As I tickled my laptop keyboard prepping the morning A+R newsletter with Andy, in the other room, Nina and I caught parts of Soul Power, the engrossing 2008 documentary on the three-day music celebration known as “Zaire 74.”

The concerts brought together some 80,000 fans to experience live African and African-American artists as seemingly disparate as Bill Withers and Miriam Makeba in the name of Black Power and, more specifically, the re-match between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman, billed as the “Rumble in the Jungle.”

Every one of the performances—both on and off the stage—are a captivating testament to the power of culture. […]