Cotton Club – Memphis Flyer

Some folks claim they’ve been re-born after finding religion. But you don’t need a higher power to revive your spirit this weekend. Just check out one of these activities for a resurgence of self.

The Boyz II Men concert at Harlow’s Casino in Greenville, Mississippi, will surely revive youthful energy as you’re whisked back to the 1990s, when the economy was in good shape, Bill Clinton was in charge, and parachute pants were really cool. The show starts at 8 p.m. tonight.

Soul gets born again at the Rebirth of Soul Concert tomorrow night at The New Daisy. The event features Will Graves, Karen Brown, Shawna P, and Cassie Bonner in a tribute to the ultimate soul master Stevie Wonder. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Give your spirit a lift at The Cotton Club’s swing revival at the Cotton Museum Saturday night. The Memphis Knights will perform big band tunes at 7 p.m. and the folks from Red Hot Lindy Hop will provide free swing dancing lessons.

The Memphis Roller Derby will get your blood pumping in their high-energy bout with Birmingham’s Tragic City Rollers. Cheer on the home team at the Mid-South Fairgrounds Youth Building on Saturday night. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Wake up your taste buds and your green side at the monthly Taste of the Garden cooking demo at the Memphis Botanic Garden. Local chefs demonstrate how to use locally-grown summer squash to create a tantalizing entree. The demo begins at 10 a.m.

For more weekend ideas, check out the Flyer’s searchable online calendar.

–Bianca Phillips

Oh, for the days of Prohibition when everything fun was illegal and booze was a gateway drug exposing America’s impressionable youth to all that hot jazz pouring out of the speakeasies. In Harlem, it has been said, there was no finer place to get loaded and take in a striptease than the Cotton Club. Oh, sure, the place had mob connections, the entertainment was built around racist stereotypes, and African-American performers like the great Cab Calloway were instructed to compose exotic “jungle” music to give white patrons a thrill. But hey, this was the 1920s, Don Imus was barely in his 30s, and the line between overt racism and mutually beneficial cultural exchange was a fine one indeed. Besides, where else could you rub shoulders with gangsters, find Jimmy Durante poking his big nose into Mae West’s business, and groove to tunes performed by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Lena Horne. This weekend at the Galloway Coffee House in Galloway Methodist Church, performers from the Memphis Theatre Project will attempt to recreate the Cotton Club (minus the strippers, tommy guns) by presenting an evening of live entertainment centered around the music of Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Louis Jordan, and Irving Berlin. Apparently Harold Arlen didn’t make the cut. Tickets for The Cotton Club Comes to Cooper are $10 and available at the door.

“The Cotton Club Comes to Cooper,” Friday, April 20th-Sunday April 22nd at 8 p.m. $10. Galloway Coffee House, Galloway Methodist Church, 1015 S. Cooper (272-2973)