Singer Lisa Nobumoto knows a thing or two about jazz history. In fact, when she lived in Los Angeles, she was a protégé of tenor saxophone pioneer Teddy Edwards, and that experience made an indelible impression on her voice and life.
All of her talent and experience will be on full display tonight, when Lisa Nobumoto and Her Sizzling Six will be featured in the Memphis Public Libraries’ Five Fridays of Jazz online music series.
“I’ve been playing with a sextet for the past 32 years,” she notes. “And the original players included Jimmy Cleveland and Teddy Edwards, but there were different instrumentalists. I played with them for four years in L.A., where we were voted the number one unsigned artist by Music Connection magazine.”
Now she’s put together a Memphis version of the group, and they’ve been playing locally for the past few years. “We’re also playing June 27th at the Railgarten,” she says. “Last time we played there, it was packed!”
Tonight’s performance will have a bittersweet quality, as it marks the group’s first show since saxophonist Michael Krepper passed away last year. “He used to play Teddy Edwards’ parts,” Nobumoto says. “Teddy wrote all my arrangements for the sextet. I have about 60 arrangements by him.”
Another event on April 9-10 also honored Krepper’s memory, as Nobumoto staged a massive audio and video recording production of her self-penned tribute to Nancy Wilson. “I put the big band together myself. Mike Krepper was supposed to do that. The show is dedicated to him. He was supposed to take care of the band part, but he passed away last year,” she says.
And what a band she put together: a twenty piece orchestra of the finest Memphis players, plus guest pianist Eric Reed, who teaches at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Photo courtesy Lisa Nobumoto
The recording session, an event in its own right, was the realization of a show that had been scheduled for last April. “Then Covid came along, and our rehearsals slowly came to a halt,” says Nobumoto.
Determined to carry on, the group staged the recording session that will be released as a video and CD later in the year. “What we did was, we took all the chairs out of the Memphis Drum Shop and made it into a rehearsal studio. And we did our recording there. All the guys in the band are from Memphis, though we had a special guest coming into town, a pianist named Eric Scott Reed. He teaches at UT Knoxville. He used to have a band back in L.A., and I had my band, the sextet with Teddy Edwards. I was like 28! At the time, I recorded with Teddy and had a release on Polygram. And recently I was talking to one of the guys at Polygram and he told me Eric was teaching in Knoxville. He’s great.”
Poster for what was to be a live performance of Lisa Nobumoto’s tribute to Nancy Wilson.
“This is all my creation. I wrote the script. And I’m playing Nancy,” Nobumoto explains. “There are 22 songs, and it’s kind of a parody. It’s about her life, but as a parody. Something cute. And I wear things, like my wig is really, really big. Huge. All of the band was spread out, socially distanced. And they were all fitted in Lansky’s jackets. It’s a Memphis thing.
“It’s all through my nonprofit called The Jazz Masters Series, which is sponsoring the band. Its mission is to honor, educate and preserve the music of jazz. Memphis is now the headquarters of the Jazz Masters Series. It was in L.A.” Nobumoto says to expect more large-scale projects from her nonprofit in the near future, including a tribute to Diana Ross.
The virtual portion of the 2021 Oxford Film Festival comes to a close today amid news of big changes for the organization. The Audience Awards were chosen by polling the patrons at the in-person festival at the end of March and those watching the virtual festival at home. The winner of the Overall Best Feature, which includes Best Mississippi Film and Best Documentary, is Look Away, by director Patrick O’Conner. The film, which deals with the five-year fight to remove Confederate symbols from the Mississippi state flag, earlier won an Honorable Mention from the jury for “adept handing of a complicated topic.” Director Olivia Peace won the audiences’ hearts for Best Narrative Feature for her film Tahara. Amy French’s “Swim to Steven,” which shared a bill with Tahara, was chosen as Best Short Film.
The audience’s pick for Best Music Documentary is Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story by director Posy Dixon. Eric Pumpfrey’s short “Luv U Cuz” was the audience favorite in the animation category. Ronzo winner “Touch Tone Telephone” repeated as Best Music Video for director Chris Spargo, as did Dramarama, which swept the LBGTQIA+ category for director Jonathan Wysocki. The screenplay competition, which includes a $1,000 prize and mentorship by producer John Norris, was won by Beanie Barns for “Nascent State.”
Longtime Oxford Film Festival director Melanie Addington recently announced she was leaving Mississippi to accept a position as executive director for the Tallgrass Film Festival in Wichita, Kansas. Her replacement will be Jim Brunzell, who was named interim executive director. Brunzell is the former director of the Sound Unseen festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Festival in Austin, Texas. Another new addition to the Oxford festival staff is Justina Walford, founder of the Women Texas Film Festival, who will take over programming duties.
And finally, The Oxford Film Festival, along with Indie Memphis, was just named to Moviemaker Magazine’s coveted 50 Film Festivals Worth The Entry Fee list, capping an eventful and successful year.
Left to right: Pat Averwater (chairman), Chip Averwater (past chairman), CJ Averwater (president), and Nick Averwater (vice president).
Get ready for a full instrumental rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Local musical instrument retailer Amro Music is celebrating 100 years of business this weekend.
The piano, band, and orchestra store has been a musical staple in the Mid-South since 1921. Founded on South Main by Mil Averwater, the venture is now run by third and fourth generations of the Averwater family on Poplar Ave.
“It’s truly gratifying to be part of the rich music history and heritage Memphis boasts,” said CJ Averwater, vice president and fourth generation owner of Amro Music. “The people of Amro — our employees, customers, and community partners — have played such a significant role in our company’s success. It’s fulfilling to reflect upon and salute the many individuals who helped us over these past 100 years become what we are today — the Mid-South’s largest music company.”
Having initially only offered piano lessons when it first opened, the store eventually expanded to include instrument sales and rentals servicing Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Missouri.
“Our drive to provide young people in our community with a music education will not fade,” said Nick Averwater, band department manager and fourth generation owner of Amro Music. “Music education catapults a child’s learning to new heights, and by working together, we can supply the necessary resources music educators need to do their job – now and for the next 100 years.”
A team of researchers from the Memphis Zoo has spent the past 11 years working to save the endangered Louisiana pine snake. Last week, in conjunction with Earth Day, the team released 50 juvenile snakes into the Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana.
In 2010, Dr. Steve Reichling, research director, and his team at the Memphis Zoo began working to revive the Louisiana pine snake and repopulate the species in its natural habitat. Through captive breeding programs that involved artificial insemination, as well as natural breeding, the research team produced hundreds of fertile eggs which they have raised and prepped to be released back in the wild.
On Earth Day, April 22nd, the Memphis Zoo research team was joined by partners on the project from Fort Worth Zoo, Alexandria Zoo, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and U.S. Forest Service to release 50 juvenile pine snakes into their indigenous habitat safely into stump holes and pocket gopher tunnels. The research team also discovered that snakes from previous releases have begun breeding naturally in the wild. It’s an important discovery, say zoo officials, one that shows the captive-bred snakes have successfully adapted to the area and will hopefully recover from its endangered status.
The Louisiana Pine Snake is the rarest snake in North America, native to the longleaf pine forests of Louisiana and Texas. They are non-venomous, with distinctive tan bodies patterned with blackish-brown splotches down their back. Their main prey source is the pocket gopher, which is prevalent in their ecosystem. They tend to live in the holes of pocket gophers and spend more than half their lives below ground.
Active cases fell slightly from last week. Nine new COVID-19 deaths were reported in the last seven days.
Active cases fell slightly from last week. Nine new COVID-19 deaths were reported in the last seven days. The latest weekly average rate fell slightly from the previous week.
Two soccer teams in town, that is. At a press conference at the Landers Center in Southaven, MS, executives unveiled both the newly-formed National Indoor Soccer League (NISL), and one of the first teams to join the burgeoning venture: the Memphis Americans.
Even better, it’s a two for one deal when it comes to this league. The NISL – formed by executives with extensive experience at every level of the indoor game – will support professional squads for both men and women. That means each matchday will see both male and female professional sides take to the turf come game time.
“This will be the first professional indoor soccer league in the country to have both a men and women’s division,” said Joshua Blair, a member of the NISL’s executive board of directors. “It will be the only league in the United States that will have women’s indoor professional soccer. By building both men and women’s teams, we will be able to reach a broader range of fans.”
Each NISL matchday will feature doubleheaders, with the men and women’s teams playing back to back. One ticket will gain spectators access to both matches. The Americans will play 24 matches, and host 12 of those at home in the Landers Center. The season will start “right after Christmas this December, and then run through April,” according to Blair. Capacity at the venue will be around 8,500 people.
For now, the NISL is committed to fielding teams in a minimum of four cities for the upcoming season. But the league is already in talks with several other ownership groups across the country. “Our plan is to start here in the southeastern United States,” he continues, “and build outward from there with the goal of being nationwide in three years.” Meanwhile, the league received a huge boost after signing a five-year strategic partnership with Nike, which will the NISL’s official uniform, apparel, and accessory brand through the 2025-26 season.
L to R: NISL executive board members Jason Gibson, Joshua Blair, and Andrew Haines; Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite; Landers Center executive director Todd Mastry
On a local note, the “Americans” moniker chosen for the team has history in the Mid-South. In 1981, the group Athletes in Action purchased the Major Indoor Soccer League team known as the Hartford Hellions and relocated it to Memphis. The team was rebranded as the Memphis Americans and played at the Mid-South Coliseum through 1984, before new ownership moved the organization to Las Vegas, Nevada. The current name builds on the legacy of that bit of Memphis history, all while taking the name forward.
With the team officially announced, feelers are being put out to gauge interest from coaches around the country. According to fellow NISL board member Andrew Haines, many candidates have already made contact with the team. “We’ve already had discussions on potential candidates, “he says. “We’ve been blowing up over the last 48 hours since word started leaking out. So we’re going to really go through that process slowly and want to make sure we get that right fit.”
When it comes to building a playing squad, the Americans are looking to build a large chunk of the roster out of local athletes. “If you look at the Greater Memphis Area and a three-hour radius around here, the college soccer programs on both men and women’s sides, you’ve got some of the best programs in the country, especially on the women’s side. The talent in this region is unmatched.
“So that’s our first focus. Obviously we want to bring in the best possible talent, so there might be players from other countries. We’ll be working on that, and we’re working with Todd [Mastry, Landers Center executive director] and his staff to do some tryouts in the arena once the turf arrives.”
The tryouts are one product of Haines’ commitment to the value of community. And the Memphis Americans offers the NISL an opportunity to put down roots and bolster the game in the region. “Community is really what I believe in. Every organization I’ve been a part of, we really do get out there. … We have a youth club partner program, and we’ve already started reaching out to youth clubs to work with in the area. We will be club neutral. We have no interest in starting our own youth academy and competing with other clubs; we want to partner with them.”
Beyond academy partnerships, the NISL will host other communal events. Think 3v3 tournaments, youth clinics, or the league’s Play Like the Pros program, where kids can play on the field prior to a game. Many of the professional players will also be available to work with kids through training sessions or other community appearances.
Andrew Haines
After the presser, the Flyer spoke with Haines about some of the NISL’s goals in the community, and why the Memphis market was so appealing.
Memphis Flyer: You’re launching a brand new league; what made this an attractive market for one of your first teams?
Haines: My history coming to the market [from St. Louis], and knowing about the arena over the past 15-20 years, and working with Todd and his staff. … When they make you feel like a part of the family, part of the team, it’s important. We need that partnership with the facility, because if you don’t have that partnership, you’re just renting the building. With their involvement and interest, that will help us be successful. I’ll be honest, I haven’t been this excited in a while. We’re adding the women’s component, and I just think this market will be very successful.
You’d mentioned that your focus for building a roster would be very local. Have you already reached out to specific programs or universities?
We’ve reached out to every university and soccer program within an hour-and-a-half from here to start. Obviously I’m not going to be the coach, so I want them to build those relationships, but I at least wanted to make initial contact. So far, we’ve gotten a really positive response. They’ve got players who are graduating or who have already graduated they want us to look at. University of Memphis, we’ve got some great feedback there from both the men and women’s programs. We have to tap into these local resources. There’s so much talent within the region, and we just have to find it.
You’ll be the second soccer team joining this market. Do you have any interest in having a partnership or crossover with 901 FC?
We’re open to anything. In the past, for organizations I’ve run, we’ve always partnered with the other sports teams in the market, whether that be an NBA team, MLB, soccer. For us, we’re all about collaboration. We understand we might be competing for sponsor dollars every now and again, but the more successful we all are as teams, the better it is for everyone. We’ve started building relationships already. The Grizzlies invited us out to the game last night, we’ve talked with 901 FC, the Hustle was here today. From our standpoint, that’s what it’s all about.
For the coaching search, I know it takes a certain amount of time to find the right fit. Do you have a timeframe for when you’ll make that decision?
No, we want to make sure we have the right coach. We have such a cool opportunity here. We want to make sure we hit it out of the park, and get someone who’s the right fit for who we need. So we’re going to be careful about that. We’d love to have it sooner than later, of course, but we’re going to take the time we need.
As we move into May, the streams flow on. Though in-person music is making a comeback, many still recognize the need or desire for concerts that can be enjoyed at home. And these musicians and venues have heard the call! Many provide links to the players’ virtual accounts so you may tip generously.
Memphis Zoo officials are rebutting claims from a group of ”international panda fans” concerned for the well-being of the zoo’s two giant pandas, Le Le and Ya Ya.
A change.org petition and a letter-writing campaign by Panda Voices, a group “brought together by the ongoing mistreatment of pandas Lele (sic) and Yaya (sic) at Memphis Zoo,” has mobilized thousands across the globe. Dozens of form letters have been sent to the Memphis Flyer newsroom.
“I am informed that YaYa (sic) and LeLe (sic) has (sic) been suffering from hunger, incompatible low-quality bamboos, lack of enrichments, and excessive caging time, causing them to be underweight and malnourished,” reads a form-letter submission sent this week from Judith Echeverria in Miami, Florida. “From 2007 to 2012, the zoo has performed four artificial inseminations on YaYa (sic) which ended with four abortions and caused irreversible damage to her body.”
Memphis Zoo leaders said Wednesday morning that they have ”been in an ongoing conversation with this group who has passionately voiced their concerns over our pandas here at the Memphis Zoo.”
”I assure you that both pandas are monitored by keeper and veterinary staff daily,” said Jessica Faulk, a zoo spokeswoman said in a statement. “We are also in constant communication with our colleagues in China, as well as [the Association of Zoos and Aquariums], and send them monthly updates.”
While the letter and the group’s website provide links they say proves their allegations of mistreatment at Memphis Zoo, they don’t clearly substantiate any of their claims. For example, for proof of Ya Ya’s “four abortions” that caused “irreversible damage to her body,” the group points to a 2012 web post from Giant Panda Global sourced from a story from The Commercial Appeal. In it, Ya Ya was 11 and had been inseminated four times since her first fertility period when she was six “including a miscarriage in March 2010.”
The group asserts Le Le has ”had dental problems over the years.” Its proof comes “from the videos” in which “he seems to have difficulty in biting and chewing bamboo.” Neither the letter nor the website make clear what videos they reference. The zoo runs three “panda cams,” showing both indoor enclosures and the pandas’ outdoor space.
From the panda cam, Panda Voices claimed it found evidence of “self abuse” as Ya Ya can be seen “banging her head on the floor over and over.” While there’s no context for Ya Ya’s behavior, Panda Voices claims its enough to show “stereotypical behavior” from “excessive caging that could cause appetite loss.”
From videos and photos online, groups have claimed that the zoo’s pandas look unwell. A photo of Ya Ya went viral in 2019 after online commenters suggested she looked skinny. Zoo officials told WREG at the time that the panda was healthy but was just showing her age. Newer claims had the zoo issue a seven-minute Facebook video update on the panda’s condition in February.
In its new campaign, Panda Voices looks to the discoloration and patchiness of the of the pandas’ fur and claims, for Ya Ya, the panda has ”been tortured by parasite infection for over a decade, causing extreme itching and shedding. Her skin disease started in 2008 and 13 years later it has spread throughout her entire body.”
Zoo officials said the bear does have a skin condition but it does not cause “itching or severe discomfort.”
”Our veterinary team reports the appearance of Ya Ya’s skin and coat varies considerably throughout the year due to a number of factors,” said Faulk, the zoo spokeswoman. “According to our veterinary staff, Ya Ya has a skin mite condition, which in bears who do not have a perfect immune system, could cause the fur symptoms she displays.
“However, she does not present any additional signs of disease such as itching or severe discomfort that could be caused by staff or anything else. Otherwise, she is a very healthy bear; she just doesn’t have the fluffy fur like most other pandas.”
The change.org petition from Panda Voices had more than 46,000 digital signatures as of Wednesday morning.
Willie Melvin Atkins got a shock last week with his order of pancakes from a restaurant in North Memphis. Atkins said “folks done gave me five nickel bags of syrup.” As of press time, the post had been shared more than 3,000 times and had 363 comments.
Posted to Facebook by Willie Melvin Atkins
Cat Mane
“Rescued a cat from Memphis. Needs a home. He answers to Mane and eats his wings fried hard. #lemonpepper.”
Posted to Reddit by u/JugglingLobster
“Feeling Proud”
Mark Lambert said he was “feeling proud” as he shared some aerial photos and video of some of the city’s newest crosswalk art. One crosswalk across Cooper and Monroe now reads “Black Lives Matter.” The other is a tribute to the LGBTQ Pride flag.
Clarksdale, Mississippi
Juke Joint Festival (Photo: Rory Doyle)
As the spring weather and more widespread vaccinations converge, there’s something more than tulips blossoming in town these days: Live music is, well, alive once more. Memphis is singing and tapping its toes more than it has for over a year — and for many, the relief is palpable. That includes not only music fans, of course, but the artists, club owners, and employees who have suffered more than a few existential crises during the pandemic.
With new health directives changing the landscape of what’s possible, and more spaces privately making decisions to host music, here’s a look at where the area’s state of the musical arts stands today, starting with the science and policy that establishes what can and can’t be done, and moving on to see how that plays out on the ground and onstage.
As always, the default response continues to be fairly simple: Wear a mask!
The Health Department
Bruce Randolph, health officer for the Shelby County Health Department, concedes that the situation for music lovers has been confusing, given the ever-evolving approach the county has needed to adopt.
“It has changed,” he notes. “Part of it is, what is the logic behind those directives? First of all, the virus is transmitted through respiratory droplets and aerosols, so when a person who’s not wearing a mask is talking loudly, yelling, singing, or breathing hard, they can project the respiratory droplets and the virus even farther than six feet. One study has shown that it can travel as much as 20 feet. And certainly up to 15 or 18. So even though the CDC has recommended six feet of separation for social distancing, without a mask, six feet isn’t really far enough. And we know that in a lot of venues the audience is very close to the performers, many of them are not well-ventilated, they’re crowded. If you have that coupled with people not wearing masks, the risk of transmission was very high. So that’s why we had to implement the restrictions of wearing a mask, separation by six feet, or, if you’re performing, by at least 18 feet from the audience, just to provide that protection.”
With that as the foundational principle, music clubs serving food were able to open again after only a few months of lockdown. Shelby County unveiled looser restrictions on October 7th of last year, allowing bars and restaurants to stay open until midnight instead of 10 p.m. and raising the allowed table capacity from six to eight people. Restrictions were eased even more this month, with Health Directive 20.
“Now as more people are becoming vaccinated, we can at least begin to loosen up some things,” says Randolph. “So with the most recent Health Directive, we’re allowing some dancing indoors, but people still should be separated, unless the people you’re dancing with and around are people that you know, and you are familiar with their vaccination status, etc.”
As the number of COVID-19 cases has decreased, other guidelines have been modified as well. Music venue patrons are no longer required to sign in for contact tracing, and, much to the delight of punks and metalheads everywhere, music can once again be loud. “When we first allowed indoor dining,” Randolph explains, “where people could sit at tables and eat, we noticed that, if the music is played loud, people talk louder in order to be heard. With that increase in volume, you’re potentially projecting the virus farther. So that’s why we said, ‘We’ll allow music, but it should be kept at a decibel level where people could carry on normal conversation.’ But then we asked, did we really need that anymore?”
So now we can begin to imagine a more normal musical experience once again, albeit with a mask. And Randolph is eager to see that happen. “My desire is for us to get back as soon as we can to having live music. I think a lot of Memphians do not appreciate that, before COVID, you could go to almost any restaurant in Midtown or Downtown, and there’d be live music. I’ve lived in other cities, and that is not the case. So we’ve got this jewel here that we take for granted. I would love the day when we can return to that, and the truth of the matter is, it’s in our hands if we do the right thing. And anybody who wants a vaccine can get it now. Get that shot, so we can get back to enjoying ourselves!”
Marcella + Her Lovers perform at Railgarten’s outdoor stage. (Photo: Erica Owen)
The Venues
Given the importance of live music to local culture, it’s not surprising that some venues have been hosting it for months now. Lafayette’s Music Room, for example, was one of the first to feature bands again, beginning in the second half of last year. With the size of their room and staff, they were well-suited to it, and soon settled into new work habits to keep the music flowing.
Brent Harding, who books bands for the club, explains that it required new working routines, in addition to requiring masks and making space between tables. “Everything is sanitized after each table becomes free again,” he says. “For the bigger acts, we’ll do an early show and a late show. We can roll the house, clean the place, sanitize everything, and then do another show. That’s really the only way it can work with some of these bands.”
More than any other factor, Lafayette’s has a key advantage: space. Even with more spacing between tables, “I believe we can do about 150 people at a time,” Harding estimates. B.B. King’s Blues Club, which Harding also books, has a similar advantage. But just across Beale Street, the Blues City Cafe has not fared as well. “We have a small room,” says Jason Ralph, booker for Blues City, “and until I can fill it up with people, it’s hard to justify entertainment in the band box. We just need some rules to relax.”
Bar DKDC is in a similar boat. While the tiny club has mainly carried on through the pandemic as an extra seating area for its adjacent sister establishment, the Beauty Shop restaurant, owner Karen Carrier says the much-loved venue will open again in a big way once space is not an issue. “Once they drop the distancing mandate, we’re going to let it rip!” she says, with a hint of big events to come.
Other clubs, however, might have the space, but are baffled by what they feel is ineffective guidance from the county. One club owner describes the frustration of not having a clearinghouse of the ever-changing regulatory guidelines. “I have to look at the Shelby County Health Department page religiously. Nobody’s coming around and telling you what to do and what not to do. You’re supposed to go to the website, but it changes all the time. We have to hear about it through Facebook, and network about it, and talk to other places to see what they’re doing.
“For a long time, you were not supposed to have music louder than people talking at a table. But what does that mean? We were told four months ago that we could have tables pushed up to the bar; you just couldn’t sit at the bar. Well, the health department came in and said, ‘You need to move these two feet from the bar.’ We said, ‘But it says on the website we can do it.’ They just said, ‘No, move ’em back two feet.’ Okay.”
Some have dealt with the reduced attendance capacity by playing up other strengths. Brian “Skinny” McCabe, owner of the Hi Tone Cafe, says, “Before COVID, we had live music every day, and then great food, too. But now we’re focused more on food. We’re now a restaurant that happens to have acoustic shows on the weekends. And open-mic comedy on Tuesdays.”
One silver lining in all the restrictions has been a greater reliance on local bands, while national touring acts continue to wait it out. Jack Phillips of Railgarten says, “We’ve got a lot of Memphis-based bands booked, and some regional bands, as well. We really want to invest in Memphis right now. We want to focus on local musicians because they’re struggling. Also, bigger acts are not traveling that much, so it’s mutually beneficial. I think it’s a great time for everyone to realize what a treasure we have.”
Another advantage Railgarten has is its outdoor stage, and the exponential decrease of risk that comes with an outdoor setting. Now that spring has sprung, that may be driving the area’s resurgence in live music more than any other factor. In just the past month, porch parties have become more common, from impromptu soirees like that recently hosted by Will Sexton and Amy LaVere for a Dead Soldiers show or full-on, coordinated celebrations of the concept such as the Cooper-Young Community Association’s Porchfest on April 17th, with dozens of performers. Upcoming shows at other outdoor venues also herald a proliferation of live music, including the return of the River Series at Harbor Town, the spring music series at The Grove in Germantown, music concerts at the Memphis Botanic Garden, and six ticketed events planned for the Levitt Shell in Overton Park between May and July.
As Natalie Wilson of the Levitt Shell explains, that’s only the beginning, as they make plans to offer their free concert series this fall. “With the impact of COVID-19,” she says, “we can’t do our normal four nights a week, but we are coming back Friday and Saturday evenings in September, through the third weekend of October. We’re going to focus on supporting our local musicians this fall. And we pay our musicians at the market rate because we believe in not just presenting music, but also empowering music. And that includes supporting our musicians and their livelihoods. It’s been our mission since the Shell was built in the 1930s.”
Kingfish DOYLE (Photo: Rory Doyle)
Other music festivals can be expected in the fall, from the outdoor stages of Mempho Music Fest, which returns in October, to the mixed outdoor- and indoor-venue approach of Gonerfest, planned for September 23-26. A foreshadowing of how those might fare just took place in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where the Juke Joint Festival, held only virtually last year, went on as a live experience once again in mid-April.
As Roger Stolle, president of the Clarksdale/Coahoma County Tourism Commission, explains, their festival did everything right, and may serve as a model for those to come. “We put a ridiculous amount of time and money into it, trying to make it safe,” he notes. “We bought touchless hand-sanitizer units, gallons of hand sanitizer, thousands of paper masks, stanchion barriers to keep people back from musicians, clear plexi virus shields for the smaller venues, thermometers. A whole lot of stuff. And a lot of extra security, not because we were going to be arresting people, but just to help control the situation, in case there were problems with compliance.”
And yet, much to his delight, audience respect for the “suggested guidelines” of the festival, such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing, was greater than expected, as crowds saw music on 13 outdoor and 19 indoor stages. “Compliance was really great, except perhaps on Saturday night in the bars. The beauty of it is, people know what they’re supposed to be doing. Until alcohol gets involved, people are pretty good about it. But once they get drinking, and they’re excited and haven’t seen music in a year, that’s where some of it breaks down a bit. We just tried to give people plenty of space, and people took advantage of that pretty well.”
They also took advantage of a more proactive approach taken by the Juke Joint Festival: free vaccinations. Though use of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been suspended by the time of the festival, they did offer Moderna shots and cards facilitating a second shot wherever festival-goers might go home to.
Victor Sawyer (Photo: Courtesy Victor Sawyer)
The Players
Vaccinations have been the biggest game-changer for musicians themselves, without whom there can be no shows, no matter what restrictions are lifted. John Paul Keith, who became a fixture in the Memphis live-streamed music world last year, credits vaccines with his return to playing live shows, starting with a show he played with Amy LaVere at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center (BPAC) this month.
“The main reason that I felt better playing live,” he says, “was that the [case] numbers were going down, and the vaccine became available. Once I got the first round, I felt there was an acceptable level of risk in performance. And it didn’t hurt that BPAC did a half-capacity show, with masks.”
Even as clubs began opening last fall, many musicians had mixed feelings about it. Victor Sawyer, trombonist with the Lucky 7 Brass Band and teacher with the Stax Music Academy, recalls, “when we played a show last November, I honestly felt pretty guilty. Just by performing, we were ultimately drawing people together.” But that’s less of a concern now, and he’s rapidly taking on more gigs for the rest of this year, largely due to what he sees as the effective local response to the pandemic.
John Paul Keith (Photo: Jarvis Hughes)
“The city and Shelby County have been doing a great job,” he says. “I hate how our mayors are just getting pooped on. When you look at Tennessee and other mid-sized cities around the nation, Shelby County has had one of the lowest infection rates out of a lot of cities, and they should get credit for that. They’re doing a great job. Also, we’re all vaccinated now. Starting in May, we’re booked pretty much through October. When everything goes away, you feel like it will never come back, but once we said ‘We’re ready to rock,’ the booking requests came in like clockwork. It was a really emotional moment to see that we weren’t forgotten.”
For Keith, the emotions cut both ways, from elation to anxiety. Before the BPAC show, he says, “I was nervous for the first time I can remember. But it was really wonderful. I was grateful they had a stage large enough to have the big band be spread out. And on a stage, you’re separated from the audience.”
The stage at B-Side was one reason he settled on that venue for his first regular live residency since the pandemic started. “I’m much more comfortable if the place has a stage. Otherwise, you can’t get away from people. Once they get a few drinks in ’em, forget it. We know that singing spreads droplets, and that’s why the audience is supposed to be 18 feet from the stage. And the other night, I actually saw a couple droplets arcing through the stage lighting, out past the microphone as I sang. And I thought, ‘There go some droplets!’ It wasn’t even a lot of them! But you’ve still got to be safe. It’s not over.”
And yet, Keith is ultimately relishing the return to live performance, noting that when live performances stopped, “we musicians lost something very precious to us all. I don’t think we’ve processed it yet. Now, I definitely have a renewed appreciation and respect for music. It’s powerful, and it’s a human necessity. It’s like language. It’s something we need for our society to understand itself. And I care about it more now, because I know what it’s like not to have it.”
