Tower of Power

50th Anniversary Concert Film

Creation of the film documenting 2 nights of concerts for the 50th anniversary of the band, live from the Fox Theatre in Oakland, CA

Having grown up in the East Bay with their music, we were overjoyed to be asked to come in and document two nights of high energy performances at the Fox Theater in Oakland as funk/soul legends Tower of Power celebrated their 50th year. Two sold out crowds were treated to long evenings of the hits, old and new. The core band was joined by former members including the iconic bassist Rocco Prestia, guitarist Bruce Conte, sax player Lenny Pickett (who moved on to be Saturday Night Live band leader), keyboardist Chester Thompson and others, as well as the addition of a very special string section.

The production featured a gorgeous 9-camera 4K shoot, Directed by Arthur Rosato, Produced by Jon Luini, and incredible light design by award-winning (and all around great guy) Jeff Ravitz (Intensity Advisors). The resulting feature “”50 Years of Funk & Soul: Live at the Fox Theater” was first seen in a special 1-hour edit that premiered on PBS in February 2021. It was then followed on a DVD release featuring over 2 hours of performance and behind-the-scenes special features.

Chime’s crew included jib operator Joe Wolohan, robo rail cam operated by CondorCam’s Brent Murray and Ryan McNurney, camera operators Amy Pangilinan, Chris Sentovich, Jim Granato, Ron Ciron, Stephen Berke and William Harper, lighting engineer Dee Stone, tech manager Cesar Salazar, tech manager assistant Cody Fansler, media manager Craig McGillivray, production assistants Rocky Mullin and Olive Fox, still photographer Elissa Rosato, and handling line/tech producing was long time Chime collaborator (and Ghost Hand Productions owner) Doug Farris.

Color grading by Michael Wiser at Ghost Hand Productions. Additional bonus feature editing was done by ZZ Satriani and DVD authoring by Rich Winter (Blackbird Digital Studios). Many thanks to Greg Perloff, Sheri Wasserman, and Tony Leong from The Fox Theater / Another Planet Entertainment.

And of course a very special thanks to Mimi and the band and the TOP crew, without whom this wouldn’t have been possible.  It was a huge honor to be given the opportunity and responsibility to document this momentous occasion celebrating 50 years of Tower Of Power!

A behind-the-scenes look at the live production. Seen here is Director Arthur Rosato and Lighting Design/Engineer Jeff Ravitz.

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