He may be one of the best kept secrets of the local blues scene, though he’s won some national recognition in the music press and made an appearance on Beale Street Caravan. It’s just that Willie Farmer doesn’t get to Memphis much. Of course, he had to come here to record his 2019 album, The Man From the Hill (Big Legal Mess), at Bruce Watson’s Delta-Sonic Sound, which made the Memphis Flyer‘s best-of list that year. But he’s too busy working as a mechanic in Mississippi to make regular trips here. That’s why the show at The Green Room at Crosstown Concourse this Thursday, June 15th, is a rare opportunity to see him live.
It was with good reason that The Man From the Hill was named one of 2019’s best LPs. As the Flyer noted at the time:
The first epiphany comes from the guitar tone. Farmer’s amp exudes a wonderful crud, a dirty squawk that seems to boil up out of the ground itself, like crude. After a few volleys on the strings to clear the air and put your mind in the zone, George Sluppick’s rock-solid drumming kicks in and we’re off, journeying through an album marked by the pitch-perfect, no-nonsense production we’ve come to expect from Big Legal Mess.
People talk about garage rock a lot (too much?) these days, but this is true garage blues. That’s not to suggest it’s especially frenetic. Rather, from the tone alone, you can feel in your bones the scene of Farmer’s auto repair shop in Duck Hill, Mississippi. And Farmer’s playing also conveys both the rough hewn strength and the sensitivity one develops from growing up on a farm.
It’s a style not often heard in these days of pop-crossover blues, made all the more powerful by Farmer’s soulful voice.
Opening the show will be two artists who’ve proven to be worthy acolytes of the blues. Shaun Marsh, a U.K. native, has mastered the finger-picking style of country and Delta blues from recordings of the forms’ early pioneers. It was that music that brought him to Memphis, where he continues to study these historical styles, with a repertoire ranging from Robert Johnson to Charley Patton, from Skip James to Big Bill Broonzy. He’ll have drummer Lynn Greer on Thursday, giving his set extra oomph.
In the night’s middle slot will be Ryan Lee Crosby from Medford, Massachusetts, who’s been turning heads for years with his blend of traditional music from Mississippi, Mali, and India, including what he calls “Hindustani slide guitar.”
As Mike Greenblatt writes in Goldmine magazine, “With a riveting singing style and the compositional chops to pull off such searing sagas ‘Institution Blues’ and ‘Down So Long’ plus add new lyrics to the 19th century ‘Was It The Devil,’ Ryan Lee is the real deal. Recorded in Memphis by Bruce Watson of Fat Possum — the label famous for RL Burnside and Junior Kimbrough — it sounds unique, proudly independent and like a relic from another time.”
The Otis Mission: L-R, Alvie Givhan, Tony Dickerson, Christian Kirk, Joe Restivo, Carl Caspersen, James (Otis) Sexton, DeAnté Payne, & James (Jennings) Sexton (Photo courtesy James Sexton)
When Crosstown Arts musical director Jenny Davis introduced The Green Room’s featured artist last Friday, she noted something unique about him: “For those of you who don’t know, James Sexton is the unofficial M.V.P. of jazz month, he’s drummed with so many of the bands performing this March.” And while it’s true that Sexton is one of the city’s most versatile drummers, often playing with the Ted Ludwig trio and their disparate collaborators, last Friday wasn’t about his track record. Rather, it was about tracks, his tracks, never yet heard on a record but surely deserving it.
To a sold out room, Sexton and band took to the stage as he gave a shout out to his time studying with Dr. Jack Cooper and the late Tim Goodwin at the University of Memphis Scheidt School of Music, noting that while he never finished his degree there, it had profoundly affected his grasp of music and arranging. Creating his dream band, the Otis Mission, for Friday’s debut was a culmination of those and many more years of composing and arranging. “Otis is my middle name,” Sexton explains, “named after my late godfather Otis Washington.”
While one could broadly describe the compositions as jazz fusion, that would belie the stylistic versatility of the band, as they deftly navigated charts bursting with stop-time phrases and unison lines in the classic jazz fusion approach, yet ranging from funk to salsa to reggae to gospel. That band included Sexton on drums, Alvie Givhan on keyboards, Tony Dickerson on “auxiliary keys,” Joe Restivo on guitar, Carl Caspersen on bass, DeAnté Payne on mallet instruments (via a large set of pads triggering samples), and Christian Kirk and brother James “Jennings” Sexton as guest singers, and they rose to the challenge of the material’s complexity with aplomb.
And yet, to hear James Sexton tell it, that was just the beginning. “This is a condensed version of The Otis Mission,” he wrote to the Memphis Flyer. “I originally wrote the music for a 15-piece ensemble, consisting of three singers, three horns, a string quartet, keys, bass, lead guitar, percussion, and drums. So the next show will be the whole kit and caboodle.”
As a drummer, Sexton is a world-class talent, having performed or recorded with the likes of En Vogue, Amy Grant, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Branford Marsalis, Kirk Whalum, BeBe Winans, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, and Stevie Wonder. But last Friday, he was playing for one person in particular: “I just really wanted my dad to hear it,” he notes. “He’s been on me the last three years or so. We’d tried to pull off the show before Covid hit, but it didn’t work out. So, I’m very relieved to have finally gotten the ball rolling, with my pops in attendance.”
The group brought Sexton’s work to life with precision and soul, offering some stunning solos along the way, including Sexton’s own solo turn on the kit as he kept a perfect clave beat with a foot pedal hitting a wood block. Below, Sexton offers his commentary on the intricate, funky pieces he premiered last Friday:
James Sexton (Photo courtesy Crosstown Arts)
•No Limit ‘Cept Yo Limits is “funk inspired, a Prince kinda vibe.” •A.M. Spired, a compositional highlight, was “inspired by modal jazz of the ’50s and ’60s.” •Duly Noted. Lesson Learned was based on a “bad experience that’ll never happen again. A mixer of rock and reggae that featured prominent Memphis guitarist Joe Restivo and myself.” •Get up Sunshine was “inspired by classic vocal jazz ballads, and featured Christian Kirk, the daughter of legendary Memphis jazz pianist Sidney Kirk. It also featured Alvie Givhan on piano and DeAnte Payne on vibes. The message is simply ‘Don’t dim your light. The world needs it.'” •Eden’s Aura was “inspired by my then five-year-old daughter’s mood swings, and my time playing in a salsa band. Her name is Sarah Eden Sexton. It featured DeAnte Payne, Alvie Givhan, and myself.” •Got That Good Feelin’ (How bout’ Chu?) was “inspired by my time as a drummer in the The New Orleans Jazz Ramblers. A great tune for a second line dance.” •The Liberator, sung by Sexton’s brother James “Jennings” Sexton, revealed the importance of the church to Sexton. “This shows my gospel roots. In the Christian faith, Jesus is the door to liberation, in every aspect of life.” •The Hatchling, a title Sexton said referred to himself, is “an up-tempo jazz fusion tune, inspired by artists like James Brown, Tower of Power, or the Dave Weckl Band. There’s a fusion version of a James Brown tune called ‘The Chicken,’ and this would be my version of an updated spin off.”
Peter Bernstein is a jazz cat’s jazz cat, straight out of the New York scene. As such, he’s a perfect exemplar of what Crosstown Arts has dubbed “jazz month” — that is, a March calendar bursting with shows that reveal the many facets of what’s called jazz today. There’s quite a stylistic spread under that umbrella, but Bernstein, who’ll appear with the Ted Ludwig Trio at The Green Room on Tuesday, March 14th, is that rare player who has full command of standards and bop, yet revels in stretching out beyond anything safe or “traditional.”
As a leader, Bernstein has released nine albums, and as a sideman the guitarist has backed the likes of Sonny Rollins, Bobby Hutcherson, Lou Donaldson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Fathead Newman, Joshua Redman, Diana Krall, Lee Konitz, Jimmy Cobb, and many more. Memphians will especially appreciate Bernstein’s work with George Coleman, the saxophonist who parlayed his music education at Manassas High School into a career that established him as a legend of 20th- (and now 21st-) century music.
Bernstein reflects on his time with Coleman as he prepares for his Memphis appearance with the Ted Ludwig Trio. “For the Green Room show, I feel like it’s really Ted Ludwig’s gig and I’m the guest,” says Bernstein, “so I told him we’d play whatever he wants to play and we can go from there. It’s all about finding a way to have some fun, whatever the format is. We’re going to do one of my tunes, ‘Dragonfly,’ and we have some standards and different things. It’s nice to play gigs where you don’t know what you’re going to play. I did a gig with George Coleman and we did three nights, and not only did we not repeat any tunes, he would just say a bunch of tunes before the set and then maybe play one of them. He would just call the tunes on the bandstand, and sometimes not even the keys. Just start playing the tune, and you have to figure out what key it is, and hopefully we knew the song. So I’m kind of in that space right now, and not preparing too much. It’s fun to just play what you want in the moment, and hope that everyone comes along with you.”
Indeed, seeing Bernstein at New York’s Village Vanguard last fall with his own quartet (featuring Sullivan Fortner, Doug Weiss, and legendary drummer Al Foster) was a study in spontaneity, as the loose-limbed ensemble would chat between numbers before settling on the next tune. At one point, they hit upon a lesser-known Ray Charles tune, “The Danger Zone,” a soulful blues with some minor chord tweaks that lend it an especially melancholy mood. It was a loose, relatable number that brought a bit of earthy Beale Street flavor to the Manhattan club, and it revealed just how important the blues are to Bernstein’s playing.
“I don’t know if anyone from Memphis would consider me an authentic blues player,” he confesses, “but to me, it’s a part of all the jazz I’ve ever loved, from early Ellington and Louis Armstrong all the way up through Ornette Coleman. And all the guitar players I really love can play the blues, from Grant Green, to Wes Montgomery, to George Benson, to Jim Hall, or Kenny Burrell. I like guys that are not coming from that place, also. But when I play gigs, that’s a form that’s a given. It’s a place we can start from. Everybody is down with playing the blues and playing the blues different ways. We’re not going to sound like Mississippi John Hurt, but we’re playing blues. I try to play the blues in everything, even when there’s a million chord changes. ‘Oh my god, there’s so many chord changes, what do I do?!’ Well, just play the blues. You play the blues because there are so many chord changes.”
As for playing with Ludwig, another guitarist, Bernstein relishes the opportunity to not be the only guitarist onstage. “I play with a lot of guitar players and I always enjoy the challenge to not just have it sound like one 12-string guitar. To distinguish yourself tonally and personality-wise, so people can see and hear a conversation. We guitar players hang out anyway, so if we can do it on a gig and make it work for people to listen to, then it’s always a lot of fun.”
Unlike your typical band from, say, Austin or Philadelphia, it’s hard to geolocate the band Making Movies, appearing this Thursday, February 23rd at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts. Technically, they’re from Kansas City, but the band’s diversity showcases just what a world city that Missouri metropolis has become.
Consider the personnel: founding singer, guitarist, and songwriter Enrique Chi, and his brother, bassist Diego Chi, are Panamanian; percussionist Juan-Carlos Chaurand is of Mexican descent; and drummer Duncan Burnettspecializes in Black gospel.
Together, they’ve crafted a unique brand of rock blended with African, African American, and Latin American rhythms and structures. Singing in both English and Spanish, playing electric guitars and indigenous instruments, Making Movies has developed a sound that Rolling Stone calls “an eclectic blend of rumbero percussions, delicate organs, and grungy fuzz rock.”
Percussive, grungy fuzz rock? Sounds pretty Memphis. But recently the band took it a step further and recorded with Hi Rhythm organist Rev. Charles Hodges (featured in this Memphis Flyer cover story) and the Sensational Barnes Brothers (featured here). With these cameos, “Calor,” from their 2022 album Xopa, puts a Memphis flavor front and center. The song is also featured in the band’s PBS music documentary AMERI’KANA, aired in April 2022 in various markets.
Thursday’s show will feature the Barnes Brothers, lending the band’s Memphis appearance a special magic. Soon they’ll be South by Southwest (SXSW)-bound, where they may well connect with other collaborators. That list often includes longtime band champion Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, but Panamanian songster Rubén Blades has also cowritten with them, and other Making Movies collaborators include Hurray for the Riff Raff, trumpeter Asdru Sierra of Ozomatli, Puerto Rican salsero Frankie Negròn, and the women’s mariachi group Flor de Toloache.
August 17, 2018, was a historic night in the Bluff City. A new space in the newly renovated Crosstown Concourse, The Green Room, was about to enjoy its inaugural concert — the culmination of years of planning. A sizable audience had gathered to hear the music of celebrated avant-garde pioneer John Cage, and a hush fell over the room as the lights dimmed. Then Jenny Davis, a flutist in the genre-defying Blueshift Ensemble, stepped up and began to play … a cactus.
Jenny Davis (Photo: Jamie Harmon)
Around her was a scene from a gardening shop. Cacti of different sizes were arrayed on a table, and Davis was systematically plucking the thorns of each plant as if it were a drum. Each movement resonated over the sound system; the cacti were outfitted with microphone pickups. It was as if we’d all shrunk to the size of geckos, immersed in a world of desert greenery, every brush of the needles an arpeggio.
For lovers of unusual sounds and textures, Davis’ performance was captivating. But it also marked the beginning of an avant-garde renaissance that is putting Memphis on the map of all that is strange and fascinating in 21st century music. It was only fitting that Davis was making the sounds, as that night foreshadowed the extent to which she, as programmer of Crosstown Arts’ musical performances, would be making waves. As it turns out, she’s only one of a host of players and presenters who are introducing Memphis audiences to sounds well off the beaten path. Beyond that, she sees no need to define what the music is. It’s here to stay, whatever you call it. “The avant-garde realm is hard to describe,” Davis says. “It becomes kind of tricky. Maybe it’s not even necessary to always describe something as being in one genre or another.”
The Cactus in the Room: A State of Mind
As Davis notes, playing Cage’s “Child of Tree” that night was a prescient grand opening. “That was the first concert we ever did in The Green Room,” she notes, “which I love. We christened the room with some John Cage!” In keeping with that, the space has become a key venue for musicians who want nothing more than to be listened to, and it’s likely rooted in the context of that first show. As part of the 2018 Continuum Festival, also organized by Davis, attendees could learn of the different states of mind that most avant-garde music demands, with talks on “Suggestions on How to Listen to Contemporary Classical Music” or a “Mindful Listening Workshop” based on composer Pauline Oliveros’ sound and meditation activities.
The seriousness suggested by such presentations is often belied by the sheer playfulness of the music. Beyond cacti, for example, the John Cage tribute also included his “Imaginary Landscape No. 4,” in which players adjusted the frequencies and volumes of 12 transistor radios. Whether whimsical or disturbing, the one thing that most avant-garde, experimental, or “out” music has in common is the need for deep listening. While B-Side Memphis or the Lamplighter Lounge have also cultivated scenes for strange music, The Green Room and its big sibling, Crosstown Theater, have set the standard of spaces that encourage silence.
Art Edmaiston, a veteran saxophonist of more conventional R&B, soul, and rock ensembles, has played enough noisy bars in his storied career to really appreciate silence. “You know, people wander into bars just to have a drink, and then they’ll say, ‘What is this? Why is a guy dragging a music stand across the floor? What’s going on with the flame thrower?’” he says with a chuckle. Such a crowd may not be tuned in to the subtleties of experimental music, and that can impact the playing itself. “The other thing is how quiet some of the music can be,” he notes. “We’re all listening. If you’re not in a listening environment, which means the crowd has to be quiet, then it’s hard for us to communicate, almost telepathically, and everybody’s going to miss what’s going on.”
What’s Going On
Edmaiston is a key figure in the local music landscape, and his involvement in the free improvisational group SpiralPhonics is indicative of just how much is happening on the cutting edge here. As he describes it, just having a venue for avant-garde music has made all the difference. “It’s hard for our little group to find places,” he says. “Revenue and venue, it’s all kinda in there together. You’ve got to find people. Listeners needed!” That has usually required staying on the more accessible side of the street. “Playing commercial music, you have a structure and vocabulary applicable to that situation. If you come in playing like Albert Ayler on [a track like] ‘Take Me to the River,’ you’re not going to be called back. So throughout most of my career, I was trying to assimilate, trying to be a studio musician. I’ve had a life of doing that, but never lost my desire to be on the more artistic side of things.”
When drummer Terence Clark proposed collaborating in a more improvisational context, and they joined forces with guitarist Logan Hanna to form SpiralPhonics, the mere existence of a venue helped them to manifest their vision. “We only played sporadically,” he recalls. “So we booked The Green Room in order to make us get our stuff together.” Ultimately, the gig not only brought their group into focus; it led to their debut album. “The Green Room being a listening room, that’s the spot to do it,” says Edmaiston. “That’s where we recorded our Argot Session. It was a live performance that we recorded there, and we couldn’t have done it anywhere else. It would take a lot more tries to get good takes and a quiet environment somewhere else. Your head space has to be right.”
Others note the resurgence of “out” music as well. Chad Fowler, a saxophonist, woodwind player, composer, and producer from Arkansas, studied at the University of Memphis in the 1990s, and the experimental music scene here at that time had a profound impact on him. Having then left town, he was surprised upon his return over a decade later. “I felt, when I first moved back to Memphis six or seven years ago, like there was a real dearth of creative music happening. It was kind of disappointing. I felt it had been stronger in the ’90s. However, since then it feels like it’s changed. A lot of it is due to Jenny Davis and Blueshift. Crosstown and B-Side have made a huge difference.”
The scene’s personal impact on Fowler is in turn reflecting back on the local environment. Having ultimately settled back in Arkansas, he’s nevertheless a regular in the avant-garde music world of Memphis, even as he also increases his profile in the New York experimental scene. His Mahakala Music label, focused on experimental jazz, has built on associations he forged in the ’90s Memphis scene, with players like Marc Franklin, Chris Parker, and Kelley Hurt, and Anders Griffen often appearing on Mahakala releases today. But he’s also used his and others’ connections to New York, Chicago, and New Orleans to create ensembles of world-class players from elsewhere, often bringing them to Memphis.
Dopolarians at The Green Room (Photo: Jack T. Adcock)
As Fowler notes, “It’s kind of weird because the same people might be on, like, a New York Times best of jazz year-end list but then also playing in a room the size of a closet for a tiny crowd in Brooklyn. We might get better audiences in Memphis for the same music.” He points to a gig by one of Mahakala’s “all-star” groups, Dopolarians. “With the Dopolarians show, I think William Parker was blown away by how great the energy was when we were there in The Green Room — by how many people came out, how engaged the audience was. It was a good experience.”
Collaborating with William Parker, a highly respected free jazz bassist and co-organizer of the Vision Festival, “New York City’s premier live free jazz event,” according to TheNew York Times, has been a boon to Fowler and Mahakala, arising quite organically from Fowler’s earliest free jazz experiences. Parker played on the debut album of Memphian Frank Lowe in 1973, as Lowe’s star was rising. Ultimately, Lowe would join Alice Coltrane’s band and enjoy a solo career of some renown, yet would still return to Memphis and jam with the likes of Fowler, Franklin, Chris Parker, and other University of Memphis students. Now, Fowler carries that inspiration back to New York on a regular basis, often playing with William Parker in various ensembles and recording projects. Mahakala’s star is now rising as well. “The first record we put out was on Rolling Stone’s end-of-year jazz roundup list,” says Fowler, “and since then, pretty frequently, we’ve been mentioned in Jazziz, JazzTimes, DownBeat, and all the go-to jazz publications. It seems the label is becoming one of the most respected of the genre, even though it’s very new.”
Lately, the links between Memphis and leaders of free jazz from the Northeast have only strengthened, as when drummer Ra Kalam, aka Bob Moses, who’s been on the cutting edge of the free improvisation world since the ’60s, relocated to Memphis permanently. Edmaiston recently played with the drummer on a New Year’s Eve show and was surprised at his embrace of more traditional R&B. Edmaiston recalls, “Ra Kalam told us, ‘Hey man, that was ‘Cleo’s Back!’ I recorded that in 1967 with Larry Coryell and Jim Pepper. We used to play it all the time!’ So that was kind of wild. He can play inside, but he’s developed into something else. When he plays himself, he says, it’s like he’s got to be in Europe to be expressive. Over here, less people want to hear that. Over there, he’s celebrated for it.” Yet now, with improvisational music on the rise here, that’s changing. On January 18th, Ra Kalam will be holding a master class and concert at Nelson Drum Shop in Nashville.
New Music, from Punks to P-basses to Piccolos
If there’s an uptick in free jazz and improvisational groups like SpiralPhonics and Fowler’s various projects, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, since Jenny Davis and Jonathan Kirkscey founded Blueshift Ensemble, a loose collection of Memphis Symphony Orchestra players with a penchant for experimental music, an Iceberg has orbited them — for that’s the name of a composers’ collective that collaborates with Blueshift every August to bring their works to life. “I like to have some new stuff along with some more familiar sounds, and that’s a nice way to introduce new things to audiences,” says Davis. “Blueshift’s work with Iceberg New Music, the composer collective out of New York, encapsulates that idea, too, because it’s a group of 10 composers, some of them more on the experimental, avant-garde side of things and some whose works are more lyrical and tonal, so you have the whole spectrum of what’s going on in new classical music today.”
Other avenues have long been available for the edgier side of the classical world, though they tend to be tucked into programs that showcase more traditional works. Conrad Tao’s “Spoonful,” commissioned in 2020 by the Iris Orchestra in honor of Memphis’ bicentennial, was a New Music tour de force, pivoting from cacophony to explosions of orchestral texture to delicate piano lines in a heartbeat and even a sample of Charley Patton’s “A Spoonful Blues.” It lost none of its power by being sandwiched between works by Haydn and Brahms. And many such experimental works continue to percolate out of the classical world.
A more hybrid approach was concocted by David Collins’ Frog Squad, when they premiered his arrangements of the music of Erik Satie at The Green Room in 2021. Turning the composer’s original sparse arrangements into showcases for a more jazz-oriented octet represented a perfect balance between accessibility and “out” music, as the players took solos with the abandon of a free jazz group, even as they remained grounded in the composer’s classic works. This year, they’re set to release a similar treatment of Horace Silver’s music and an album of all originals.
Misterioso Africano (Photo: Courtesy Khari Wynn)
Frog Squad’s bassist, Khari Wynn, is a virtuoso in his own right. While best known as one of Public Enemy’s go-to guitarists, his real passion is a kind of Afrofuturism first pioneered by his hero, Sun Ra, yet channeled through a thousand other influences he’s absorbed over the years as he plays under the name Misterioso Africano, or a few years back, The Energy Disciples.
But there’s plenty of experimentation coming from less-schooled musicians as well. Goner Records has long waxed enthusiastic for musical risk-takers, and in recent years they’ve brought many edge-walking groups to the city, from the surrealist big band sounds of Fred Lane to the free improvisational textures of Wrest to Tatsuya Nakatani’s Gong Orchestra. The latter wowed music fans gathered at Off the Walls Arts last year, part of that gallery space’s increased staging of “out” musical events under its roof.
The label has also played host to some of the city’s more rock-adjacent groups who test the boundaries of conventional musical ideas through combinations of electronic music and guitar noise, from Aquarian Blood to Nots to Optic Sink, who all offer servings of noise and synth madness to variations on the big beat of rock. Yet other, less-punk groups are dipping their toes into strange waters at the same time. Salo Pallini’s new independently released album advises it be filed under “Progressive Latin Space Country,” and while that obscures the heavy dollop of rock in their sound, it does capture their everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach. They’ll be playing a record release show on January 20th at — you guessed it — The Green Room.
Some of these artists are also featured in the annual Memphis Concrète festival of electronic and experimental music, also centered in and around Crosstown, set to resume this June after some Covid-related setbacks.
IMAKEMADBEATS at Continuum Fest with Delara Hashemi (Photo: Jamie Harmon)
Meanwhile, more hip-hop-adjacent sounds are percolating through the city. Unapologetic, who have long celebrated strangeness and vulnerability in their edgy hip-hop productions, now have a dedicated studio space, and producer IMAKEMADBEATS is enthused about the possibilities for combining traditional beat production with live players free to create new textures in a more spacious setting. “We’re all electronic/hip-hop-based producers who play instruments,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “Finally having the kind of space that allows us to easily incorporate live instrumentation into our music is a game changer here. Because our minds are decades-trained to think of warping sounds in ways never done traditionally, but now we can combine that with traditional instruments in a space sonically set up to present it in an amazing way. Our producer engineers aren’t just band recording people or rap recording people. They are that and everything in between. We just needed space. Now it’s time to take off.”
MonoNeon and Daru Jones (Photo: Jamie Harmon)
Of course, the kitchen-sink approach has also been perfected by MonoNeon, whose transpositions of Cardi B tirades into carefully pitched bass solos and whose jams in his YouTube offerings may be the most experimental music of all. While he often records at home, he’s also branched out with other producers, including his work with Unapologetic. Like most of these artists, he’s appeared at The Green Room and/or Crosstown Theater multiple times. So it is that we must give credit where credit is due, as Crosstown Arts sits squarely at the center of the avant-garde revival. As Amy Schaftlein, co-host of the Sonosphere podcast and radio show, notes, “Jenny Davis has been doing such an amazing job of getting great artists to come to Crosstown Theater and The Green Room. She’s continued in that vein of ‘Let’s try to get folks to Memphis who may not hit us on their tour.’” Often recruiting acts on their way to or from Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival, Davis has brought a steady stream of experimental and jazz artists to town, the likes of which have not been seen in decades. This March and April alone, Crosstown will feature Deepstaria Enigmatica, Makaya McCraven, SpiralPhonics, The Bad Plus + Marc Ribot and the Jazz-Bins, Tarta Relena, Ami Dang, and Xiu Xiu.
All of which is making the city a richer, more connected community. As Davis says, “I like the challenge of hearing something new. And [it] can be jarring at first. But then if you go back a second time, you start to see the patterns and it’s like learning a new language. I think that keeps things interesting.”
The Smartest Man in the World (Photo courtesy of Michael Jasud)
Many Memphians who loved the now defunct Dead Soldiers did so because of their eclecticism. What band more freely mixed their Americana leanings with art rock and a cinematic sweep? And yet, hearing the Dead Soldiers’ front man, Michael Jasud, tell it, the sounds in his head during that band’s heyday were even more eclectic than what we heard.
Exhibit A in that claim was Detective No. 1, Jasud’s foray into instrumental film music in search of a film (read Jesse Davis’ 2019 write up on that album here). Now he’s scratching that eclectic itch with another group and batch of recordings, under the name The Smartest Man in the World. They’re playing The Green Room at Crosstown Arts tonight, July 15, at 7:30 p.m.
I gave Michael a ring to hear a bit more about this latest musical journey, already boasting a handful of singles and with an album due in the near future.
Memphis Flyer:You’ve shown a lot of stylistic versatility in your musical projects. Where does that come from?
Michael Jasud: I’ve always wanted to do everything that I was inspired by, you know? Years and years ago I was into metal, then I got into country and singer/songwriting. And then I got really into movie soundtracks and weird, atmospheric instrumental music. I’m working on an electronic music project right now that I’m going to put out soon under some sort of different title. I think I’ve been on this quest to create the context for me to do whatever I want to at any moment — giving myself a vehicle to create and switch gears, depending on what I’m feeling at the moment. So for The Smartest Man in the World, I’d just been in Dead Soldiers forever. I’d been doing Americana, and I wanted the opportunity to write in a way that reflects all these other influences I have that don’t have an outlet. I had to make a new project to do that with.
So is this kind of a catch-all?
No, it’s more a vehicle for my more conventional pop songwriting, as opposed to pulling more from Americana or classic American influences. This stuff pulls from anything from, let’s say, David Bowie to Nine Inch Nails to the Beach Boys. I had all these influences floating around my head, and I wanted the opportunity to write freely as a postmodern millennial dude who grew up listening to everything. I wanted to have some place, identity-wise, that allows you to go, ‘Yeah, this is the weird David Bowie/Nine Inch Nails mash-up that I’ve always wanted to do!’
I feel like, if you have a vision for something, the only way to show people what you’re trying to do is to do it. If you explain an idea to somebody, they’ll say, ‘That’s never going to work,’ but if you just do it, it might. So this is a project where I had more freedom to do that. I made this record with Toby Vest over maybe three years, just getting together over and over again. He was super supportive in setting up this auxiliary studio in our rehearsal space at the time. And it was really one of my biggest growth periods as a musician, because I was able to get out of my comfort zone, over and over again. Toby would encourage me to do that. Like encouraging me to play lead guitar more. And except for a couple tracks that Jake Vest played on, I ended up doing all the guitars on the record.
And I got to work with Rick Steff a lot, which was intimidating, because Rick is such a wizard, but he’s also a really big-hearted guy in terms of approaching the material. There’s always insecurity in being a songwriter, so it’s hugely confidence-inspiring when really talented musicians buy into your vision. So spiritually, being surrounded by great musicians like Pete [Matthews], Toby, Rick, Shawn Zorn, and Landon Moore really gave me a place as a songwriter to feel like, ‘Okay, these guys are willing to hang with me.’
These guys are badasses. If they’re going to give me the time of day, then that’s all I need to feel like it’s worthwhile. I get to play music with these guys! What a gift.
So that recording project led to this show at the Green Room? And an album will eventually come out under the name The Smartest Man in the World?
Yeah. I have four singles that I’ve put out, from that recording period. And lately, I’ve focused on finding the right people to bring this project to life as a live group. And part of that is finding a sense of collaboration in that band. I don’t love the idea of being The Guy. It’s a little too much. I don’t want to make every choice. And it took a long time to put together a lineup of people and then for us to figure out how to play this record as a live band, with totally different arrangements.
You can do all kinds of things in the studio that are really hard to do in real life. So we got into the rehearsal space, and Krista Wroten, who played strings on the record, helped me rearrange the songs for this group of people. And when you’re collaborating, things happen the way they happen, and the gift of that is a surprise. The surprise that came from this was — initially I wanted to have a solo songwriting project so no one would tell me no. And what I found was, I miss having someone say ‘No!’ or ‘Maybe this would work.’ That feeling of camaraderie and friendship, that feeling that comes from throwing ideas back and forth. I missed that. And now I’ve found a group of people I like collaborating with. And we’ve figured out a thing that we do well together. So I’m really excited, moving forward, to write new music and just find a place to exist creatively that doesn’t give a shit about anything.
I feel so uninspired by trying to make a career as a musician that never panned out. Now it looks almost impossible for anybody to do it! I tell young people, ‘Don’t think that these people getting millions of streams on Spotify are necessarily cashing checks for their music.’ Maybe they’re on the road, but even that’s getting harder to do. So many venues have closed. People are spending less money. Unfortunately, the streaming landscape has devalued music. Where is the financial structure to give musicians a platform to invest time in becoming great? There used to be a middle ground. Someone would give you money to make a record. Personally, I had to get to a point where I didn’t care about social networking, or even performing, if it’s not going to be fun or creatively satisfying.
I’d like to re-imagine what support for live music means as a community. There’s a cultural poverty which leads to people fighting over scraps in this town. It can be super petty and embarrassing to experience. I’m more interested in how we can make art as a community. I see people in the Black arts community doing that way better than in the thirtysomething white music community.
What will the band Friday night look like?
We lucked out, because the Green Room has a budget for string players. So we have a string trio from Blueshift Ensemble, two horn players, two synth players, bass, guitar, drums, and a backup vocalist. And we’re going to do this big, eclectic thing. For me, there’s always a big Brian Wilson influence happening in my brain. In terms of that kind of eccentric, furious approach to pop music and arrangements. Luckily I have Krista for writing out the scores. But a lot of times, I think of producing and arranging more as casting. Once you’ve got an actor in a role, you have some aspects of what that character is locked in. If you have a great horn player, you can describe the vibe you’re going for, and they do something cool on their own. I believe everybody has an original voice inside of them, whether they find it or not. So I encourage people in my band to speak in their own voice.
Jesus Christ Superstar rocks the Orpheum as the last show of the “pandemic” season.
October 5, 2021 is a day Brett Batterson will never forget. That’s when Come From Away opened at the Orpheum Theatre in Downtown Memphis, marking the return to live performance after 18 months of pandemic shutdown.
“That opening night is one of the greatest nights I’ve ever experienced in my career,” says Batterson, the Orpheum’s president and CEO. “Everybody was so excited to be there, and the audience was just so grateful for Broadway to be back in the Orpheum. The cast was excited to perform for people. It was like a magic stew of emotions that was just wonderful.”
When Jesus Christ Superstar opened on June 28th, it marked the belated end of the star-crossed season that began in March 2020. “It feels really good to have what we call the pandemic season behind us, and we start our new season in just a few weeks with My Fair Lady, followed by To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Located at the western edge of Beale Street, the century-old theater has witnessed a lot of changes Downtown, but nothing like the last few years. It has been a time of both growth and tragedy. “I think Downtown Memphis is starting to see the resurgence, the coming out of the plague. If you come down here on a Friday or Saturday night, there are people everywhere. I don’t think we’ve seen the return of all the office workers that we need for the restaurants to have a lunch crowd, but on a weekend night, there’s a lot of people down here.”
Batterson sees the crowds as a continuation of positive trends the pandemic interrupted. “When I first arrived in Memphis six and a half years ago, I think Memphis was just at the tail end of the low self-esteem problem that Memphis has suffered from since the assassination of Dr. King. Shortly after I arrived, people started making plans and talking about how great of a city it is. Nashville is a tourist trap while Memphis retains its soul and authenticity. That’s the big change I’ve seen — Memphis is proud of itself again, as it should be.”
The Orpheum is about to dance into its next season in late July with My Fair Lady, followed by To Kill a Mockingbird.
Downtown Delights
The Orpheum was once a movie palace owned by Memphis-based Malco Theatres. Just a short hop down Front Street, Malco’s newest movie palace is the Powerhouse, a seven-screen multiplex built around a historic structure which once provided steam power for next door’s Central Station. On Saturdays, the Powerhouse’s parking lot plays host to the Downtown Memphis Farmers Market. Sergio Brown is one of the dozens of vendors who gather under the T-shaped shelter every week to hawk their locally produced wares. His company, Earthworm Plants, is based across the river in West Memphis. “We just started, so this is our first year here in Memphis,” he says. “The support we’ve gotten from Downtown has been amazing. When people from other states come here, they’re just amazed at what we do.”
Earthworm Plants is part of a wave of new businesses that have opened in the pandemic era. A few blocks to the east is South Point Grocery, the latest venture by Castle Retail’s Rick James, which filled a need created by Downtown’s growing population. But South Point’s biggest draw is the sandwich counter, run by Josh McLane.
Like many people in Memphis, McLane is a man of many hustles. He’s a well-known comedian and drummer in the punk-folk duo Heels. (Their new album, Pop Songs for a Dying Planet, will be released in October.) His sandwich skills first got attention when he manned the kitchen at the Hi Tone music venue. “Unlike other people, when I’m hammered and make a sandwich at 3 in the morning, I write it down,” he says.
At lunch time, there’s a steady stream of foot traffic coming through the door for McLane’s creations. “I genuinely get a kick out of being able to say, ‘Come see us for lunch, and I will get you outta here in five minutes, unless we have a giant line — and even then, it’s gonna take 10, tops.’”
McLane says the wave of new businesses was born of necessity. “That first year of Covid, everybody started opening something, either because you had nothing to do or you had no money coming in. And after that first year, everybody who wasn’t good at it or didn’t have a good enough sustaining idea got weeded out and everybody else just kept going.”
Good Fortune Co. is a new eatery that has been earning raves Downtown. Co-owner Sarah Cai lived in Collierville until she was 13, when her father was sent to China to open a new FedEx hub. “I’m from here, and I always wanted to come back,” she says. “We had been paying attention to restaurants in the area and what was popular. There was really nothing like this kind of cuisine, and from what I could tell, there was nobody who could bring the kind of experience that we have had, traveling and working abroad in different places.”
All of the food at Good Fortune Co. is made by hand. “The kimchi is important to me,” Cai says. “It’s something I’ve always made on my own because when you buy it, it just doesn’t taste the same. The whole [restaurant] concept stemmed from scratch-made noodles that have always been a huge part of my food. Dumplings are my food love, my passion. I’ve been making them since I was a kid with my family. They had to be on the menu. I knew I wanted it to be Asian, but influenced by a lot of different regions, not necessarily Chinese or Japanese. My background is really mixed. My mom’s Malaysian and my dad’s Chinese. I’ve traveled all around Southeast Asia, so I’ve been inspired by a lot of different flavors. What I wanted to showcase here is the fusion of those authentic flavors. The food itself is kind of Asian-American — like myself.
“I’ve been able to come back and rediscover the city as an adult. It’s a totally different experience. Memphis is really cool! I’ve lived in China, Austria, Europe. I’ve traveled all around the world, and Memphis is one of the most authentic cities I’ve ever been in. It’s gritty, but it’s all part of the charm — it’s just a genuine place. I’m really happy to be able to be a part of this world now.”
A larger-than-life Red Queen plays her twisted game of croquet at the Memphis Botanic Garden.
New Growth
She’s 19 feet tall, weighs 15,110 pounds, and her dress is made from 6,507 plants. The Red Queen is the most spectacular creation of “Alice’s Adventures at the Garden,” the larger-than-life new exhibit at the Memphis Botanic Garden. The living statuary of the timeless characters from Alice In Wonderland, like the Cheshire Cat, the Queen’s chessboard full of soldiers, and Alice herself, originated at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.
Alice and her companions have made a big splash, says Olivia Wall, MBG’s director of marketing. But the exhibit is just one of the new features at the 96-acre garden. “We have gone through a lot of transformation,” she says. “We are just finishing up a capital campaign that was focused on campus modernizations, so part of that, like the visitor center, was completely redone in 2022. It’s been a lot of change and a lot of transformation for the better. We are always focused on our mission, which is connecting people with plants. How can we best do that?”
The Alice figures are made from steel armatures and given color and shape by plants and flowers. In the summer heat, it can take 90 minutes just to water the Red Queen. Other artists were invited to participate. “We have these renditions of the White Rabbit around the grounds that local artists created,” Wall says.
There are also interactive elements. “It’s classic literature, so we have quotes from the book around to help put it into context. Kids can have their own imaginary tea party. They can pretend to be the March Hare or the Mad Hatter.”
Wall came to Memphis in 2014 to get her master’s degree from Memphis College of Art. The Cooper-Young resident says she’s a “Midtowner through and through.”
Midtown has been the focus of intense development in the pandemic era, with new apartment complexes springing up everywhere. “They’re called ‘five-over-ones,’” says F. Grant Whittle. “They’re the apartment buildings like they’ve got on McLean and Madison. They are built with concrete on the first floor and then stick on the upper floors. They’re easily put up. They’re not hideous, and they’re not beautiful, but just getting apartments in place for people to live is important right now.”
Whittle and his husband Jimmy Hoxie recently opened The Ginger’s Bread & Co. on Union Avenue. “Jimmy was working at City & State making pastries, and they didn’t need him anymore because they didn’t have many customers. At the same time, a man moved out of a duplex we owned and I said, ‘Jimmy, why don’t you go over there and start baking? We can sell your stuff online.’ And so, that’s what we’ve been doing since the beginning of the pandemic. Then, I was let go from my job. I needed something to do. So we sold the duplex, and we used the money to open this place.”
Since they opened earlier this summer, bread, cookies, and cheesecake have been flying off the shelves. “I think that this little part of Union is ripe for renewal and regrowth,” Whittle says. “I really like Cameo, which is a bar that just opened at Union and McLean. I can walk there in five minutes. They’re still getting their sea legs. They’re trying to do a good product there, and the food is not too bad.”
Midtown remains a cultural center. The history of Memphis music is enshrined on Beale, but the present and future lives in places like The Lamplighter, B-Side, and Hi Tone. The reopened Minglewood Hall is once again hosting national touring acts. In the Crosstown Concourse, the Green Room offers intimate live music experiences, and the 400-seat Crosstown Theater recently put on a blockbuster show by electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk. Not far from the towering Concourse is Black Lodge.
The movie mecca began life more than two decades ago as a tiny Cooper-Young video store. Now, it not only boasts one of the largest DVD and Blu-ray collections in America, but also a state-of-the-art sound system and multiple projection screens. “We’re proud to be serving a full menu of food as well as a full bar,” says Lodge founder Matt Martin. “Come in and check out some of our signature cocktails and dishes designed by our chef and co-owner James Blair. We are pleased to finally offer a full nightclub experience to Midtown Memphis. We’ve got great EDM shows, great bands, movie screenings, burlesque and drag shows, comedy, and video game tournaments — and our AC is amazing!”
Jessica Hunt tends bar at the artsy and new Inkwell.
Another Midtown dream realized is Inkwell. The popular Edge District bar was founded by Memphis artist Ben Colar. “The concept was to create a super dope cocktail bar where people could just kind of be themselves,” says bartender Jessica Hunt. “It’s Black-owned, so Ben wanted to show the city that there are Black bartenders that can do really good craft cocktails.”
The relaxed vibe is maintained via cocktails like the Sir Isaac Washington, a complex, rum-based, summery drink. “It’s always a breath of fresh air to come in here and work around people I love,” says Hunt. “Plus, I get to meet so many cool, artsy people!”
Yola, Oliva DeJonge, Baz Luhrmann, Tom Hanks, Alton Mason, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Jerry Schilling, Pricilla Presley, Riley Keough, and Lisa Marie Presley at the Graceland premiere of Elvis.
Music for the Masses
“Memphis’ identity is its musical history,” says the Orpheum’s Batterson. “Our tourism is music tourism. There may be some Broadway fans, or the timing may be right so that we’ve got Bonnie Raitt or Bob Dylan at the Orpheum, but most of the tourists are music people who want to hang out on Beale Street, go to Graceland, go to the Stax Museum, go to Sun Studio.
“I think we have some real gems in our museum system, from the National Civil Rights Museum to the Brooks and the Dixon and MoSH. An hour at Sun Studio is probably one of the most important hours you can spend in Memphis — that and going to Stax and seeing Isaac Hayes’ gold-plated car!
“I am shocked at how many Memphians have told me they’ve never been to Graceland. To me, you’ve got to go once. If you never go back, that’s up to you. But you’ve got to go once. How could you have this huge, international tourist attraction in your city and not ever go? I don’t get that.”
With Elvis, the spectacular new biopic from Australian director Baz Luhrmann, the King of Rock-and-Roll is once again topping the box office. After earning a 12-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, Luhrmann and his stars, including Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, made their American debut at the Guest House at Graceland. “It’s something that younger people don’t understand,” said Luhrmann to a packed house. “They know they’re very interested in this film because they’re very interested in instant fame. You can get on TikTok and have 20 million followers the next day, and you’re famous. But when Elvis came along, the teenager had just been invented. The idea of young people with money was a new idea. There was no precedent for someone driving a truck one minute and being a millionaire and the most famous man on the planet the next.”
As he stood on stage with Elvis’ wife Priscilla Presley, daughter Lisa Marie, and granddaughter, actor/director Riley Keough, Hanks, who plays Elvis’ infamous manager Col. Tom Parker, recounted the welcome they had received. “We visited the home of the King last night. It is a place that is, I think, as hallowed as any president’s home, as any museum dedicated to a particular type of art. What’s unique about it is, it is so firmly stamped with the name Presley, and it would not have existed were it not for the city of Memphis and the genius of a one-of-a-kind artist who, more than anybody else in music or any sort of presentational art, deserves the moniker of the singular word ‘King.’”
The Bang On a Can All-Stars (Credit: Peter Serling)
Since its founding in 2009, Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival has become one of the premier events in alternative music. The city’s downtown springs to life with genre-bending, exploratory music events in historic theaters, clubs, churches, parks, galleries, and repurposed industrial spaces, leading The New York Times to call it “one of the world’s greatest music bashes,” and the Oxford American to pronounce it “one of the most quietly earth-shattering, subtly luminous festivals the world over.” This year’s lineup alone features such artists as Patti Smith, John Zorn, Sparks, and Marc Ribot.
It’s a breath of fresh air in a state too often associated with banned books and other radical right flash points, but the drive to Knoxville can prove daunting to many Memphians. Luckily for those of us in such far western lands, Crosstown Arts has curated a taste of Big Ears right here at home, as artists performing at this year’s festival, from March 24th-27th, make pit stops on their way to or from Knoxville.
Those in the know have already seen some of these artists. Pianist Craig Taborn, who’s worked with the likes of Lester Bowie, John Zorn, Evan Parker, William Parker, and Vijay Iyer, appeared at the Green Room on Wednesday. And last night, trumpeter jaimie branch performed with cellist Lester St. Louis, double bassist Jason Ajemian, and percussionist/mbira player Chad Taylor. But there’s still more to see.
Maeve Gilchrist (Photo courtesy Crosstown Arts)
Saturday, March 26 brings Maeve Gilchrist to the Green Room, playing the relatively rare Celtic lever harp. As with so many Big Ears artists, she’s re-imagined this ancient instrument in decidedly postmodern ways. She’ll be playing selections from her recent album, The Harpweaver, for harp, voice, samples, and electronics. As she told NPR recently, “I really enjoy exploring some of the grittier sounds of the harp. We all know it can make this ethereal, kind of luminous sound. But actually, it’s such a versatile instrument.” Her hybrid approach should appeal to fans of ambient, classical, Scottish folk, and experimental music.
Arooj Aftab (Credit: Blythe Thomas)
As it happens, Gilchrist also plays with the following evening’s ensemble, backing Arooj Aftab at Crosstown Theater on Sunday, March 27. The Brooklyn-based Pakistani vocalist, composer, and producer blends jazz, minimalism, neo-Sufi music, and other genres, and has been nominated for the 2022 Best New Artist and Best Global Music Performance at the at the 2022 GRAMMY Awards. Aftab’s latest album, Vulture Prince, has been widely praised, as has the haunting single, “Mohabbat.” The track was named one of the best songs of 2021 by Time and The New York Times, and Brenna Ehrlich ranked the album sixth on Rolling Stone‘s “Best Music of 2021” staff list.
Finally, Tuesday, March 29 brings not just a musical group, but an entire experience to Crosstown Theater. The six-member Bang On a Can All-Stars are recognized for their dynamic live performances, freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world, and experimental music. The New York Times called the All-Stars “a fiercely aggressive group, combining the power and punch of a rock band with the precision and clarity of a chamber ensemble,” and one can imagine no better venue than Crosstown Theater to match both the nuance and the energy of such a show.
Being a notable music city, it seems only a matter of time before Memphis can play host to its own major alternative music festival. Of course, with the Continuum and Memphis Concrète festivals, we are inching toward that. And thanks to the curation of world class, edgy music that continues apace at Crosstown Arts, we already have a taste of the Big Ears Festival here at home.
“It’s not about entertainment; it’s about inner attainment.” When you’re sitting with someone who’s lived and breathed jazz history, the kernels of wisdom fall freely. You’d best pay attention. On this day, I’m with none other than jazz drummer Ra Kalam Bob Moses, whose stories range from New York to Kathmandu. “I grew up in the same building as Art Blakey, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Elvin Jones, Rahsaan Roland Kirk. 415 Central Park West. Rahsaan, I was in his house every day. From my window, I could watch Eric Dolphy play flute on a rock in Central Park. He’d sit there and play with the birds.”
That image captures the spirit of inner attainment that Moses speaks of. And he wasn’t a mere spectator. “Charles Mingus used to come over and play duets with me when I was 13. He used to live across the park on 5th Avenue — that’s mostly rich white folks. And Mingus didn’t think they would rent to a Black man, so my dad went in and pretended to be Mingus to sign the lease.” All the while, young Moses was absorbing lessons from these neighbors and friends. “Mingus said, ‘Bobby, you gotta learn how to play sloppy, man! You don’t want to be one of them white studio drummers.’ I said, ‘Mingus, I’m 13. I don’t even know how to play clean yet!’ But later I knew exactly what he meant. If it’s too clean, it doesn’t sound right. It sounds antiseptic. We need to keep the human imperfection in the music.”
Connecting individual notes and beats to broader principles comes naturally to Moses, who has a decidedly philosophical approach to music. One indication of that is his devotion to his teacher and musical collaborator, Tisziji Muñoz, who coined the phrase about inner attainment and bestowed the name Ra Kalam on Moses many years ago. “That’s a spiritual name given to me by Tisziji. My teacher, my guru. It’s really about getting beyond karma. Sometimes being Bob Moses has really been a drag. So Ra Kalam represents your highest aspect. It means ‘the inaudible sound of the invisible sun.’ So he gave me a very powerful name. And it’s a bitch to live up to! I’m still working on it.”
Indeed, Moses is working on a lot of things, always pushing himself to venture into strange territory. It’s certainly kept him on the cutting edge of fusion and free jazz since he was a teenager, starting with The Free Spirits, “the first jazz rock group,” as he says, founded by Moses and guitarist Larry Coryell. From there, it was a natural step to join The Insect Trust, the free jazz-influenced, genre-busting New York group that sometimes played Memphis in the late ’60s. “That was an amazing band of people,” Moses recalls. “Everybody in that band was very unique and wide-ranging. We had Trevor Koehler on saxophone. We had Bob Palmer, who was from Arkansas and talked like Deputy Dawg. But of all the people, the one who I resonated the most with was Ed Finney.”
With the mention of Finney’s name, Moses brings us back to the present: The local virtuoso guitarist is largely responsible for convincing Moses to make Memphis his new home. The two have been close ever since their Insect Trust days, often traveling the world together. “We became traveling companions,” says Moses. “Finney’s still doing it. I stopped a while ago. It’s hard to step out of your life. But I’d go to a place with maybe a flute or a log drum, with no plan, not knowing anybody.”
It’s that venturesome spirit that brought Moses to Memphis. “One thing I learned from Tisziji is, all culture is bondage. Though there’s beauty and greatness within all the cultures. One reason why I could relate to Memphis is, this is a soul town. I’m a Memphibian now. I’m comfortable on the ground and in the air. So I can play some grounded shit but also can play some airy stuff too. A sky drummer who started as an earth drummer. And happy to be an earth drummer, with the right people.”
Ra Kalam Bob Moses joins Deborah Swiney, Ed Finney, Bob Buckley, and Chris Parker at The Green Room, Crosstown Concourse, Thursday, December 9th, 7:30 p.m.
Marc Ribot live at The Green Room. He never touched the guitar on the stand. (Credit: Alex Greene)
“Whew!” was the general response in the crowd as guitarist Marc Ribot sounded his last note of the night and disappeared backstage. Eyes wide with amazement, the audience seemed to be emerging from a roller coaster ride, and indeed they had, after a fashion. Ribot had just taken us on a mystery tour of his weathered Gibson acoustic (possibly a pre-War model) and every musical method he could muster to coax sound from it.
Most know the guitarist for his work as a session and side man with the likes of Tom Waits, Caetano Veloso, John Zorn, Jack McDuff, Wilson Pickett, The Lounge Lizards, Arto Lindsay, T-Bone Burnett, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Cibo Matto, Elvis Costello, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Susana Baca, The Black Keys, Elton John, Madeleine Peyroux, Marianne Faithfull, Diana Krall, Allen Toussaint, and Robert Quine. But he’s led his own groups for over 30 years as well.
The music he played last Saturday in The Green Room was closest in spirit to the free jazz he typically creates with his group Ceramic Dog. But while that trio certainly casts a wide, anarchic net, the variety of music evoked at his most recent Memphis performance was even more inclusive. It ran like a dream one must have to fully process a day of travel, skipping from scene to scene, and in that sense, encompassed some very lyrical and folk passages that were downright traditional. Yet no style or melody was allowed to linger for long, as Ribot’s restless creativity soon replaced it with another musing.
From the start, the musical quotes seemed to fit Memphis, and perhaps the show really was Ribot’s way of processing his visit here. Opening with a quiet folk melody and chords reminiscent of “Shenandoah,” he quickly moved to more dissonant territory, while somehow still incorporating quotes from “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”
One might consider him a master of the guitar, both acoustic and electric, but he speaks more of his limitations than his talents. As he told Guitar Player magazine in 1997, he’s been handicapped to a degree by having learned to play with his right hand, despite being left handed. “That’s a real limit, one that caused me a lot of grief when I was working with Jack McDuff and realizing I wasn’t following in George Benson’s footsteps. I couldn’t be a straight-ahead jazz contender if you held a gun to my head.”
Yet that same limitation has somehow caused Ribot to approach the guitar almost like a pianist. Multiple melodies wove around each other, as he sounded the low, middle, and high strings nearly independently, creating stunning counterpoint and chordal accompaniments.
At times, you’d hear echoes of other projects he’s led. After one far-ranging flurry of improvisation, he noted that parts of it referenced Marc Ribot Plays Solo Guitar Works of Frantz Casseus, a 1993 album of solo guitar works written by the Haitian-American composer. Other portions evoked his work with Los Cubanos Postizos, comprised of Cuban music, or other eclectic world music sources, including echoes of Bahamian folk singer Joseph Spence.
Other portions were more closely related to John Cage’s music for cacti or other such “outside of the box” works, as when he simply drummed on the guitar body or frailed the fret board with rhythmic abandon. The audience remained galvanized, The Green Room being a perfect venue for those who show up to listen deeply.
Memphis seemed to creep into the journey more directly as well, including bluesy quotes (a snatch of “Blue Monk”?) that would have felt at home on Beale Street, or passages that alluded to standards like “Come Rain or Come Shine.” But Memphis also cropped up in the few sparse comments he made between performances. “Thank you,” he said. “I’m very glad to be back in Memphis. This very room was the last gig I did before the shutdown almost two years ago. So I’m glad to be here. In fact, I’m glad to be anywhere.” Judging from the roaring applause that brought him out for an encore, Memphis music fans were glad as well.
