Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is the name of the fourth album from the French Disco Funk band from Versailles, named Phoenix.

Phoenix is Thomas Mars, Deck D’Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz. Their sound emerged from the 90s club-scene in Paris (think Air and Daft Punk).

Phoenix’s lead singer, Thomas Mars, is married to Sofia Coppola. Their hit single, “1901,” has been the heavy-rotation club remix of the summer.

Listen to the YouTube mp3 here:

Phoenix rising.

                          

The recently released Soul Power documentary captures the state-sponsored 1974 concert in Zaire that set the stage for Muhammad Ali and George Foreman‘s legendary “Rumble in the Jungle.”

What a spectacle of soul-infused musical bravado. In the midst of Vietnam, Nixon, Civil Rights, and a miserable economy, Don King and James Brown pulled off the impossible, just like Ali, in the middle of war-torn Zaire. That’s some Soul Power.

Soul Power is produced and directed by Jeff Levy-Hinte, president of Antidote Films, who was also the producer-director of the Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings (1996). Most of the Soul Power footage was uprooted after the production of When We Were Kings. All this gloriously funky footage has been waiting nearly 35 years to see the light.

Soul Power keeps your head bobbing by showcasing these historic performances from funk, soul, and R&B legends like B.B. King, Bill Withers, and the kinetic madman and self-professed Sex-Machine, James Brown, whose early-70s single of the same name lends the film its title.

Using notable cinematographers, Albert Maysles and Paul Goldsmith, to lend the documentary a gritty but stunning style verité, the footage captures the Don King-promoted Rumble in the Jungle’s political and personal spirits in all their vivid intensity.

Can you say, “Gonna have a funky good time…”?

                          

The dude’s got ill skills to pay the bills, and he plays ALL of his instruments in studio sessions. What? Yea, like Prince and Lenny Kravitz, Raphael Saadiq handles it all when it comes to getting the right sounds for the record.

And he definitely gets some righteous sounds. With a background in the Motown downbeats of the 50s and 60s, the Oakland-born entertainer had found his groove with the 2008 release, The Way I See It. His reputation was built on the Tony! Toni! Tone’! and Lucy Pearl records he produced, but his solo effort is tip-top, body-rock, funk-soul solid.

Check out Mr. Saadiq’s YouTube video for “100-Yard Dash”, and see if that head doesn’t start bobbing. Mmmm-mmm, Goodness.