76-year-old Mavis Staples hasn’t run out of songs to sing or stuff to say. Mavis! depicts the legendary singer’s journey across genres and through decades of performances with clips from past and present. Much of Mavis! is spent in the lively and instantly delightful presence of the titular singer. Whether listening to her booming vocals or watching her warmly point and smile at someone in her audience, Mavis Staples makes for an endearing narrator for her own story. Despite the documentary’s lack of extensive details, Mavis! provides a comprehensive look at the vocalist’s life and career, punctuated by insightful talking head tidbits.
Tracing Mavis’ roots from her childhood years in Chicago through her more recent tours and collaborations with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, Mavis! looks beyond the music to profile The Staple Singers family and their position in a burgeoning civil rights movement.
One thing that...
Tracing Mavis’ roots from her childhood years in Chicago through her more recent tours and collaborations with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, Mavis! looks beyond the music to profile The Staple Singers family and their position in a burgeoning civil rights movement.
One thing that...
- 11/1/2015
- by Zachary Shevich
- We Got This Covered
Presumably you know the great Mavis Staples from her seminal R&B/soul/gospel career and her work in the legendary Staples Singers (“I’ll Take You There” is a great place to start, and you've probably heard it). If you don’t know the great Mavis Staples, director Jessica Edwards is here to help. Staples has found some contemporary appreciation in recent years due to collaborations with Prince and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy (who also helped her complete Don’t Lose This, an unfinished album from her father, Pops Staples), but her legend gets its due in “Mavis!,” a documentary dedicated to her seminal career, her critical civil rights activism in the 1950s and 60s, and leads up all the way to her 2013 album One True Vine (also produced by Tweedy). The talking head testimonials in the doc feature a powerhouse group of contributors including Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt,...
- 3/9/2015
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
Chicago — In a family of vocalists, it was Cleotha Staples' smooth and velvety voice that helped set apart the sound of the influential and best-selling gospel group The Staple Singers.
Staples, the eldest sister and member of the group her father Roebuck "Pops" Staples started in the 1940s, died Thursday at age 78. She was at her Chicago home and had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for the past decade, said family friend and music publicist Bill Carpenter.
The group included sisters Pervis, Yvonne, Mavis and Cynthia, but Cleotha was the backbone, defining herself by being the "strong, silent type," said Carpenter, author of "Uncloudy Day: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia."
"When she was young they used to call her granny because she acted like a granny in terms of being wise and always sure of the best thing to do," Carpenter said.
Mavis Staples credited her father's guitar and Cleotha's voice...
Staples, the eldest sister and member of the group her father Roebuck "Pops" Staples started in the 1940s, died Thursday at age 78. She was at her Chicago home and had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for the past decade, said family friend and music publicist Bill Carpenter.
The group included sisters Pervis, Yvonne, Mavis and Cynthia, but Cleotha was the backbone, defining herself by being the "strong, silent type," said Carpenter, author of "Uncloudy Day: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia."
"When she was young they used to call her granny because she acted like a granny in terms of being wise and always sure of the best thing to do," Carpenter said.
Mavis Staples credited her father's guitar and Cleotha's voice...
- 2/22/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.