Soul to Soul Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Soul to Soul Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 15, 2026

There's a troubling subtext accompanying Soul to Soul, a fascinating and often viscerally compelling documentary covering a 1971 music festival in Ghana in celebration of their Independence Day. Several prominent American recording artists were invited to the event, and that's where the subtext comes in. Among the stars were headliners Ike and Tina Turner, and Ike's glowering presence throughout probably can't help but remind fans of some of the more disturbing information imparted by Tina about her marriage, information that was of course later utilized as a central focus of What's Love Got to Do with It (still kind of weirdly unavailable on an official Region A Blu-ray as of the writing of this review). Interestingly in that regard, it's arguably Wilson Pickett who gets the biggest response from Ghanaian fans at the airport when they arrive, and it may be Santana's set that ends up having the most impact on a rapt audience.

Soul to Soul has had a rather interesting history aside and apart from the actual history it documents. As some fans may know, Roberta Flack was part of the concert (she can be spotted briefly in scenes of the flight over), and performances by her were included in the initial theatrical screenings and on the original soundtrack album. When rights had to be renegotiated for a re-release, Flack evidently declined to have her sections included again, and while the back cover of this release states this is "restored to the original edit", the Flack material is still missing. The extant performances by both American and Ghanaian stars are all incredibly high energy, and the almost nonstop onslaught of percussion adds a propulsive quality throughout.

Soul to Soul Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Soul to Soul is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Liberation Hall with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.32:1. The back cover mentions "high quality 2K transfers from the original film elements" (you know, unlike those low quality 2K transfers), without overtly specifying exactly what "original film elements" were utilized. The 16mm format presents a few challenges along the way, with detail levels fluctuating, especially with regard to variant lighting conditions. Some of the interior plane material, for example, has a purplish cast to blacks and almost blue tinged grain, and there are some quite noticeable variations in suffusion and color temperatures at various junctures. There's also quite a bit of damage, some quite large, as in the crescent shape scar on screenshot 1 next to Ike's jawline. All of this said, a lot of the concert material and brightly lit interstitial candid footage offers a nice looking palette and generally decent detailing.

Soul to Soul Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Soul to Soul features LPCM 2.0 audio. The musical segments are really nicely fluid sounding, and everything from the battery of drumming to exuberant vocals to some fantastic rhythm section work by both horns and guitars in particular sounds problem free. Several kind of sweet non musical moments document some of the "meet and greet" activity, with Ghanaian dialogue featuring forced English subtitles.

Soul to Soul Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary Track One: Mavis Staples (The Staple Singers)


• Commentary Track Two: Les McCann with Kevin Griffin (The Voices of East Harlem)


• Commentary Track Three: Producer Tom Mosk with Re-Issue Producer David Peck of Reelin' in the Years Productions


• Commentary Track Four: Ike Turner, Michael Shrieve (Santana), Obo Addy (Ghanaian Drummer), Kevin Griffin (The Voices of East Harlem) & Les McCann


• 2025 Trailer for Soul to Soul with Voice Over by Jay Lang (HD; 2:36)


• Outtake Performance: Ike & Tina Turner - "I've Been Loving You Too Long" (HD; 5:43)

Liberation Hall includes an especially worthwhile insert booklet with this release, with a long and very detailed essay by Rob Bowman (who moderates some of the commentary tracks), originally written in 2004 to accompany the original DVD release of the film. Bowman's piece is a veritable treasure trove of background information on the inspiration and production of both the concert and the documentary. Producer David Peck of Reelin' in the Years Productions also contributes a shorter piece where he talks about this documentary's repeated failure to find an audience, something this Blu-ray may help to ameliorate.

Soul to Soul Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the major if unsung tethers linking Ghana with the United States in this concert, the great Ghanian drummer Obo Addy (included on one of the commentary tracks), lived in Portland for most of his later life and was in fact my next door neighbor in northwest Portland many years ago. Somewhat hilariously, Obo had been regularly rehearsing his band Kukrudu in his basement and I had also been rehearsing my band in my basement when one night suddenly another neighbor literally burst through my side door from my yard into my basement screaming and yelling that he had already warned us about too much noise, at which point I attempted to tell him I had never seen him before and perhaps he had been next door at Obo's place. The exasperated elder threw up his hands, exclaimed, "Two bands! I can't take it!" and stormed off, never to be heard from again. My hunch is that perturbed individual would not have made it through 30 seconds of the exuberant (and unabashedly noisy) music featured here, but for those with a higher tolerance for lots of boisterous energy, Soul to Soul offers some arresting performances, if also that kind of scary glowering presence of Ike hovering over everything (and everyone). Video here is not in the best shape, but that's probably going to be offset for many by the historical importance of the concert and the generally great sounding audio. The supplementary commentaries in particular are also interesting. With caveats noted, Recommended.