At Wattstax (Live)

iTunes Review

Isaac Hayes was the last performer of the night on August 20, 1972, when 112,000 people gathered at the Los Angeles Coliseum for the black music extravaganza dubbed Wattstax. There were a number of scorching performances that day — everyone from Kim Weston to the Staple Singers to Albert King — but no one put on a better show than Hayes. It took a full 30 years for the complete recording of his appearance to get a release, but it was worth the wait. Hayes was at the peak of his early career, and Wattstax was the ideal culmination of his success. It was a larger-than-life festival and Hayes personified “larger-than-life.” This recording is worth it for zeitgeist alone, but the quality of the music is what really cuts. We’re used to hearing Hayes at the helm of a studio orchestra, but on the live versions of “Never Can Say Goodbye,” “Part-Time Love” and “Soulsville” his Bar-Kays play like a biker gang — tough, and in perfect formation. Of course, Hayes is ever the conductor. For “Your Love Is So Doggone Good” he transforms the Los Angeles Coliseum into a private boudoir and for “Ain’t No Sunshine” he makes Bill Withers’ song as black and fathomless as the cosmos.