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Robert already hipped Unfair Park readers to the South Dallas Pop documentary airing tomorrow night on KERA, but, hell, we’ll do it, too. ‘Cause, really, as this KERA video interview with festival thrower Roger Boykin shows, 1970’s The South Dallas Pop Festival was kind of a big deal.
For the black musicians of the time, it was a way to announce their presence to the white jazz fans in town that generally avoided South Dallas. More than that, though, it was a way to appreicate what they themselves had.
And, as a visit to KERA’s site reveals, the music is stunning–and not just for its time; even today, it resonates as ahead of its time. So it’s not surprising, then, that, for today’s most fickle jazz record collectors, owning a live recording of the South Dallas Pop Festival is considered quite the coup.
Be sure to catch the doc–or at least TiVo it–when it airs tomorrow night. Or, catch a screening of it on Thursday, as its shown with some live musical accompaniment at the Dallas Museum of Art. —Pete Freedman
