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Midtown Music/Sadhana Studios Open for Business

Barizza.jpg

Midtown Music is open at 2272 Central, across from Central BBQ, at Philadelphia Street. Housed in the old WRVR (aka the QUAD) studios — where Isaac Hayes did his voice work for South Park — the space doubles as a recording studio called Sadhana Sound Studios. They have 8 tracks of analog tape and a cool collection of old instruments. The venture is the work of Jeremy Barzizza, a longtime repairman at Amro Music and the bassist for the Side Street Steppers. The store has a fun, laid-back feel and will be a boon to horn players. They also stock ukeleles, the best learning instrument your kid could ever get for Christmas. Have a look at bass phenom Daniel McKee’s uke chops on this wild bass ukelele thing:

Midtown Music/Sadhana Studios Open for Business from Memphis Flyer Music on Vimeo.

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Music Music Features

Reemus Bo Deemus at the Blue Monkey

Andy Ratliff hails from Eggville, Mississippi, just outside of Tupelo, a city known for folks who mix up their music with seemingly disparate cultural influences. Ratliff lives up to the challenge. His latest band, Reemus Bo Deemus, takes on the local sound: hill-country blues. But it was a long trip through a world of sounds that brought him back to Mississippi’s musical imprint.

“I used to play mountain music for a living,” Ratliff says. “I had a little thing with Eric Lewis. But that sound comes through in the vocals. I got into any sort of acoustic music bluegrass, classical, Indian classical stuff. Well, I played in a punk band before all the bluegrass. And we also did Zappa and stuff like that too.”

Despite his extensive musical background and acclaimed guitar chops, Ratliff found his latest stylistic venture to be harder than it seemed.

“I was listening to Hendrix and thought I’d get my electric out again,” Ratliff says. “I got that bug. But some of these songs just blossomed on the electric, and I started getting other ideas. Then I started listening to hill-country blues like Junior Kimbrough and Fred McDowell. It sounded easy to me until I started playing it. It’s a completely new thing.”

There’s a new record in the works too.

“We’re starting work on it right now, and it’s getting there,” Ratliff says. “We’re doing 10 songs, and most are originals. But they draw on a lot of different backgrounds.”

Imagine that.

Reemus Bo Deemus, Friday, October 25th, at the Blue Monkey on Madison

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Music Music Features

Put Up Your Duke

“For my money, he’s the best American composer of all time, period,” Sam Shoup says of Duke Ellington. “Not just as a jazz composer, but you could make a case for best American composer.”

Shoup should know. He has arranged music for the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He is a master upright bassist and teaches at the University of Memphis. Shoup and saxophonist Gary Topper run the Bluff City Jazz Project with the help of American music specialist and promoter David Less. The group will present “An Evening of Ellington” at the Germantown Performing Arts Center on Saturday, October 26th. Also present will be Ellington Orchestra alumnus Bill Easley.

“Bill Easley played in the Ellington band about a year after Ellington died,” says Topper, who has played on recordings for Al Green and Keith Richards. “Ellington’s son Mercer had taken over the band. Bill did it for about six months on the road, and they would call him back over the years. He’s a clarinet specialist. He played with the band off and on for about six years. He knows the music. We just had a rehearsal with the sax section. With the discussions he brought to the table, it was great.”

The performance will mark a couple of Memphis music firsts: The Bluff City Jazz Project is the first subscription-based offering by GPAC for a jazz series. Usually the model is used for the symphonic season. But Less thought the idea of a subscription would work for jazz too. It’s also the first time a local act will take the stage of the Duncan-Williams Performance Hall.

“David contacted Paul Chandler at GPAC about the idea, and he was very excited and immediately went for it,” Shoup says. “They’ve been doing this Jazz in the Box program for a long time. That’s been successful, but now it’s moving to the main stage. You’ve got to give him kudos for that. He’s saying there’s lots of tremendous local talent here; let’s showcase it. And I couldn’t be happier about him feeling that way.”

But it’s all about the music.

“Duke Ellington wrote more than 2,000 songs,” Shoup says. “We won’t be performing all of them. We have a 15-piece band. We’re trying to take a diverse approach that spans Ellington’s whole career. There’s some fascinating stuff to draw on. We’ve tried to draw from several different areas of his career. We have some stuff with smaller groups and some stuff with a big band.”

The band is composed of heavies: Shoup on bass [don’t believe him when he says he’s bringing a Marshall stack], Tom Lonardo on drums, Marc Franklin, Reed McCoy, and Scott Thompson on trumpet, and Topper on saxophone, to name a few.

The evening was originally planned as a tribute to Greenwood, Mississippi, native and University of Memphis alumnus Mulgrew Miller. But Miller died on May 29th of this year.

“He was actually in my theory class when I was here,” Shoup says of Miller. “Unfortunately, he passed away. We decided to go ahead with the project. But in the future, we want to try to feature an artist and bring someone in. There’s talk of doing a Miles Davis show. We even thought about doing a Frank Zappa show and bringing in [his son] Dweezil, if he’ll do it. But that’s how we want to set it up.”

Shoup is quick to point out that the U of M has a serious track record for producing jazz greats.

“Mulgrew Miller, Donald Brown, and James Williams all went to this university. They’ve all become jazz stars. I say to all of my students, ‘If you work hard, you can become a jazz star from this university. Because it’s been done. It’s been done three times.'”

While most of Ellington’s work is in the charts — the arranging of the instruments into harmony and rhythm — he was known as “the piano player,” a deferential joke in light of his unparalleled jazz compositions.

Alvie Givhan is on the piano bench this Saturday. He’s another U of M grad. Shoup adds:

“He studied with Gene Rush, and he played down on Beale Street at King’s Palace for 12 years. He’s a great player and is very enthusiastic about the show. The band is really the feature. Duke Ellington played solos, but there’s not even piano on some of the tunes we’re playing. It’s not even in the score for some of the suites. There’s plenty to play solo-wise, and different people are featured at different points.”

Shoup worked his way through the University of Memphis by writing and arranging for the school’s bands.

“They still play some of my charts, and I can hear all of my mistakes. When I was in the band, we got to go to the Final Four when Finch and Robinson played against Bill Walton. I was under the goal. I’m in all of the pictures, because I was ringside. I love the Pep Band. I’ve got these mutton-chop sideburns. I’ve been to two championship games, and we’ve lost both of them. If we win again, I’m not going.”

Being at that game is one big-time Memphis credential. Calling courtside “ringside” makes you seventh-level Memphian. And I’m not even sure how to handle this last Memphis credential: Shoup was a founding member of the Dog Police.

The Bluff City Jazz Project presents “An Evening with Ellington” at GPAC on Saturday, October 26th, at

8 p.m. Tickets start at $25; available at www.gpacweb.com.

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Sound Advice: Hosoi Bros – Thursday at the Buc

Hosoi Bros ain’t scared of no wine witches. They’re at the Buc Thursdy Oct. 24.

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Sound Advice: Las Rosas w Toxie at The Hi-Tone Wednesday

Las Rosas, Toxie, Clear Plastic Masks, Warm Girls Wednesday night over to the Hi-Tone.

Check out Las Rosas’ story of a dude and a cat, in song:

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Sound Advice: OCTUBAFEST at U of M, Wed.-Sat.

It’s freakin’ Octubafest. Yeah, I know, TUBULAR!

It runs from Wednesday through Saturday, Oct. 23-26, at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. University of Memphis, Harris Auditorium.

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Berklee and Stax Academy at Minglewood Hall

The Stax Music Academy and the Berklee City Music Network are hosting a conference, master classes, and a concert at Minglewood Hall. “American Popular Music, The Untold Story II: Excellence and Access” is a conference that runs October 28-30th at the Westin with the concert on Monday the 28th at Minglewood Hall.

The conference focuses on music education for students in underserved communities and brings a list of interesting participants including school administrators, representatives of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Generosity Network, and a member of the Saturday Night Live band.

The concert will double as a master class in which Memphis’ Grammy-winning sax phenom Kirk Whalum and Broadway star Shoshana Bean will offer critiques to five groups representing Memphis and other cities participating in the Berkelee City Music Network, a non-profit that has awarded scholarships to more than 1,200 students.

Rob Lewis, the music director for Toni Braxton, Christina Aguilerra, Babyface, New Kids on the Block, and others, will conduct the concert’s final song. The concert starts at 7 p.m. It is open to the public and costs $10.

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Grammy GPS at Stax: Third Man Records’ Ben Swank

Grammy GPS as Stax Academy

The Recording Academy Memphis Chapter is hosting another GRAMMY GPS seminar on Saturday on October 26th at Stax Music Academy. The Memphis Chapter is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The series brings top-level music industry folks to Memphis for informative sessions on succeeding in music. For more information, go to grammygps.com

This go-round features the CEO and co-founder of Sub Pop, Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop is closely associated with the Seattle sound as the label for Nirvana. Sub Pop maintains an active roster of bands including the Shins, Mudhoney, and others.

Also on the bill for Grammy GPS is Ben Swank, co-founder of Third Man Records along with Jack White. Third Man settled in Nashville in 2009. The label is home to White’s output with the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and the Dead Weather, in addition to an impressive roster of new and established artists.

We spoke with Swank about making it in music and loving the music more than the money.

[jump]

Flyer: What advice do you have for aspiring artists and producers?
Swank: I advocate the DIY approach for a record label. I tell people who want to give us a demo, “Why don’t you have a look at pressing your own records and see how you do putting your own record out there. The music industry is like the Wild West. You can make up your own script and your own rules. There are obviously limitations to that, but if you have an interesting sound or approach and you know who you want to sell to, there’s no reason why you can’t be successful with it. You have to temper what your ideas of success are and set reasonable goals. You’ve got to be into it for the love and the pursuit of it.

Flyer: Some have said that White makes music that’s too expensive, given his limited-edition vinyl releases. Is that true?
I really take issue with that. We have a limited-edition component to just about everything that we do. That’s because we know our fan base, and a lot of them are collectors. But every release has a standard black vinyl release. If you just ewant the music, it’s a standard-priced LP or 45. Everything we release we release in a way that anyone that wants it can get it. Digitally or on vinyl. We have a bespoke quality to what we do. For instance, the Great Gatsby limited edition series. But we didn’t make a very high margin off of that: those were hand-fabricated items. We did them in such a limited number, that we didn’t reap a large profit. But it can be a great way to draw attention to what you are doing.

GRAMMY GPS:
A Road Map For Today’s Music Biz
Saturday, October 26, 2013, at 11 a.m.
Stax Music Academy
926 East McLemore Ave

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Sound Advice: Black Oak Arkansas at Rockhouse Live

Tonight: Black Oak Arkansas at Rockhouse Live in rockin’ Raleigh.

“Our time is now.” — Jim Dandy

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Roland Janes: 1933-2013

Roland Janes and a few of his many apostles.

  • Ronnie Harris
  • Roland Janes and a few of his many apostles.

We are saddened by the news that Roland Janes has passed away.

The legendary guitarist played on Jerry Lee Lewis’ great work and went on to form his own studio before settling in at Phillips Recording, where he recorded countless sessions. He was a special mentor to so many players and engineers in Memphis. He will be miss and loved.