MAVIS!

US, 2015, 80 minutes, Colour.
Mavis Staples, Yvonne Staples, Jeff Tweedy.
Directed by Jessica Edwards.

This is a documentary must for all those interested in popular American music, especially in the second half of the 20th century.

The Mavis of the title is Mavis Staples, the key member of the group, The Staples Singers, who emerged in the 1960s and continued through the succeeding decades, some highs and some lows, and with Mavis herself still singing and performing at the Newport Folk Festival in 2014, fifty years after her first appearance there, after winning a Grammy.

She is certainly a force on stage and off stage. Brought up in the South, she had strong support of mother who did not want to be in the limelight, and a father who was talented in music and singing and set up the group of the Singers, Mavis, two daughters and a son. One daughter went off to be married and left the group, the son spent some time in the Army. Yvonne, the other sister, performed in the backup with the others but was more interested in working behind the scenes and in management. By 2014, the two sisters are still working together.

The strong personality, besides Mavis, was the father, nicknamed Pops. The audience has the opportunity to see him in quite a number of performances, to be able to listen to his singing, to appreciate his musical talent, to see his influence on the career of the Singers, and his continued support until the end when he died at the age of 87 in 2000.

So, there is plenty to admire and enjoy in the presence, the conversations, the performance, the rehearsals of Mavis.

However, for those who love American music, it is an interesting quick portrait of a group who grew up with Gospel music, moving more to popular country styles and rhythms, becoming part of the development of songs in the 1960s, friendship with Bob Dylan and other notable figures of the period. The group also moved with the times, even at times moving to some of the rhythms of rock, moving away from explicit religious themes to social themes.

The influence of Martin Luther King was significant, Pops admiring him, supporting him, and the Singers appearing with him.

The Staple Singers may well be familiar to American audiences – but, perhaps, not so widely known beyond the US.