‘Billy Preston’ Review: A Unique and Tortured Talent

“Billy didn’t just have perfect pitch, he had perfect anticipation,” the drummer and producer Bill Maxwell says at one point in this film about the protean musician Billy Preston. Meaning Preston could play a tune through with the other musicians after hearing only a few chords.

“Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It,” a sometimes mind-blowing documentary directed by Paris Barclay, doesn’t ask you to take Maxwell’s word for it. The movie has abundant archival footage of the musician, who died in 2006, walking into a studio, settling in at a keyboard and running through a song he’s never heard before and doesn’t have the sheet music for — flawlessly and soulfully.

One such assemblage of musicians was, of course, the Beatles. Seen here, the Fab Four are notably glum as they try to piece together “Get Back.” Then Preston walks in. He’s more than welcome in the studio — they all met when they were practically kids, on the punishing club circuit in Hamburg, Germany.

Germany, Hamburg

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