arts & entertainment
movie Review: ‘Thunder Soul’
Reverential bio-pic pays tribute to legendary high school bandleader Conrad Johnson
A
a funky brand of
fter graduating
music
dubbed
from
Wiley
m ovIE
Thunder Soul. But
College
(of
perhaps
more
“The Great Debaters”
R EvIEw
important
than
fame) back in the
forging young-
Thirties,
Conrad
by Kam
sters into a com-
“Prof” Johnson (1915-
Williams
petitive, top-flight
2008)
briefly
band capable of
embarked on a prom-
winning national
ising career as a jazz
championships
musician, joining big
band orchestras led by the likes of Count was the fact that Prof simultane-
Basie and Erskine Hawkins. However, he ously served as a father figure to
decided to come off the road in 1940, right so many who were being raised
without a male role model.
after meeting the love of his life, Birdie.
Although he retired in 1978,
The couple soon married and decided to
settle down in his native Texas, where for Conrad Johnson had made such a
the next 37 years, Prof would teach music at lasting impression on his
Kashmere High in Houston. There, he Kashmere kids that numerous
formed a stage band to compete in tourna- band alumni decided to pay tribute
to him 30 years
ments against other
later by reuniting to do a
schools, and as conduc-
show when they learned
tor taught his students
Excellent (4 stars)
their hero was in failing
how to achieve a profes-
Rated PG for smoking
health. That Herculean
sional quality sound on
and mild epithets
effort is the subject of
their instruments.
Running time: 83 min-
“Thunder Soul,” a rever-
By the late Sixties,
utes
ential bio-pic directed by
Kashmere had devel-
Distributor: Roadside
Mark Landsman.
oped an enviable reputa-
Produced by fellow
tion as a world-class
Attractions
Texan Jamie Foxx, the
powerhouse, courtesy of
picture features file footage of the group
performing in the Seventies when they were
mostly sporting big afros and wearing bell
bottom pants and platform shoes. That retro
reminder is deftly juxtaposed
against the same individuals
now middle-aged, yet some-
how still summoning up the
funkified fire of old as they
“practice, practice, practice”
just to please their former
mentor in one glorious, toe-
tapping last hurrah.
Mixed in with those prepa-
rations are a host of heartfelt
reminiscences about how
much Prof meant to each of
them. And if you aren’t moved
by those teary-eyed testimoni-
als, then the floodgates will
certainly open on reunion
night when their 92 year-old
mentor is wheeled up the aisle
from a hospital bed to attend
the magnificent concert in his
honor.
They don’t make ‘em like Prof anymore!
Bourbon at the Border
When may and
Charlie joined
hundreds
of
other Americans
on a journey to
mississippi in the
summer of 1964
for a massive
v o t e r
registration
drive, they had
no idea their
lives were about
to
change
f o r e v e r .
P a s s i n A r t
P r e s e n t s
“Bourbon at the
Border,” b Pearl
Cleage, Oct.13
– Nov. 5, at
Ethos
/IFCC,
5340 N. Interstate Ave., Portland. Directed by ken Dembo, the cast
includes: Rozlyn Reynolds and Rick Jones (above).,S. Renee mitchell
and Jerry Foster.
G
On ene
lin ral
e d Ad
isc mi
ou ssi
nt on
ava $2
ila 0
ble
September 28, 2011 The Portland Skanner page 5