Tag: Memphis Jazz

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Dr. Herman Green: 88 Years Young, Still Blowing the Blues

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Herman Green

Dr. Herman Green, the saxophonist supreme who started out on Beale Street in the 1940s, and who, after travelling the world playing his horn with giants from John Coltrane to Lionel Hampton to Stevie Wonder, became a Beale Street institution in his own right for the past 40 years, turns 88 on May 27th. It’s a Sunday, a day when, for over three decades, he’s been reliably playing with the funk/soul/jam outfit FreeWorld on Beale. So naturally, it’s party time!

“It just so happens,” says FreeWorld co-founder Richard Cushing, “that we play Blues City Cafe every Sunday anyway. It really dovetailed together nicely.” Cushing adds that, although Green’s health has been less than ideal lately, he’ll be there and “he’s really looking forward to spending this special birthday evening with all his friends, family, fans & loved ones.”

Cushing adds that “we have a bunch of special musical guests lined up to join us on stage to honor Herman that night,” hinting that the guests may include super fans such as Jim Dandy or Carla Thomas. Seeing the Queen of Memphis Soul will no doubt resonate deeply with Green, who got his start in show business thanks to her father, the late Rufus Thomas.

Such a celebration also resonates with the location, which had a specific mission under its previous name. “Blues City Cafe used to be Doe’s Eat Place,” notes Cushing. “And they envisioned the band box there to be kind of like Preservation Hall in New Orleans: a place where the old players always had a home, at least once a week.” Certainly it has served that mission well with Green, who’s been a fixture there. But, Cushing adds, “Under doctors orders, Herman hasn’t had a thing to drink in over six months, so please refrain from buying him his formerly beloved shots of vodka.”

While Green has not been playing as much lately, he still blows on occasion, and on May 12th, he carried out a tradition of 25 years by playing at the Memphis College of Art graduation commencement, marching the new graduates in to the ringing sounds of his saxophone. It was MCA that granted Green his honorary doctorate. (Read more about Green’s life in our 2017 profile of him, below).

So it’s likely you’ll hear his legendary tone at some point, depending on the doctor’s health. Either way, it’s a perfect way to ring in Memorial Day, honoring one of Memphis’ greatest living players, who’s held his own among the titans of jazz, blues and soul for nearly a century.

Dr. Herman Green’s 88th Birthday Party, Blues City Cafe, Sunday, May 27, 9 pm – 2 am.

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Harold Mabern Brings It Back Home

CREDIT: Alan Nahigian

Alan Nahigian

Harold Mabern

Tonight will mark the homecoming of one of Memphis’ greatest sons, pianist Harold Mabern. At a spry 82, Mabern is still playing in top form, mining the rich hard bop vein that he’s mastered for sixty odd years. A longtime faculty member at William Paterson University, Mabern has in recent decades recorded and toured with his former student, the tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander. Alexander will join him tonight for a concert at Rhodes College’s McNeill Concert Hall, alongside John Webber (bass) and Joe Farnsworth (drums).

Mabern, like so many of the city’s jazz giants, studied at Manassas High School, and learned to emulate Phineas Newborn, Jr. before venturing to Chicago in the mid-1950s. There, he studied at a conservatory for a few months and was influenced by the work of Ahmad Jamal, but was primarily self-taught from that point on. In Chicago, he worked with other Manassas alumni like Frank Stozier, Booker Little, and George Coleman. Many of these Memphis players moved on to New York by the decade’s end, and Mabern was no exception.

In Chicago, he became integral to the hard bop scene, with his muscular style (growing naturally from his early interest in drums) and his roots in Memphis blues perfectly complementing the hard bop movement’s love of groovy R&B and soul. This continued in New York, where he worked with practically every player of note, including Lee Morgan, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis (briefly), Sonny Rollins, Art Farmer, and many others. His 1968 debut on Prestige, A Few Miles from Memphis, was a solid disc featuring homie George Coleman. Since then, he’s led sessions for over two dozen albums, not to mention his many appearances as a sideman. 

Indeed, he shines in the latter role, being a consummate ensemble player who combines the inventive chord clusters of, say, McCoy Tyner with more horn-like solos, always packing a strong rhythmic punch. Even his ventures as a band leader become showcases for all the players involved.

Fifty years after his solo debut, he remains grounded in the hard bop tradition, and may be the best example of how versatile and open to innovation that genre’s marriage of bop, blues, and gospel can be. On last year’s To Love and Be Loved (Smoke Sessions Records), he mines familiar hard bop territory, but with surprises along the way. Soulman Oscar Brown’s “Dat Dere” would seem ripe for a hard bop treatment, but in Mabern’s hands it becomes a solo exercise in stride piano. Miles Davis’ “So What” gets a kick in the ass from the band, revved up to near-frantic levels via Eric Alexander’s playing.

All told, Mabern continues to innovate, even as he stays grounded in his hometown roots. Tonight’s show is a must-see for any Memphis jazz fan, sure to hold plenty of delights and surprises as Mabern continues to walk the line between classic and cutting-edge.

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5 Fridays of Free Jazz Livens up the Library

The “5 Fridays of Free Jazz” concert series returns this Friday to bring the noise into what is traditionally a place of quiet: the library.

A partnership between the Levitt Shell and the Memphis Public Library, the “5 Fridays of Free Jazz” performances take place every other Friday starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Benjamin J. Hooks Central Library. “5 Fridays of Free Jazz,” now in its third year, outgrew its original home in a library meeting room, so concerts now are held in the main lobby, typically drawing 200 or more listeners.

The series helps the Levitt Shell organization, which hosts 50 free concerts as well as a few ticketed events each year on its namesake outdoor stage in Overton Park, to extend its mission of “building community through free music,” says executive director Anne Pitts.

“There’s such incredible jazz music here in Memphis, such wonderful jazz musicians, but not as many venues for that kind of music,” Pitts says. “We wanted to create a space where that music could really be enjoyed by the masses, and so this was a perfect avenue to do that.

“It was one of those great match ups, one of those great opportunities where the library wanted to really reach out into community and bring more people into the library and see all different resources they have available, and we could give them a musical experience that really brings people together.”

World Soul Project

Performing at this Friday’s season opener is World Soul Project, a group of veteran Memphis musicians reuniting after some years apart. Led by guitarist Gerard Harris and keyboardist Ben Flint, along with James Sexton on drums, Barry Campbell on bass, and Ekpe on percussion, World Soul Project fuses Brazilian and African textures with jazz and funk structures.

“We are trying to bring in great music that people are used to seeing and hearing as part of this series,” Pitts says, “but also extend it and include more of a world music base to it.”

On March 23, it’s a double bill with saxophone and flute dynamo Hope Clayburn, leading her funk-soul project Soul Scrimmage, plus Joyce Cobb, one of Memphis’ preeminent vocalists and song interpreters for some five decades.

Hope Clayburn

The April 6 date features The Maguire Twins. Japanese-American identical twins drummer Carl Maguire and bassist Alan Maguire studied together at the Stax Music Academy and later at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where they met their mentor, famed pianist and native Memphian Donald Brown. Brown produced their second album as co-bandleaders, “Seeking Higher Ground,” which comes out March 18, just one day before their 22nd birthdays.

The Maguire Twins

On April 20, the Southern Comfort Jazz Orchestra showcases the talents of students — undergraduates to doctoral candidates — from the jazz program at the University of Memphis’ Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. The 17-piece ensemble performs repertoire both classic (Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington) and contemporary (Jim McNeely, Bob Brookmeyer).

Southern Comfort

Wrapping up the series on May 4, Ekpe returns with another band of longtime Memphis players, the African Jazz Ensemble, to incorporate African influences into jazz and soul forms.

African Jazz Ensemble

“We very intentionally use this series to help develop and build audience for jazz music,” Pitts says of how “5 Fridays of Free Jazz” complements the Levitt Shell’s signature free concert series. “We make jazz a priority in our season, and we are constantly looking for great jazz musicians to bring in. There is such love and passion for this genre of music, and so this series we felt like was just so timely in being able to bring in those lovers of this music and also helping us identify who the people are in Memphis who love jazz so we can reach out to them.”

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The Memphis Jazz Workshop: A Q&A with Founder Steve Lee

Faculty and students of the Memphis Jazz Workshop

Steve Lee is helping to revive jazz education for Memphis youth in a big way. Having taught with the Memphis Music Initiative and the Visible Music College, and having received the Steinway and Sons Top Teacher Certificate Award in 2017, he founded the Memphis Jazz Workshop to fill in gaps that have developed in public school music education. The pianist lived in New York City for twelve years and studied with jazz giant (and Memphis native) Donald Brown. Now he’s back in his hometown and has gathered a faculty of some of the city’s best and brightest players. 

Stephen Lee

Tomorrow evening at Hutchison School, audiences can hear for themselves what the workshop students have accomplished during the past month’s winter session. After the student concert, faculty will join drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. in a performance featuring many compositions associated with Memphians who made their mark in the world of jazz. Owens, a graduate of the Julliard School, was named a ‘rising star’ by Downbeat magazine in 2012, and drummed on Grammy-winning albums by Kurt Elling and Christian McBride.

Memphis Flyer: When did you start the Memphis Jazz Workshop? And where is it based?

Steve Lee: We just started this past June of 2017. Now it’s based at the University of Memphis. We’ve done it at Hutchison, and at the Visible Music School. But the main place is U of M.

Do you do workshops for adults?

You’re the second person to ask me that this week! If we had our own space, that’d be real easy. That’s on the agenda — to give lessons not just to grade school kids but to adults too. That’s what the Nashville Jazz Workshop does. But we really need more space for that.

So the Saturday concert will be the graduating recital of all the kids in the workshop?

Yeah, it’ll be a couple of combos performing. Then at the end of the concert we’ll get everybody up there playing an F blues, something like that.

So I guess the star attraction is Ulysses Owens, Jr. Will he be teaching as well?

Ulysses Owens, yeah! He’s also doing workshops Saturday morning. He’s doing a drum workshop, then he’s doing an entrepreneur workshop at 11:30. Then he’s doing the concert later that night.

Who will be playing with him?

Me, Gary Topper (saxophone), Johnny Yancey (trumpet), and Sylvester Sample and Carl Casperson (both on bass).

Ulysses graduated from Julliard. He’s also a producer. You know, he’s produced probably 20 or 30 different singers out of New York. Plus, he has his own nonprofit in Jacksonville, Florida. It’s like a dance and fine arts program. And that’s what he’s gonna talk about. You know, carving out your own space, in life and music. Whatever you wanna do. In entrepreneurship, you don’t just have to be a musician. There are other things that you can do also. That’s what the entrepreneurship class will be talking about. Ways to do more than just play music. I wish someone had told me about that 20 or 25 years ago.

Do you have a particular method of teaching jazz to younger people?

We really teach them to just listen to the music. There are so many styles of music out nowadays. And most of their friends don’t listen to jazz. So we’re trying to encourage them to listen more to the music. For instance, some of those kids were playing “Impressions” at rehearsal. And I asked if any of them had heard John Coltrane play it. They were like, “No.” How’re you gonna play “Impressions” if you’ve never heard John Coltrane play it? So, we encourage them to listen more. And practice.

We do have kids that like to practice. But that’s still a struggle. Especially for a few that wanna go to Julliard, and do that for a living. They really need to understand that you have to be practicing at least three, four, or five hours a day at the middle school grade level, or even elementary, to compete against kids who’re applying for those scholarships. And we focus on mental stuff, motivation. Also, listening to live music. That’s another thing kids don’t get a chance to hear a lot. ‘Cos there’s not a lot of live music nowadays. Everything’s programmed. So, just give ’em all those methods. See what happens.

The first thing I do, especially with piano players, I teach them [chord progressions] ii-V-I’s, in all twelve keys. So that’s the beginning. Once you do that, then we can start talking. If you don’t know your ii-V-I’s [such as C minor-F-B♭] in all twelve, major and minor keys, there’s nothing they can do. But once you learn ii-V-I’s, then they can get into scales and chord changes. And then you can stretch it into bebop. For example, with ii-V-I, you’ve got a minor chord to a dominant chord to a major chord. So once you know those chords, once you play that C minor, then you can play that for four bars and you can get to the next chord, which is an F7. Once you understand how to get around those changes, everything else is downhill. This applies to all instruments. Horn players should have an understanding of piano, so they can see what they’re doing. It makes it easier for them to really learn improv, if they have an understanding of piano and a little basic jazz harmony. That helps too.

How about blues?

Oh that’s the first thing we really do. Teach them an F blues. You know, “Straight No Chaser,” just teach ’em the blues scale. Once you teach them that blues scale, and I’m really speaking for piano players, you show them the left hand voicings, you learn the blues scale with your right hand, and you start coming up with melodies. That’s the first thing we start with, the blues. Get them making little melodies and sounding pretty good, then they’re confident. And then we can go to another song, like “Autumn Leaves” or “Song for My Father.”

So on Saturday, what kinds of jazz tunes should the audience expect to hear?

Well, the kids will be doing this tune, “Red Clay” by Freddie Hubbard. That’s the older kids. The younger kids will be doing “Cantaloupe Island,” by Herbie Hancock. Now, Ulysses will be doing a couple Mulgrew Miller tunes. He’ll be doing a James Williams tune. He’ll also be doing a Roy Ayers tune called “Cocoa Butter.” So it’ll be a mix of songs from other artists. He may be doing one original called “Soul Conversation.” A few by Memphis musicians like [pianists] James Williams and Mulgrew Miller. Mulgrew, you know he’s from Greenwood, Mississippi, but he spent so much time in Memphis. He went to the University of Memphis before he moved to New York.

Although I mainly studied with Donald Brown, I actually had a lesson with Mulgrew when I was living in NY. He was in New Jersey and I took a bus over to his house. The bus broke down on the way back!

It strikes me that teaching jazz to youth is a long tradition in Memphis, going back to Jimmie Lunceford at Manassas High School in the 1920s. Do you feel this is kind of a continuum of that?

Oh man, yeah! Jimmie Lunceford, that’s another secret that a lot of people don’t know about. I do think it is a continuation of what he was doing. But Memphis never had a jazz workshop like the workshops we have now. They always had jazz in the schools. And there used to be more, man. When I was in school like back in the 1980s, most high schools had a jazz band. Now, it’s really only a handful that have a jazz band around the city. Overton, Central, Germantown. The other city schools might have a little combo, but nothing like a jazz band. I don’t think there are even ten.

Did you study jazz in high school here?

I studied at Carver, with Ozzie Smith. Ozzie Smith was a well known local musician around town, back in the ’80s. I had one year with him. He was a great saxophonist. He’s the pastor for a big church in Chicago now. And I also studied with Tim Turner. Tim now is a jazz director down at Xavier University.

So many great jazz players came out of Memphis.

Memphis really doesn’t understand the history, and the role the city plays in jazz music. The people that played the music, and contributed to this music worldwide. If you look at cities that the great jazz players came from, and you look at the number that came from particular cities, Memphis is up there. You know, Philly, maybe Detroit. But Memphis is definitely in the top five.

I mean, you got Charles Lloyd, you got George Coleman, Hank Crawford, Phineas Newborn, Jr., Donald Brown, James Williams, Mulgrew Miller, Bill Easley, Kirk Whalum, and Harold Mabern, Jr. And Herman Green! I played with Herman at the first jazz festival I played. I was back here in Memphis one summer and he asked me. It was me, Herman Green, and Terry Saffold. We were in Nashville, opening up for Lionel Hampton at a jazz festival. I’ll never forget that! It’s just a long list of musicians from Memphis that have done a lot for jazz. But Memphis is not aware of it. Memphians don’t know their history.

Memphis Jazz Workshop events at Hutchison School, Saturday, February 24.
10:30-11:30 am:   Master drum class with Ulysses Owens, Jr.
11:30-12:30 pm:   “Carving out your own space in the music industry”
                                      — entrepreneurial workshop with Owens.
6:15-6:45 pm:      Memphis Jazz Workshop student ensembles performances.
7:30-8:30 pm:      Concert with Owens and members of the faculty.

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Joe Restivo: Back to Trio Jazz in a Big Way

When I spoke with Joe Restivo about his jazz trio’s upcoming performances Friday, February 9th at Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC), the Memphis guitarist and composer had just wrapped up a phone call about booking another gig. And the night before we spoke, Restivo’s trio finished a two-night residency at Spindini in downtown Memphis. Let that be proof positive that Restivo has, as the saying goes, a lot of irons in the fire.

“We’re going to be playing some tunes by Thelonious Monk. We’re doing some Benny Golson, two pieces by Billy Strayhorn, who was Duke Ellington’s arranger and co-writer,” Restivo says of the upcoming show’s set list. “I’m doing some arrangements of mine of some standards, you know American Songbook stuff. We’re doing a version of [the Stylistics song] ‘People Make the World Go Round’ that I arranged. A few things of mine. I think it’s going to be an interesting mix.”

“When I booked this,” Restivo says of his two shows at GPAC on Friday, “I was like ‘Is anybody going to come to this?’” Those Spindini sets aside, Restivo has recently spent more time soldiering in the soul trenches and playing with a quartet, but the busy guitarist was excited to try out some more straightforward jazz numbers during the two one-hour sets on Friday. The performances will mark a return, of sorts, for Restivo. While admitting to his eclectic influences, Restivo still has a fondness for “straight-ahead,” traditional jazz. But of course, any artistic change brings with it a degree of stress. “The next night Branford Marsalis is there,” Restivo says and laughs. “No pressure!”

Restivo is a Memphis-raised, New York-trained guitarist and composer who cut his teeth on live performance with a brief punk phase at the Antenna Club as a teenager, before quickly transitioning to jazz. He has played in trios, quartets, and larger ensembles, and he’s open about his diverse tastes, citing soul influences along with the jazz. Indeed, many know him best for his work with the Bo-Keys, backing soul greats like Don Bryant and Percy Wiggins.

Restivo’s quartet has been playing a weekly set on Sundays at Lafayette’s Music Room in Overton Square, but this week’s GPAC show will showcase a different group of musicians. He’s playing with a stripped-down ensemble of guitar, bass, and drums, and grooving in a more traditional style. “I haven’t been doing enough straight-ahead jazz,” Restivo says. “Not as much as I want to be, so to me, this gig has got me kick-started to do more of a straight-ahead thing as opposed to a lot of the other work I do in town,” he adds. “I’ve been doing a lot of soul music.” Restivo graduated from the Jazz and Contemporary Music Program at New School University in New York, but he readily confesses, “I have relatively eclectic tastes in music.

“I wanted to do something different. The City Champs is like an organ trio, and I’ve got a group called Detective Bureau, which is a sextet. It’s got horns and percussion,” Restivo says, ticking off a few of his many projects. “But I wanted to do something to get into the upright bass, drums, guitar trio. It’s just a certain kind of instrumentation that I’ve always loved. It’s really challenging, because you’re pretty much out there by yourself. You don’t have anything other than an upright bass harmonically to rely on. So there’s a lot of space, which is challenging but also really cool.”

As for the trio’s lineup, Restivo perks up when he mentions his fellow musicians. “I’m using Tim Goodwin and Tom Lonardo, who are Memphis stalwart players. I grew up watching them. These are musicians I looked up to coming up, so it’s an honor to include them on this,” Restivo says. “This GPAC thing has been sort of a catalyst to get back into that game.” Restivo says he feels as though he has grown as a musician since he composed some of his pieces included in the set list, and he sounds eager to flex his musical muscles while revisiting those songs with the challenging-but-cool trio instrumentation. And it all seems only to have whetted his appetite for traditional jazz. “Now, I’m like ‘Well, maybe I should make a record.’”

A short lull falls on the conversation as Restivo pulls up GPAC’s website to double-check the price of the event. The first show sold out, Restivo notes happily. After a pause, he adds, “Oh cool, the second show is sold out. Sweet.”

Joe Restivo, Friday, January 9th at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. at Germantown Performing Arts Center. $25.

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African Jazz Ensemble and the Rhythms of Freedom

CREDIT: Jamie Harmon

Jamie Harmon

African Jazz Ensemble

The African Jazz Ensemble may be the best kept musical secret in Memphis. Founded over two decades ago by Ekpe Abioto, they’ve forged a hybrid blend of influences with an impressive roster of players, many springing from the Memphis high school scenes of Melrose, East, Booker T. Washington, and Manassas. In anticipation of their show tomorrow afternoon at the Harbor Town Amphitheater, I spoke with Abioto about how the group has evolved and the message they’re trying to get across.

Memphis Flyer: So you’ve been doing the African Jazz Ensemble 25 years. I imagine you’ve had some personnel changes over time.

Ekpe Abioto: Yeah, there was a vibraphonist here, by name of Ron Williams. He played with me and he died like twenty years ago. And then I recently met DeAnte Payne who’s 19 years old and studying at the Univ of Memphis right now. He’s been been playing vibraphone with us since we first met. And when my friend Dywane Thomas, Sr. got back from Italy — he lived in Italy for about 17 years — he started playing bass with us.

Yeah I know his son a little bit, MonoNeon. And Dywane Thomas, Sr.’s dad was supposedly a heck of a piano player.

Yeah, Charles Thomas. Yes. So he schooled Donald Brown and James Williams and all those guys, you know. I think it was 2000 when Charles died. Anyway, I play sax, flute, African percussion and Kalimba. Another saxophone player is James White. Three of us were in high school together. We were in a group back in the day. It started out as Exotic Movement and we got a record contract and it changed to Galaxy. So we started out playing together back during that time. And when it was Exotic Movement we had some other members. Kirk Whalum was in the group. We were all in high school. Blair Cunningham. He came from a family of drummers out of South Memphis, Booker T Washington. Anyway, he left and went to Europe and toured with Paul McCartney for a while. That was the original Exotic Movement.

As far as African Jazz Ensemble is concerned, the influence comes from my upbringing and listening to Afro-Caribbean music, African music — Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela from South Africa, Guy Warren out of Ghana. That was the music that I was raised up with in my household with my older siblings. You know I’m the youngest of 14, so I was greatly influenced by the music that my older siblings brought into the household. And even when I was doing more popular stuff with Galaxy and everything, that African theme was always there running through.

Even Memphis music, the rhythm of Stax, the rhythm of Hi, really that’s African music. The rhythm of the blues — WC Handy even talks about it. He said the blues originated from African music, certain rhythms. He talks about it in his autobiography.

What are some other influences?

We do some Coltrane, we do some Nina Simone, we do some Leon Thomas.

I saw where you recently did a tribute to A Love Supreme. That must have been quite an undertaking.

Yes, that’s one of our staples because the whole thing is about presenting love. That’s what we do with our music. You know there’s an African proverb that says ‘music has the power to heal or kill’. That applies to some of this hip hop music today. Even rap originated in Africa. Now rap is being used lately in a negative way. But Skinny Pimp, and some of those original Memphis rappers from back in the day, in the ’80s, they’re coming around now and doing a positive CD addressing the issue of the violence. And I love that. I’m saying that because we do “A Love Supreme,” and it’s just a way to present love, and address the hatred that is happening within the community. I would say both in the black community and in the community at large.

The music is the thing. That’s why we open up with that African song, a straight African drum rhythm song, and then we go into “A Love Supreme,” that’s our opening. And we get the audience involved with a call and response chant. That’s our way of letting people know that’s what we’re here for.

This is what I tell people. Because of slavery, we couldn’t play drums, you know. It was against the law. All this goes back to Haiti, with Toussaint L’Ouverture, where they were using music of African culture and African traditions to lift their spirits to fight their oppressor. So from the slave masters’ perspective, anything that was African was suppressed.

That’s why that stigma is still embedded in the culture of the South, in terms of the supremacy of the South. That’s exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing, because of that mentality. It’s time to get rid of that slave mentality. Whether it’s white supremacy or black inferiority.

We have to move forward. Sometimes you gotta go backwards to move forward. It’s about freedom, the African Jazz Ensemble represents freedom. It’s about freeing yourself from what ever cultural bias. It’s about freedom and that’s what the drums in Africa represent. They represent resisting slavery, about unity, it’s about all of those things. Going back to what Coltrane did, songs that he did later on, it was about freeing himself up. That’s what it was about. Musical freedom and community and a love supreme. It’s for everybody, it’s for all ages, all ethnicities. When people hear it and they feel it, it’s like ‘Wow, so this is what freedom feels like.’

The African Jazz Ensemble is:
Ekpe Abioto – kalimba, flute, saxes, African drums/ percussion
John Black- guitar, percussion
Bluebian Durelle- trumpet, flugelhorn, valve trombone
Kennard Farmer- vocals, keyboard, percussion
Cequita Monique- vocals, percussion
DeAnte Payne- vibraphone, keyboard, percussion
Reginald Taber- djimbe, congas, percussion
Dywane “Tarif” Thomas- bass guitar, percussion
Melvin Turner- congas, percussion
James “Black” White- saxes, Flute, percussion

African Jazz Ensemble w/ Moticos, River Series at the Harbor Town Amphitheater, Nov. 5 at 3 pm.

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A Week’s Tribute to Jimmie Lunceford

Ron Herd II is a man with a mission, and a very Memphi-centric one at that: to honor the memory of the great jazz band leader, Jimmie Lunceford. Although not a native Memphian, Lunceford was one of the first to put the city’s music on the map when he transformed the Manassas High School band, which he directed, into a crack jazz unit with whom he ultimately toured the country and cut scores of records.

Herd has regularly paid honor to Lunceford every June by holding ceremonies on the band leader’s birthday at his grave site in Elmwood Cemetery. But this year he’s ramping it up with an entire week of events memorializing Lunceford and his contributions to music.

In addition to panel discussions and a film screening, the week will be punctuated with concerts featuring Lunceford’s music. Much to Herd’s credit, his annual events have always encouraged local musicians to join in any performances with their own instruments, and this new tribute week is no different. Concerts scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday of next week will be open to any musician who thinks they can hold their own with the players celebrating an era when Jimmie Lunceford was king. Below is a schedule of planned events. Be sure to check Herd’s website for updates on venues which are as yet to be determined.

  • Kickoff at Manassas High School–Monday, October 23, 2017, 12:45 pm-2:15pm
  • “Memphis Rhythm Was His Business: A Jimmie Lunceford Discussion.” Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017 @ Benjamin Hooks Public Library, Memphis Room, 4th Floor. (6:00pm- 8:00 pm).
    Panel Discussion: Moderator:  Melvin Massey; Panelists:  Ronald Herd, II, Seth Taylor, Carla Thomas, Elaine Turner, Dr. John Bass, Dr. James Gholson, Dr. Reverend Kenneth Whalum, Jr,  Dr.  Bill Hurd, and Phillip Joyner

  • 2017 Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival Homecoming Court. Announcement of King and Queen/Prince and Princess along with court recognition – Old Daisy Theatre, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017 (6:30 pm, reception at 6:00 pm)
  • “Blues in the Night” Movie – Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Thursday, October 26, 2017 @ 6 pm–9 pm; (arrive early and be seated before 6:30 on a first come, first serve basis with movie passes). 
    Also: a 10 minute short film featuring The Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra and a panel discussion.  Moderator:  Jackie Murray; Panelists:  Ronald Herd, II, Phillip Joyner, Steve Lee, Dr. David Acey, and Ekpe Abioto

  • Jimmie Lunceford Jazznocracy Art Show/Talk & Jam Session (tentative) during Trolley Night – Friday, Oct. 27, 2017 (6 pm – 9 pm)
  • Jimmie Lunceford & The Future Of The Memphis Sound: Panel Discussion,  Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017 — Cossitt Public Library @ 12 noon 33 S Front St, Memphis, TN 38103
  • Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Jazznocracy Concert, Oct. 28, 2017 (location tbd).
  • Jimmie Lunceford Tribute Finale @ Brinson’s, Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017 4pm-7pm.

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Respect for An Unsung Hero of Jazz: Jimmie Lunceford

In 1927, a young athletic director and English teacher at Manassas High School volunteered to teach music to interested students in addition to his regular duties, thus becoming the city’s first public high school band director. The teacher, a Mississippi native, had studied several instruments in Denver with the father of the great Paul Whiteman. Perhaps this inspired him to think big for his kids, whom he dubbed the “Chickasaw Syncopators”. Or perhaps his students were already accomplished, having grown up playing in local churches. For whatever reason, this high school band began performing professionally by 1929. The following year, they made their first recording. By then, of course, they had ditched their original stage name, taking instead the name of their teacher and director: the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra.

After some years of touring, they took up residence at The Cotton Club in Harlem, where Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway were already featured. They soon became recognized for their tight ensemble playing and humorous theatrics, with songs like “I’m Nuts about Screwy Music”. This was when they really hit their stride, beginning a long run of vinyl releases on Decca through the rest of the 1930s. Then, in 1947, it all ended suddenly with Lunceford’s sudden heart failure before a show in Oregon.

The tradition he began at Manassas persisted though, with that high school spawning some of the greatest jazz players the city has seen, including Phineas Newborn, Jr., Booker Little, George Porter, Harold Mabern, Charles Lloyd, and Frank Strozier. As Miles Davis wrote in his autobiography, “Before I left for New York, I had had tryouts for the band and that’s where I got all those Memphis musicians — Coleman, Strozier, and Mabern. (They had gone to school with the great young trumpet player Booker Little, who soon after this died of leukemia, and the pianist Phineas Newborn. I wonder what they were doing down there when all them guys came through that one school?)”.

Local musician and activist Ron Herd II, aka R2C2H2, has personally taken on the mission of remembering the great Jimmie Lunceford here in the city where he was laid to rest. Tuesday, June 6, Lunceford’s birthday, will mark the first annual Jimmie Lunceford Wreath Laying Ceremony at his graveside in Elmwood Cemetery. A free, family-friendly event with cake and other refreshments, it could prove especially lively if guests accept Herd’s invitation to bring instruments and pay honor to Lunceford with an impromptu open-mic jam.

Jimmie Lunceford & His Dance Orchestra, ca. 1936:

Respect for An Unsung Hero of Jazz: Jimmie Lunceford (2)

When: Tuesday June 6, 2017

Where: Elmwood Cemetery (The Lord’s Chapel & graveside)
824 S. Dudley Street. • Memphis, TN 38104

Time: 10:30am-1pm Central
(Wreath Laying Ceremony begins at graveside, located at South Grove 10, Lot 437. The rest of program will be conducted at The Lord’s Chapel, located across from the administrative building near the front entrance of Elmwood Cemetery).

For inquiries, call Ron Herd II at (901)299-4355.
http://www.jimmielunceford.com/