Synopsis
THUNDER SOUL tells the true story of Conrad O. Johnson and the legendary Kashmere Stage Band. It was afros, pleated pants and platform shoes; James Brown, Sly Stone and Bootsy Collins. It was the ’70s, and an inner-city Houston high school was about to make history. Charismatic band leader, Conrad “Prof” Johnson would turn the school’s mediocre jazz band into a legendary, world-class funk powerhouse. Now, 35 years later, his students prepare to pay tribute to the man who changed their lives, the 92-year-old Prof. Some haven’t played their horns in decades, still they dust off their instruments determined to retake the stage to show Prof and the world that they’ve still got it.
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Cast
- Craig BaldwinHimself
- Craig GreenHimself
- Conrad O. Johnson Sr.Himself
- Bruce MiddletonHimself
- Gaila MitchellHerself
- Reginald RollinsHimself
- Jamie FoxxHimself
Recommendations
- 100
The New York Times
By introducing funky licks, fancy footwork and many of his own compositions to the band's stodgy set list of jazz standards, this indomitable leader (whose declining health adds a poignant twang to the film's final scenes) instilled racial pride alongside musical competency. - 89
Austin Chronicle
Music has rarely appeared more essential to the human drama. - 83
The A.V. Club
Everything here is pitched relentlessly toward uplift, but at least that uplift is genuine, the product of one visionary's indomitable will and a musical universe he brought into existence through vision, dedication, and plenty of stubborn hard work. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
A greater argument for music education in our secondary school curriculum can't be made than Mark Landsman's doc about a Texas high school funk band that tore up the music scene from 1968 to 1977. - 80
Variety
Mark Landsman's spirited Thunder Soul offers a heaping helping of uplift while documenting the past triumphs and recent reunion of a predominantly black Houston high school's singularly accomplished jazz stage band. - 80
New York Daily News
Warm memories of one school under a groove and a moving ending that no screenwriter could improve upon. - 75
Orlando Sentinel
One serious omission in the film - identifying what these seemingly prosperous alumni of the band do for a living and did with their lives. - 70
Village Voice
Sometimes you just can't fight the funk; as much as you might resist the film's more maudlin scenes, not succumbing to the band's signature tune, "Head Wiggle," is impossible.