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Marchel Ivery and the Soul Seven participated in one of the greatest nights of music Dallas has ever heard — and, finally, seen, thanks to KERA’s doc.
It only took 33 years for the album’s release: South Dallas Pop Festival: Live 1970, which still sounds like a blast from day after tomorrow. It dates from a rainy night in June 1970, when the likes of the Marchel Ivery Quintet, the Apollo Commanders, Les Watson & The Panthers, the Soul Seven and the other jazz-funk-rock-and-soul hell-raisers roaming the South Dallas clubs (The Lark on Grand Avenue, the Gemini 101 on Second Avenue) congregated at the old Central Forest Club for a marathon workout about which most folks knew nothing till the album’s release in ’03.
To further fill in the blanks, KERA-Channel 13 tomorrow night will air South Dallas Pop, an original doc made about that historic night with copious interviews from those who were there. And, but of course, there’s plenty of music too — some of which is available for previewing on KERA’s South Dallas Pop Web site, how mighty nice. The doc airs tomorrow night at 8, and it’s the very definition of don’t-miss. So don’t miss it. –Robert Wilonsky
