners, said he felt "defensive" about the presence of the Sheriff's Department recruiting booth across the aisle and the Police Department booth a few doors down.
Police Protest
In front of the booth co-sponsored by the black policemen's organization and the Los Angeles Police Department, Tut Hayes staged a one-man protest Thursday against the department's participation in the festival.
Later that day, he and his picket signs were carted away by sheriff's deputies.
After filing a complaint with the department, Hayes returned to the festival Thursday evening:
"The fact that they let the police set up a booth is absurd," said Hayes, who helped organize the Community Alert Patrol, a community organization that provided security for the first festival.
With the poor image both the police and sheriff's departments have in the black community, coupled with the large number of arrests made at the festival each year, Hayes said law enforcement officers should not be welcome there.
Saturday morning, Hayes showed up with six more picketers.
Director Blamed
A pamphlet being distributed called "The Truth About the Watts Summer Festival" laid much of the blame for the festival's change of emphasis on Tommy Jacquette, executive director of the festival.
But Jacquette said there has been no change of emphasis and that the festival has never had political, economic or societal purposes.
"It just evolved," Jacquette added. "It was as spontaneous as the revolt of '65 itself."
Strolling through Will Rogers Memorial Park, viewing the festival he helped create, Jacquette criticized his detractors for not dealing with reality:
"For the average brother on the street, his daily needs are so great, when it comes to the festival he just wants to ride on the ride, eat a hot dog and have a couple of drinks and he's happy. He doesn't want to be bothered with rhetoric.
"A lot of pseudo intellectuals and supposed revolutionaries lose track of the people and they deal with what the people ought to be instead of what the people are."
Permanency Hoped
Jacquette said that once the festival becomes a real community institution with a permanent following, then it can become more culturally oriented.
But right now, he said, the social services and art exhibits have to close down four hours earlier than the rest of the festival because no one attends them after 8 p.m.
The presence of law enforcement officers at the festival also is part of Jacquette's "realism."
"The Crips (young black gang members) are here," Jacquette said. "The gang situation is worse now than it's been in 10 or 15 years, and the danger from the Crips is greater than that from the police."
"Some people are only here because the sheriff's deputies are here."
Jacquette said the festival does not make money.
Still Has a Debt
In fact, he said, the festival is still paying off a $2,800 debt to the Los Angeles County Recreation and Parks Department for use of Will Rogers Park last year -- and that was the year the festival received a $135,000 grant from the Model Cities program.
Six months ago, it did not appear that there would be a festival this year, since many of the businesses that had contributed to the festival in other years assumed the federal grant would continue and did not make their customary contributions.
The only people who make money from the festival, Jacquette said, are concessionaires, who, at a minimum, double their $250 to $300 investment. He said the festival gets no percentage of their profits.
Proceeds Divided
A six-hour benefit concert starring Isaac Hayes and other recording artists was held Sunday to help the festival out of its financial bind.
The concert was cosponsored by the Schlitz Brewing Co. and the black-owned Stax Record Co. The proceeds are to be split among the festival, the Martin Luther King Memorial Hospital and the Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation.
--Celeste Durant
Next: "Wattstax Concert at Coliseum" »
"Wattstax Concert at Coliseum"
"Wattstax Concert at Coliseum"
The LA Times, August 22, 1972
Despite months of planning and thousands of dollars spent by the sponsoring organizations, Sunday's Wattstax concert before a Coliseum capacity of 85,000 was a treasure trove of highs and lows -- as many of the latter, unfortunately, as the former.
Most of it was brought on by the event's tragic flaw: a poor staging format that at one juncture had no less than 13 minor acts performing in the space of 90 minutes.
The highlight, predictably, was Isaac Hayes, who by now has saturated the local area with his particular brand of high-intensity soul with two sold-out concerts in two months. Sunday, he sang the same songs, played the same basic riffs, and wore the exact cloak and chains as in his recent Hollywood Bowl appearance. After two minutes, it had all the elements of a colossal déjà vu.
"Shaft"' in Multiple
The focus of film-makers and recording technicians -- on hand in connection with a motion picture and album to be made from the concert -- was Hayes. He did two takes on "Shaft," ostensibly because of recording difficulties.
The best performances were turned in by Rufus Thomas and the Soul Children, who had the otherwise bored crowd active for a few fleeting moments. The Staple Singers, also effective, opened with a flourish, re-erecting "Heavy Makes You Happy" and "Respect Yourself" one more marvelous time during which the spectators were on their feet and actually dancing.
Of the 13 lesser acts, there were a few very bright spots -- bluesman Little Sonny, whose chromatic harmonica solo on "Wade in the Water" was very tasteful, and Eddie Floyd, who had a big hit for Stax in 1966 with "Knock on Wood."
--Lance A. Williams