Bobby Rush and Rhodes Jazz at the Hi-Tone Thursday
Bobby Rush is finishing up his semester as the Visiting Scholar for the Mike Curb Institute at Rhodes College. Rush has been recording and performing since the early 1950s. His tenure at Rhodes has been a major success and has given the 86-year-old musician a sense of his contribution to American history. Rush will perform with the Rhodes College jazz band on Thursday, April 3rd at the Hi-Tone.
“I never thought I’d be — and this is why I want to pinch myself — the kind of guy who would have something to offer that people would want to know about,” Rush says. “When I start talking about my life and who I’ve worked with, they are enthused about that kind of thing. They want to hear about it.
Rush has a lot to hear about. There are few people with an institutional knowledge of American music like Rush professes.
“Let me tell you something about me,” Rush says. “I’ve been recording since the early 1950s. I have 335 records over 76 CDs. And I wrote most of them. I’ms still doing what I’m doing. I’m still enthused. But this thing at Rhodes College has enthused more than anything in years. It really has pt the fire back in me. I’m 86 years old. I felt like Iw as 18 again, because they accepted me for what I am. They let me do what I do in the way that I do it. That makes me feel so good. I don’t think many people have got this crossroads to do what they feel like doing. I don’t have to play for a black audience or play for a white audience. I’m just Bobby Rush. How blessed can one man be? I’m on fire.”