Wattstax

Wattstax was a benefit-concert put together by Stax Records to commemorate the community of Watts, Los Angeles after its 1965 Riots. The concert took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, 1972. The concert's performers included all of Stax's prominent artists at the time. The genres of the songs performed included soul, gospel, blues, funk, and jazz. Months after the festival, Stax released a double LP of the concert's highlights titled "Wattstax: The Living Word." The concert was filmed by David L. Wolper's film-crew and was made into the 1973 film titled, "Wattstax." The film was directed by Mel Stuart and nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Documentary Film in 1974.

The Concert

The Idea of a Benefit Concert

Stax Record's West-Coast Director, Forrest Hamilton, came up with the whole concert idea. Being in L.A. during the Watts Riots, Hamilton later became aware of the yearly Watts Summer Festival that commemorated the broken community of Watts, California. Hamilton contacted Stax Records and told them about having a benefit-concert for the 7th Watts Summer Festival. At first, Stax wasn't so sure on putting together a small concert, with big stars, for a small community such as Watts. Tommy Jacquette, the founder of the Watts Summer Festival, was contacted about the festival idea. With Jacquette being supportive, the concert idea was slowly developing into something big. Al Bell, who was very involved planning the concert, decided that if the festival was going to be as big as he imagines, the festival cannot just be held at a small park in Watts. It had to be held in somewhere big- like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. A team of several Stax directors, including Jacquette, contacted the L.A. Coliseum to schedule a meeting. When the meeting took place, the managers at the Coliseum weren't so convinced that "a small record company from Memphis can fill up the whole stadium." This was an expensive risk the Stax-team was taking.