They called the 1974 Muhammad Ali-George Foreman fight in Zaire the "Rumble in the Jungle," but the jungle really shook about six weeks earlier at an all-star festival created in conjunction with the bout, featuring some of the top African-American and African musicians of the era.

B.B. King. Bill Withers. Miriam Makeba. Celia Cruz. And James Brown, earning every inch of the title, "Godfather of Soul," who all by himself probably deforested a few acres around Kinshasa with the volcanic blast of his set.

The documentary "Soul Power" is like a time capsule unearthed 35 years later, capturing a wealth of fantastic musical performances and revealing backstage moments from some true giants of the era.

There are no present-day interviews, no sense of backward-looking perspective or context for any of the footage presented. It's just a full immersion into the sights and sounds of the era, and a total gas.

Filmmaker Leon Gast was in Zaire for both the concert and the Ali-Foreman fight, and he turned his footage of the latter into the amazing 1996 documentary "When We Were Kings." One of Gast's editors, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, dove into the vaults of the raw footage Gast took of the concert and created "Soul Power" out of it.

It's a lesser movie than "Kings;" for obvious reasons, there's more conflict and drama surrounding a heavyweight prize fight than a concert. There is some tension felt during the preparations for the show, which seem rather haphazard; the night before the show, the gigantic stage is still being built, and that afternoon, workers are hand-stencilling seat numbers into the stadium bleachers.

But it all ends up working out, and the real joy of "Soul Power" is watching these fantastic artists from two different continents come together for what feels like a musical family reunion. The footage of a flight from New York to Kinshasa, which basically turned into a high-altitude transatlantic jam session, is particularly enthralling.

As he was in "Kings," Ali is a powerful presence in "Soul Power," pontificating on African and African-American rights as well as boogeying among the street musicians in Zaire.

But he finds his equal in Brown, who was at the absolute height of his powers at the 1974 show.

Levy-Hinte wisely both begins and ends his film with Brown and his super-tight band tearing it up on stage, sweat just raining down Brown's face as he belts out "Soul Power," "The Big Payback" and "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)."

Ali and Brown both stood as avatars of a black culture that was asserting its power and standing in the world, and "Soul Power" celebrates their triumph.

After the closing credits, Levy-Hinte includes a snippet of an interview with Brown, in which he looks right into the camera and urges everybody watching to start their day by saying, "Damn right, I'm somebody."

That message stayed hidden in some film vault for decades, but in "Soul Power," the words can reach out across the years and assert themselves to a new generation.

SOUL POWER

3 stars

Stars: James Brown, B.B. King, Muhammad Ali

Rated: PG-13 for brief strong language

How long: 1:33

Where: Sundance

Opens: Friday

For fans of: "When We Were Kings," "Festival Express," feeling good and knowing that you would

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