Fans of Yemi Oyediran’s excellent The King Of Them All: The Story of King Records can see a longer version of the film, the way he likes it, on Saturday June 13.
A 75-minute director’s cut — about 20 minutes longer than the show broadcast by public TV stations since October — will be screened Saturday at the Cincinnati World Cinema at the Garfield Theatre Downtown. It will be shown along with Cincinnati Sounds: Exploring a Musical City’s Spaces, Places and Sounds directed by Melissa Godoy.
PBS, which premiered The King Of Them All last October, “required the film to be shortened and made more family-friendly for the national broadcast, so we had to cut several sections,” says Oyediran, who wrote and directed the documentary.
“This version includes the full stories of Little Willie John and Otis Williams, James Brown, as well as a more in-depth look at the cultural response to rock and roll. Additionally, I’ve invited Alan Leeds, who served as tour manager for both James Brown and Prince, and appears in the film, to the screening,” he says.
King Of Them All is the best documentary I’ve seen about King Records, Syd Nathan’s record factory on Brewster Avenue in Evanston where “The Twist,” “Good Rockin’ Tonight” and many James Brown hits were first recorded.
After opening in 1943, Nathan’s first clients were country and western artists such as Cowboy Copas, Merle Travis, Grandpa Jones the Stanley Brothers, who played “hillbilly music.” Then he started recording Black musicians such as Hank Ballard, James Brown, Little Willie John, Otis Williams, Freddy King and others playing rhythm and blues, which was called “race” music at the time.
It was revolutionary back then for a single studio to make country, rhythm and blues, funk or rock music recordings. Nathan’s business plan was unique — songs were written, recorded, pressed, shipped and promoted at 1540 Brewster Ave. King Records closed in 1971.
Cincinnati Sounds
Cincinnati Sounds was produced by the University of Cincinnati’s CCM Recording Productions, comprised of upper-level students and recent graduates of the College-Conservatory of Music’s Media Production Division. Godoy, a CCM adjunct professor, is managing producer of the operation.
The 24-minute film chronicles a week-long symposium last summer for musicologists, educators and historians to study the sounds through Cincinnati history “which led to the creation of music,” Godoy says. One participant said the week explored “the intersection of space, place, geography and sound.”
The group visited an Ohio River riverboat; the West End; Music Hall; Isaac M. Wise Plum Street Temple; Findlay Market; National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; Newtown United Methodist Church; and the Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame.
Musicians featured in Cincinnati Sounds include 1890’s opera star Madame Sissieretta Jones and her appearance at Music Hall; Cincinnati native Mamie Smith, the first person to record a blues song (in 1920); local blues singer James “Pigmeat” Jarrett; King Records and James Brown; and Walter Coleman’s “I’m Going to Cincinnati” performed by Scott Linford.
The film was funded by the University of Cincinnati’s Office of Research, Office of the Provost and the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center after a National Endowment for the Humanities grant was cut last year by the Trump administration.
Screenings are scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, June 13. Each film will be followed by a discussion moderated by Oyediran or Godoy. The event is supported by the Society for American Music Sounding the Nation at 250.
Tickets for adults are $10 in advance online, and $15 at the door. Student tickets are $5 in advance, and $10 at the door.
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