Tag: University of Memphis

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News The Fly-By

U of M Constructing New Multimillion-Dollar Rec Center

It’s been more than four decades since the University of Memphis constructed its current recreation and fitness center, which provides students with a place to exercise, play intramural sports, and swim laps.

An artist’s rendering of the U of M’s planned recreational facility

Now, the U of M has plans to construct a new $62 million recreational facility. It will feature a quarter-mile indoor track, juice bar, four-court divisible gym, multi-purpose fitness center with a climbing wall, and outdoor leisure pool. It will be located along Southern Avenue north of the existing center at 620 Echles.

“The new center will greatly expand and enhance opportunities for students to enjoy wellness activities such as intramurals and club sports, group fitness classes, and other expanded recreational and fitness activities,” said Jim Vest, director of Campus Recreation Intramural Services. “Cardio and weight rooms will be easier to use because we will have more space. This will not only promote fitness among students, it will also boost academic achievement, retention, and graduation rates, since studies show that physical fitness enhances students’ academic performance.”

The new facility will also boast three full-size turf fields, basketball courts, and tennis courts. A land bridge will make the center accessible from the northern part of the campus. Construction of the 192,500 square-foot facility is expected to begin during the 2015-16 academic year and will be implemented in three phases. It’s scheduled to open in 2018.

Vest said the first phase would involve relocating the tennis courts from the current facility and creating new parking spaces. An additional $24 million will be spent on a parking garage.

The construction of the new center and $18 million land bridge will be included in the second phase.

After the new recreational facility is in operation, the third phase will be implemented: demolishing the existing recreation center and replacing it with three lighted artificial turf fields.

The school’s current rec center has three full-size gyms, indoor and outdoor 50-meter swimming pools, an aerobics studio, sauna, a cardio room, and free weight room. It houses the Larry O. Finch Facility and Campus Recreation Intramural Services.

The decision to create a new rec center came about after students expressed dissatisfaction with the existing rec center’s inadequate space and amenities.

Hastings and Chivetta Architects, Inc. conducted a development study in May 2013, which found limited field and gym space for intramurals and club sports, long waits to use equipment in the cardio and weight rooms, and congestion to be issues impacting students’ experience at the facility.

“Constructed in 1971, the existing student recreation and fitness center is not large enough to meet the needs of the current student population,” Vest said. “The development study showed that U of M students would benefit from the construction of a new recreation center, which would offer expanded facilities and new amenities.”

 The study was presented to the Student Government Association (SGA) in September 2013. The SGA recently approved a student fee increase of $307 over the 2014-15 academic year to fund construction of the new center.

“By offering students a state-of-the-art facility, we hope to encourage fitness and wellness among students and the U of M community,” West said. “The new recreation center will result in an enhanced academic experience, because engaged students are more likely to be successful students.”

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News The Fly-By

Memphis Slim Home Is Re-born As Music Collaboratory

CREDIT: Bianca Phillips

For years, the historic home of blues artist Memphis Slim, just a block away from the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, could have inspired a blues song itself.

A fallen tree leaned onto the wide porch, damaging part of the roof of the crumbling structure. Vegetation had begun growing on the inside. But after years of planning and months of construction, the house reopened last month as the Memphis Slim Collaboratory, a low-cost music studio and workshop space developed through a partnership between Community LIFT, the University of Memphis, LeMoyne-Owen College, the Memphis Music Foundation, the Hyde Family Foundations, and ArtPlace America.

Slim, best known for the blues standard “Every Day I Have the Blues,” lived in the two-story home at 1130 College in Soulsville before moving to Chicago in 1939. The original structure had to be demolished because it was in such poor condition.

Bianca Phillips

Memphis Slim Collaboratory

“The intent was to renovate, but the contractors spent about $25,000 looking into how to do that before they realized it wouldn’t be possible,” said Charlie Santo, a city and regional planning associate professor at the University of Memphis.

But the original bricks from the chimney and wood from the house frame were salvaged and reused in the new two-story construction.

Downstairs is now home to a full recording studio, and upstairs, there’s a computer lab, where musicians can work on promotional materials or upload music online. Workshops will be hosted in the computer lab space. Although the collaboratory held a grand opening at the end of April, they’re still hooking up equipment inside, and it may not be open for recording sessions for a few more weeks.

The Memphis Slim Collaboratory will be membership-based, and it’s open to anyone. Eight hours of recording time will run about $60. Leni Stoeva of Community LIFT said they’re aiming to attract emerging musicians.

“It’s for anyone who is pursuing a music career. They don’t have to be established professionals. We’re really targeting young people who are serious about music. But we’re also open to older people who just decided to pick it up and want to fine-tune their craft,” Stoeva said.

Stoeva said they’re not trying to compete with other music studios in town but rather act as a resource for artists who may not be able to afford a recording session elsewhere.

“If you go to Ardent [Studios], you’re working with somebody who is seasoned and knows what they’re doing. Here, you’re getting a discount rate, but you’re going to be working with someone who is learning the industry,” Santo said.

It was Santo’s class, over several years, that developed the concept for the collaboratory as part of a broader Memphis Music Magnet Plan. In 2008, his city planning students began brainstorming ways that the city could use its musical heritage as a catalyst for economic development.

“It’s about using music and art to tell stories and activate spaces and reclaim vacant properties and connect people,” Santo said. “We’re trying to build on this neighborhood and its existing assets. This neighborhood played a crucial role in establishing Memphis’ cultural identity.”

The Memphis Slim home was donated for the collaboratory project by LeMoyne-Owen College. The construction was funded through grants from ArtPlace America and other philanthropic organizations.

Stoeva hopes the collaboratory and the overall Memphis Music Magnet Plan will help spur development around Soulsville.

“A lot of people come to Stax. They get off the tour bus, and there’s nothing else around except for residential,” Stoeva said. “Redeveloping this area will help small businesses and other music-related projects.”

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News The Fly-By

University of Memphis President David Rudd Plans To Increase Enrollment, Lower Tuition

The University of Memphis is under the tutelage of a new leader: Dr. M. David Rudd. More than a year after he became the university’s provost, Rudd was selected by the Tennessee Board of Regents to become its 12th president.

Rudd’s administrative and teaching experience spans nearly 30 years. Over that time, he held positions at the University of Utah, Texas Tech, and Baylor University.

David Rudd

Rudd spoke with the Flyer about the pressure of taking on the position, his plan for increasing student enrollment, and how he will fix the university’s operating budget. — Louis Goggans

Flyer: Dr. Shirley Raines led the university for more than a decade. Do you feel any pressure taking on the position after her?

Rudd: I think those are some huge shoes to fill. Dr. Raines did a wonderful job at the university. She led with great success and moved the university forward in very significant ways. We’re looking at a new chapter in the history of the university, and I’m excited and eager to be a part of that process.

What are some of your plans as president?

We’ve got the issue of access and affordability that really is at the heart of the mission of the university. We’ve made some great strides both in terms of addressing access and affordability and, in parallel fashion, issues of retention and degree completion.

In addition to the idea of excellence in the classroom and helping address the financial aid of our students, we’re going to focus on enhancing, expanding, and improving the research mission of the university.

How challenging do you anticipate it will be to transition from being the university’s provost to its president?

I think serving as president of a university is a significant challenge. [But] having the opportunity to work as provost has provided me a nice foundation on which to build. It’s really provided me an excellent depth of understanding of the [university’s] inner workings from almost every perspective. And it certainly gives me a nice head start. I’m confident in our future and the direction that we’re headed.

U of M student enrollment has declined over the past couple of years. How do you plan to increase the student population?

We actually have put a number of things in place. Our efforts to flatten tuition and look at decreasing out-of-state tuition are a definitive response to that challenge. We think it’s going to lead to significant growth for the university. But also, we have tried to provide some additional supportive resources geared toward students’ success. There are a lot of challenges, particularly for first-generation students, in terms of moving into a demanding college environment where they have to juggle a lot of different things. We’ve put some support programs in place to help ease that transition and hopefully improve overall success.

A $20 million gap in the university’s budget led to more than 20 administrative staff lay-offs this April. How will you keep the budget on track moving forward?

We’ve made some significant changes this year that we think will lead to some long-term stability in the budget. When we looked at areas where we needed some budget reductions, we didn’t do that informally. And we were able to bolster some areas where we have high student demand and high student need. We hope that it’s positioned us well for down the road.

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News News Blog

U of M Selects Provost David Rudd As New President

CREDIT: University of Memphis

Dr. M. David Rudd

  • Dr. M. David Rudd

Beginning May 16th, the University of Memphis will be led by a new president.

After sifting through more than 70 applicants from across the nation, the Tennessee Board of Regents selected Dr. M. David Rudd as the U of M’s 12th president Thursday, May 1st. Rudd currently serves as the university’s provost, a position he’s held since March 2013.

The decision came relatively shy of a year since Brad Martin took on the role as interim president for the school in July 2013. The school’s past president was Shirley Raines. She served in the position for more than a decade and retired June 2013.

According to a U of M press release, Rudd holds administrative and teaching experience that spans nearly 30 years. Over that time, he held such titles as dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah; professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at Texas Tech; professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at Baylor University; and professor and director of Baylor’s doctoral program in Clinical Psychology.

Rudd earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in psychology and holds a master’s degree in psychology from there as well. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University.

His wife, Dr. Loretta Rudd, also works at the U of M as an associate professor.

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News The Fly-By

Student Discount

Brad Martin

Although about 20 University of Memphis employees are being laid off due to a $20 million budget gap, the institution has proposed to cut nearly $10,000 off the price of tuition for out-of-state students living in a 250-mile radius of Memphis.

The U of M recently issued a proposal to the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) requesting reduced fees for all out-of-state students. Those within a 250-mile radius of the city, such as residents of Little Rock, St. Louis, Birmingham, and Jackson, Mississippi, would benefit the most.

Those students would pay $12,403 instead of the current annual tuition rate of $21,768. All other out-of-state students outside of the 250-mile radius would have the opportunity to save thousands in tuition as well.

Brad Martin, U of M interim president, said the administration has been discussing the proposal since he assumed leadership at the university in 2013.

“It reflects our belief that we have a lot to offer to prospective students beyond our borders and that they can make a wonderful contribution to the university and the community,” Martin said. “We want to expand our reach. We want the University of Memphis to grow. We have the capacity to serve more students. This is another stake in the ground for us to demonstrate our commitment to growth.”

According to U of M data, in fall 2013, around 600 undergraduate students and nearly 350 graduate students were classified as out-of-state students.

The proposals would apply to continuing students and students who are already admitted to the university or who meet incoming admissions requirements. If the proposals are approved at the TBR board meeting in June, the reductions would take effect this fall.

U of M freshman Jerrica James hails from Little Rock. Thanks to scholarships, she’s able to attend the university. If the proposal is passed, she said it would benefit many of her peers who also aspire to attend the U of M but can’t afford the tuition.

“I have friends from my high school who I was trying to help get here, but unfortunately, because of the cost of out-of-state [tuition], they will not be able to attend,” said James, a journalism major. “I think that the initiative is a great idea, because I feel like we’re missing out on a lot of students who live really close, but they have to pay out-of-state tuition and it hinders them from coming to the university.”

A $20 million gap in the U of M’s operating budget led to the dismissal of around 20 administrative employees. But the university’s student population has decreased by 1,300 students since 2011, according to U of M data. And the U of M has requested for tuition to not be increased for the 2014-15 school year.

“There are a lot of issues associated with getting the organizational structure correct at the University of Memphis, and in the course of doing that, we did have some reductions of positions,” Martin said. “These will be paying students who otherwise would not come to the University of Memphis. It’s a very good financial proposition.”

The reduced fee proposals would eliminate $1.7 million of the tuition funding the university receives from out-of-state students. The university anticipates counterbalancing the reduction through enrollment growth, organizational realignment, and cost savings.

More than 50 percent of out-of-state students attending the U of M remain in the region after graduation, according to the university.

“I think [the reduced fees] will help attract more qualified students who can succeed and who are likely to work and stay and contribute to this community upon their graduation,” Martin said.

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Music Music Features

Memphis International Guitar Festival at U of M

Rene Izquierdo

This weekend, the University of Memphis hosts the fourth annual Memphis International Guitar Festival. The festival is the work of U of M professor and master guitarist Lily Afshar. Her passion for developing new guitar music is the inspiration for this year’s guests: Aaron Larget-Caplan and Rene Izquierdo.

“Both of them love to do new music,” Afshar said. “That’s what attracted me most to them: their willingness to work with composers and add to the repertoire of the guitar.”

Larget-Caplan will perform on April 5th and Izquierdo on the 6th. Afshar will play on the 4th. A competition among 10 guitarists from across the country continues through the weekend as do guest-led master classes, which are held in front of an audience. All told, there is some fascinating music to be heard all weekend long.

“Rene is Cuban,” Afshar said. “He is an up-and-coming guitarist with a great repertoire. His concert will consist of some new music that was written for him: ‘Whirler of the Dance’ by Carlos Rivera. One of my students is going to play the piece for him in the master class.

Kelly Davidson

Aaron Larget-Caplan

“Aaron is from Boston and is very active in the Boston music scene. He works with composers a lot. I saw him play ‘Legend of Hagoromo’ by Keigo Fujii. It’s a mystical piece, talking about a mystical Japanese story. It’s really a beautiful piece.”

While she is thrilled to hear these guests and see them teach her students, Afshar is excited to showcase local talent too.

“I am going to play with two faculty members here at the University, duets for bassoon and guitar. That’s something you hardly ever hear: guitar and bassoon. Being here in Memphis, I thought: I have access to great musicians at the University. So I invited them to play with me.” — Joe Boone

Memphis International Guitar Festival, Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, University of Memphis. April 4th-6th. For more information, go to memphis.edu/guitarfest.

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News News Feature

Ukraine Nightmare

An incident in Maidan Square in the central part of Kiev, Ukraine, February 18th triggered nightmares for former Memphian Christina Katrakis. She witnessed government forces and armed snipers gunning down young Ukrainian protesters demonstrating against now-ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to back away from broader Western ties in favor of a stronger Russian bond.

Christina Katrakis

“Subconsciously, it took me back to my childhood and the Chernobyl incident, and to the Georgia-Abkhazia war and its post-war chaos, to all the dead and wounded people and the smell of blood and death in the air that followed,” says Katrakis. “Sometimes I see this at night, as nightmares that probably will never really abandon me.”

Katrakis earned a master’s degree in fine arts from the University of Memphis in 2005, spending several years here as a teacher and lecturer, and building a national reputation as an artist: Her works are owned by Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Angelina Jolie, among others. Her art has helped her cope with her experiences living near the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in 1986, and the Georgia-Abkhazia war six years later.

“Chernobyl happened only 13 miles from our summer home, when I was 6 years old,” Katrakis recalls. “We didn’t know for a while, because the Soviets kept it top secret. I was in the hospital for two years after I developed throat cancer. As an adult, I lost a child during pregnancy and another child who was six days old, because of lingering radiation.”

Painting has been her way to cope with these crises, to come to terms with them and move on. At the Memphis Botanic Garden gallery in 2010, she debuted a series of paintings called “The Zone” that were designed to illuminate the pain of Chernobyl. “I saw people cry, just looking at the work. These were many people who had never heard of Chernobyl. They saw my suffering, my Chernobyl.”

Katrakis, who works as a United Nations representative in Ukraine, sees many similarities between the earlier tragedies of her life and what is unfolding on a daily basis in Ukraine, particularly the Crimea region.

“This conflict has a lot in common with Chernobyl and with the Georgia-Abkhazia war,” she says. “It has all the makings of the evil of the Kremlin. During the Chernobyl crisis, the Kremlin blocked all information. No one knew what happened, so no one could help. The West and their medical experts were pushed aside while people were dying. The same was true when the Kremlin sent its military forces into Georgia’s province of Abkhazia and sparked the war trying to separate Abkhazia from Georgia and take it under Russian control. This is the exact same thing they are doing now in the Crimea. My question is, ‘When is enough? How many more have to die for the world to wake up and see the true face of the Kremlin?'”

The most difficult part of the Ukrainian crisis came early on, before Yanukovych fled to Russia, when many protesters were killed, Katrakis says. “It was difficult to watch mothers weeping over the dead bodies of their children, many of them shot by snipers. These were kids as young as 16. Seeing more than 100 of their funerals was heart-breaking.”

She says social media exposed many of the human rights violations: “Yanukovych of course did not calculate one simple thing: that this was no longer a Soviet ‘Stone Age.’ Video cameras recorded everything that happened and visuals were right away on TV and the Internet. We resisted bullets, guns, violence, and torture with this simple weapon of media, which allowed us to show the truth about what was happening to the world as it was happening.”

She dismisses Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that those in Crimea wish to separate from the country. “Putin invaded the country with his armed forces, which have taken over all the Ukrainian military bases in Crimea,” she says. “I feel the Russian goal is to divide the country by spreading propaganda and separatism, hoping that the eastern part of the country, together with Crimea, will become theirs.”

She says she feels the U.S., the European Union, and NATO need to intervene more forcefully: “If not, Russia will take over Crimea [and] will take over even part of Ukraine. A democratic stronghold will be lost.”

Gregory Russell is a publications editor at the University of Memphis.

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Music Music Features

Doubling Down

Gerald Stephens

Next week is a busy one for Gerald Stephens. Stephens teaches jazz piano at Rhodes and at the University of Memphis, where he is finishing his master’s in piano. Stephens will play with his new band, Every Tribe, at Stonewall Hall on the 15th, and he has a recital at the Tuthill Performance Hall of Rhodes College on the 17th. He will perform at Otherlands on the 22nd as part of a three-act jazz bill. He recorded his first solo album, Cycles, last year and plays live in a variety of ensembles. He’s played with everyone from Valerie June to Levon Helm. Stephens has made a living playing jazz in Memphis. Many complain about the lack of work for straight-ahead jazz, but Stephens has made his way and enjoys the challenges of doing what he loves.

Flyer: Who played on Cycles?

Stephens: A lot of people: Jim Spake and Scott Thompson. Sean Murphy and Jason Northcutt. Paul Taylor’s on it. Logan Hanna, Wesley Morgan, and Chad Anderson.

That’s half of the jazz scene.

It’s a mish mash of several different sessions. I would save up some money, do a few songs and then forget about it. We recorded some of it at my house, some of it at Jeremy Shrader’s house. He uses his place for Electric Moon, which he has with Matt Timberlake.

My other band is an improv group called Every Tribe. This is only our second gig. That’s based around a vocalist from Dayton, Ohio, whenever she can be in town. I’ve got Jeff Burch and Neal Bowen. That’s on the 15th at Stonewall Hall.

You and your brother are going to play together at Otherlands. Did you grow up competing with each other?

My parents didn’t play. But we took piano lessons. I stuck with it, and he switched to drums. I grew up in Southaven. I used to do trombone in high school band and four years of college band for scholarship. That’s where [my brother] Daryl learned drums, junior high band. But he was in a Beatles cover band in high school. But I was just old enough that we weren’t in the same bands. I was off at college. He plays in Jocephus and the George Jonestown Massacre and with Special Shoes, a punk band. But it’s the first time we’ve played a gig together in a long time. We made a record in 1998 that we never put out. It’s just him and me; it’s pretty good. We should probably release it.

How has it been going back to school?

I’m all mixed up in finishing my master’s degree. I’m doing recitals for that. That one week, I’ve got Every Tribe on the 15th, a recital on the 17th, and my tunes on the 22nd. Busy.

All I heard until I was 13 was country music and Elvis. That’s what my parents had at the house. When I got my radio, I was listening to Memphis stations. K97, Rock 103. By high school I had gotten into hard rock and psychedelic stuff. By college, the free form stuff got me into Miles [Davis] and led me over into jazz. I got into blues from hearing Clapton talk about Robert Johnson.

They don’t tell you about that in school. You have to find out on your own. I’m trying to change that in whatever adjunct capacity I have. I’m thinking about a Memphis music class in the fall. A seminar. I’m like OK, somebody’s in town who would come and talk to the class.

I hear jazz musicians complain a lot about the challenges of playing jazz for a living. But you seem to have made it work.

There is so much more supply than demand in the arts, whatever you do, not matter how good you are. This year 1,500 more young Americans will graduate with music degrees. Do you think 1,500 jobs are going to open up? Not unless they create it. Not unless they hustle. They have to create a gig. If you think in the old model of ‘Where are the jobs, man?’, you can get that way. I can’t say I haven’t thought that way, but ever since 1997, the only income I’ve had is from teaching music and playing music. I’m still alive. I’m still happy. I’m not a millionaire, but I made more than I made last year. And last year I made more than the year before. I’ve had a concept of stepping it up. But you have to do that yourself. You can’t ask what is the next thing for me. You have to say this is the next thing for me. People are maybe scared of that.

See Gerald Stephens with Every Tribe on Saturday, February 15th, at Stonewall Hall and at Otherlands on Saturday, February 22nd, with Ed Finney, Jeremy Shrader, and Michelle Bush.

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Music Music Features

Put Up Your Duke

“For my money, he’s the best American composer of all time, period,” Sam Shoup says of Duke Ellington. “Not just as a jazz composer, but you could make a case for best American composer.”

Shoup should know. He has arranged music for the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He is a master upright bassist and teaches at the University of Memphis. Shoup and saxophonist Gary Topper run the Bluff City Jazz Project with the help of American music specialist and promoter David Less. The group will present “An Evening of Ellington” at the Germantown Performing Arts Center on Saturday, October 26th. Also present will be Ellington Orchestra alumnus Bill Easley.

“Bill Easley played in the Ellington band about a year after Ellington died,” says Topper, who has played on recordings for Al Green and Keith Richards. “Ellington’s son Mercer had taken over the band. Bill did it for about six months on the road, and they would call him back over the years. He’s a clarinet specialist. He played with the band off and on for about six years. He knows the music. We just had a rehearsal with the sax section. With the discussions he brought to the table, it was great.”

The performance will mark a couple of Memphis music firsts: The Bluff City Jazz Project is the first subscription-based offering by GPAC for a jazz series. Usually the model is used for the symphonic season. But Less thought the idea of a subscription would work for jazz too. It’s also the first time a local act will take the stage of the Duncan-Williams Performance Hall.

“David contacted Paul Chandler at GPAC about the idea, and he was very excited and immediately went for it,” Shoup says. “They’ve been doing this Jazz in the Box program for a long time. That’s been successful, but now it’s moving to the main stage. You’ve got to give him kudos for that. He’s saying there’s lots of tremendous local talent here; let’s showcase it. And I couldn’t be happier about him feeling that way.”

But it’s all about the music.

“Duke Ellington wrote more than 2,000 songs,” Shoup says. “We won’t be performing all of them. We have a 15-piece band. We’re trying to take a diverse approach that spans Ellington’s whole career. There’s some fascinating stuff to draw on. We’ve tried to draw from several different areas of his career. We have some stuff with smaller groups and some stuff with a big band.”

The band is composed of heavies: Shoup on bass [don’t believe him when he says he’s bringing a Marshall stack], Tom Lonardo on drums, Marc Franklin, Reed McCoy, and Scott Thompson on trumpet, and Topper on saxophone, to name a few.

The evening was originally planned as a tribute to Greenwood, Mississippi, native and University of Memphis alumnus Mulgrew Miller. But Miller died on May 29th of this year.

“He was actually in my theory class when I was here,” Shoup says of Miller. “Unfortunately, he passed away. We decided to go ahead with the project. But in the future, we want to try to feature an artist and bring someone in. There’s talk of doing a Miles Davis show. We even thought about doing a Frank Zappa show and bringing in [his son] Dweezil, if he’ll do it. But that’s how we want to set it up.”

Shoup is quick to point out that the U of M has a serious track record for producing jazz greats.

“Mulgrew Miller, Donald Brown, and James Williams all went to this university. They’ve all become jazz stars. I say to all of my students, ‘If you work hard, you can become a jazz star from this university. Because it’s been done. It’s been done three times.'”

While most of Ellington’s work is in the charts — the arranging of the instruments into harmony and rhythm — he was known as “the piano player,” a deferential joke in light of his unparalleled jazz compositions.

Alvie Givhan is on the piano bench this Saturday. He’s another U of M grad. Shoup adds:

“He studied with Gene Rush, and he played down on Beale Street at King’s Palace for 12 years. He’s a great player and is very enthusiastic about the show. The band is really the feature. Duke Ellington played solos, but there’s not even piano on some of the tunes we’re playing. It’s not even in the score for some of the suites. There’s plenty to play solo-wise, and different people are featured at different points.”

Shoup worked his way through the University of Memphis by writing and arranging for the school’s bands.

“They still play some of my charts, and I can hear all of my mistakes. When I was in the band, we got to go to the Final Four when Finch and Robinson played against Bill Walton. I was under the goal. I’m in all of the pictures, because I was ringside. I love the Pep Band. I’ve got these mutton-chop sideburns. I’ve been to two championship games, and we’ve lost both of them. If we win again, I’m not going.”

Being at that game is one big-time Memphis credential. Calling courtside “ringside” makes you seventh-level Memphian. And I’m not even sure how to handle this last Memphis credential: Shoup was a founding member of the Dog Police.

The Bluff City Jazz Project presents “An Evening with Ellington” at GPAC on Saturday, October 26th, at

8 p.m. Tickets start at $25; available at www.gpacweb.com.

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Sound Advice: OCTUBAFEST at U of M, Wed.-Sat.

It’s freakin’ Octubafest. Yeah, I know, TUBULAR!

It runs from Wednesday through Saturday, Oct. 23-26, at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. University of Memphis, Harris Auditorium.