Former Stax head to host screening

Al Bell, a music producer from Arkansas and former leader of Stax Records, will host a documentary screening Sunday in Bentonville featuring a performance by two Grammy winners.

Take Me to The River, about musicians from Memphis and the Mississippi Delta, will be shown at 6 p.m. at Meteor Guitar Gallery. The event, sponsored by the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, is free, but attendees are asked to register in advance.

Registration is available at https://bit.ly/2OPJHbu.

William Bell, a Grammy winner for Best Americana Album, and Bobby Rush, a Grammy winner for Best Traditional Blues Album, will perform. Others attending will be Grammy-winner Lawrence “Boo” Mitchell and Academy Award-winner Frayser Boy.

Al Bell, 78, is UA’s 2018-19 McIlRoy Family Visiting Professor in the Visual and Performing Arts. He is a member of the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame and has won the Grammy Trustees award.

Stax Records helped launch the careers of soul musicians including Otis Redding, The Staple Singers and Isaac Hayes, with Bell working as a promoter, producer and eventually owner of the label. Al Bell also wrote “I’ll Take You There,” a No. 1 hit from The Staple Singers in 1972.

Al Bell will also give a public talk at 5 p.m. Monday at UA’s Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development about his experiences in the music industry.