Swedish Jam Factory – Memphis Flyer

Gene Phillips has been raising money for St. Jude Children’s Hospital at his birthday parties for more than 40 years. This was taken in the late 1990s or early 2000s with me, sporting a different color hair, and Willie Bland, wife of the late Bobby Blue Bland.

Gene Phillips celebrated his birthday — and the birthday of every guest who is an Aquarian — at his Germantown home. The party, which was held February 10th, included a red-and-white iced cake bearing the words “Happy Aquarius Birthdays!” Since my birthday is February 1st, I qualified for a big slice.

Originally, the parties honored the birthday of the late Rufus Thomas. Thomas was a regular at the event.

Just about every room in Phillips’ house is dedicated to a celebrity friend or just a friend. He’s got the Rufus Thomas music room, Bobby Blue Bland media room, and the Anita “Ring My Bell” Ward wall, to name a few.

This year, Phillips dedicated a wall to me — the “Michael Donahue Wall,” where a photo of me, Gene, and Willie Bland hangs.

Phillips, who asks guests to make donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital instead of giving gifts to him, has raised about $100,000 since he began throwing the event more than 40 years ago.

Michael Donahue

Gene Phillips and Dr. Greg Hanissian at this year’s birthday party

Michael Donahue

Spencer McMillin and Rick Farmer at the Chef’s Partnership Dinner

Spencer McMillin, Rick Farmer, and Andrew Saunders teamed up for the Chef’s Partnership Dinner, which was held January 20th at Caritas Community Center & Cafe.

The dinner, which included courses prepared by each chef, was a special one for McMillin. “Rick and Barbara Farmer’s restaurant — Jarrett’s — was a Memphis institution,” he says. “When it closed suddenly in 2008, for me personally, it felt a little like the passing of a family member. Rick and I had been passing friends before my stint in the Jarrett’s kitchen in 2005, but after it I considered Rick — like a lot of us in the life do — a father figure. Without getting into lurid detail, Rick helped me get through a rough patch that year. His kindness and patience with me, together with an insistence that I put my own menu items on the Jarrett’s menu, left an indelible mark.

“Working side by side with Rick at L’ecole Culinaire (2009-2012) subsequent to our time together at Jarrett’s was incredible. I never thought I’d get the opportunity again. Being cubicle mates with Rick was beyond fun.”

Saunders, who worked with McMillin and Farmer at L’ecole Culinaire, now works at Meal MD.

Also in the kitchen were Matt Crone, Duncan Aiken, and Patrick Gilbert. “Bringing the old 2005 Jarrett’s crew together for the January Chef’s Partnership Dinner at Caritas was a hospitality family reunion of the highest order and the fulfillment of a Memphis restaurant legacy. And I have to say, it was the most fun I’ve had cooking on the line in years.”

Michael Donahue

Matt Crone, Spencer McMillin, Rick Farmer, Duncan Aiken, Patrick Gilbert and Andrew Saunders at Chef’s Partnership Dinner

MIchael Donahue

Prior to the show, audience members could view art by Frederique Zindy and Marilyn League in the Levy Gallery outside the auditorium.

Michael Donahue

Alexis Grace (left) attended the Swedish Jam Factory performance featuring her husband, Thomas Bergstig, and Isaac Middleton. With her are Lucy Sterling, Ryan Zabielski, and Buckman Performing and Fine Arts Center director Cindi Younker.

Michael Donahue

Memphis filmmaker Kevin Brooks, who won the Memphis Film Prize two years in a row, with Memphis & Shelby County Film Commissioner Linn Sitler at the 20 Under 30 reception, which was held January 30th at Central Station Ballroom. Sitler nominated Brooks, who was one of the 20 Under 30 recipients.

Michael Donahue

Gopal Murti, who exhibited art at the Incognito! Art Soiree and Silent Auction, won first prize in the costume contest at the show, where guests bid on artwork not knowing who actually did the artwork. All the work in the show, held January 31st at Memphis Botanic Garden, was unsigned; guests learned who the artist was after they bought the work.

…and, of course, this photo had to be taken.

Michael Donahue

HARBINGER OF SPRING NUMBER 1: A sure sign of spring is when the crabapple trees bloom on Belvedere.

WE SAW YOU AROUND TOWN

Michael Donahue

Attending “The Play That Goes Wrong” at the Orpheum were Charlene Honeycutt and Kacky Walton.

Michael Donahue

Meghan Stuthard and Holly Whitfield at “The Play That Goes Wrong”

Michael Donahue

Marty Brooks and Ashley Calhoun at “The Play That Goes Wrong”

Swedish Jam Factory — formerly Swedish Gun Factory — will make its debut theatrical performance in Memphis at Buckman Performing Arts Center at St. Mary’s Episcopal School this weekend.

The duo, which consists of Thomas Bergstig and Isaac Middleton, tap dances while singing and playing musical instruments.

They formed the group four years ago, but this is the first time they’ve performed their more-than-hour-long show in a theatrical setting in Memphis, Middleton says.

Carla McDonald

He and Bergstig sing and play several instruments, including guitar, piano, banjo, and mandolin, and employ a range of musical styles from classical to punk rock while they’re tapping.

In 2016, they released an album, Chris Raines, which features their original music.

Describing the Buckman show, Middleton says, “The numbers are basically an accumulation of all of the material that we have made over the last four years.”

The show will feature their original material as well as covers, which range from The Beatles to the Norwegian band A-ha. They also will perform movie and Broadway standards. And classical pieces, Middleton says. “Taking a nod to certain composers like Mozart and Beethoven.”

Bergstig, a native of Stockholm, Sweden, got into musical theater when he was 21. He and some friends formed a tap dancing group called JEERK. Like Swedish Jam Factory, the members of JEERK played musical instruments while they danced.

In 2009, JEERK got a gig in Branson, Missouri. Bergstig stayed after he met Memphis singer Alexis Grace at the Andy Williams Theater. He eventually moved to Memphis, where he and Grace were married. Bergstig taught tap dancing and, later, he became Playhouse on the Square’s music director.

Middleton, who was born in Harlan, Kentucky, but grew up in Chihuahua, Mexico, became fascinated with tap dancing when he was 15 after seeing the movie Singin’ in the Rain.

He moved to Memphis in 2016 to appear in the Playhouse on the Square production of Kiss Me Kate.

After meeting Bergstig on a friend’s porch, the two began writing music and developing tap dance routines, Middleton says. Swedish Gun Factory was formed shortly after.

They wanted a name people would strongly react to. A “Swedish gun factory” was something that wouldn’t exist, Bergstig says. “Coming from a country where people don’t have guns, we do not have such a thing as mass shootings,” he says. “Of course, every now and then the shooting happens. It’s nothing like in America.”

In 2017, Bergstig and Grace moved to Los Angeles, but Bergstig and Middleton continued to perform in Swedish Gun Factory. Middleton moved to Los Angeles in 2018.

The duo appeared on Sweden’s Got Talent, a Swedish show similar to America’s Got Talent, in 2017. “Through that we got some steam going,” Middleton says.

About two years ago, they substituted “Jam” for “Gun” because of “the political climate surrounding gun violence,” Middleton says. “‘Jam’ felt like a good way to go. It best encompasses, more or less, what we do.”

Asked their long-term goal for the band, Bergstig says, “Las Vegas would be perfect, but it doesn’t have to be an ultimate goal. It could definitely be something that would be worth aiming at. I think we both are open to what might happen. I would love to do Broadway.”

“I definitely see us going that route,” Middleton says. “It’s funny ’cause we’ve been making all these short-term goals, but I don’t think I’ve even thought about long-term goals.”

Swedish Jam Factory will perform Friday, January 31st, at Buckman Performing Arts Center at 60 Perkins Ext. Tickets are $28.