In his autobiography, Miles Davis comments on players he recruited in the late ’50s/early ’60s: “Before I left New York, I had had tryouts for the band and that’s where I got all these Memphis musicians … I wonder what they were doing down there, when all them guys came through that one school?”
He was talking about Manassas High School, which had pioneered jazz music instruction since the days of Jimmie Lunceford, and whose graduates included such jazz titans as George Coleman, Charles Lloyd, and Phineas Newborn Jr. Meanwhile, other high schools, churches, and the University of Memphis (originally Memphis State) have also turned out jazz virtuosos for decades, up to the present.
Yet celebrations of the city as a jazz hotbed have been few and far between, except for the Beale Street Music Festival’s earliest days and the touring Kool Jazz Festivals that stopped here in the ’70s and ’80s. Since then, diehard jazz lovers have perennially decried the lack of a central bespoke event for the Bluff City’s swinging musical legacy.
Until now. Just like that, this October 9th through 11th will see a mix of regional and national jazz acts appear at the first annual Memphis Jazz Festival. One major catalyst for it was jazz singer Deborah Swiney, who’s been staging the Sunset Jazz at Court Square series for years, and who’s seen that monthly event’s success snowball over time.
As Swiney tells the Flyer, she was thinking, “We have all this interest in jazz. How about we do a little bit more about it? Because Sunset Jazz is growing and growing. Now that we’ve got some folks on board, how about we make it bigger?”
Swiney was not alone, adding, “I want to give a shout-out to Milton Howery III and the Downtown Memphis Commission for trusting me and getting on board.” The free festival was ultimately developed by Swiney, Howery, Stephen Lee and Michael Scott of Memphis Jazz Workshop, DeMarcus Suggs from the city of Memphis, McKenzii Webster of The Web MGMT, and Alicia Dixon and Marquis White of Dixon-White Restaurant Group, LLC.
Spread over a few venues during the weekend, the fest will be organized a little differently each day. Friday’s “Downtown Jazz Experiences” event at The Westin Memphis Beale Street kicks off the weekend with cocktails and live music, while the Memphis Jazz Festival proper takes place Saturday from 1-7 p.m., on the Main Street Mall between Peabody Place and Union Avenue. It will feature jazz workshops and two stages of live entertainment. That night, there’s a “Jazz Jam at The Dame,” sponsored by the Memphis Jazz Workshop and hosted by Henry Conerway. Finally, on Sunday, Sunset Jazz at Court Square will feature Gary Topper & Symmetry, Pat Register, and Stephen M. Lee.
All told, the featured acts also include Swiney herself, Theo Croker, Dear Silas, the Parkerhurt Quartet (led by Little Rock-based No Tears Suite phenoms Christopher Parker and Kelley Hurt), the Memphis Jazz Orchestra, the Joe Restivo 4, Henry Conerway III, The Power to the People Quartet (led by Johnny Yancey), Hope Clayburn & the Memphis Manes, the Kenny Reed Quintet, and the Alex Upton Trio.
The stylistic breadth ranges from the ’50s R&B-flavored guitar and horn jazz of Restivo’s group to the angular, modernist funk of Symmetry to the hip-hop jazz of Dear Silas, who hails from just down the road in Jackson, Mississippi. As Silas tells the Flyer, “Because it’s so close to where I’m from, I really wanted to be more part of the culture of Memphis. That’s why I’m so excited to finally get to play there, especially at as big [a show] as this festival.”
Unlike the jazz-inflected hip-hop of the ’90s, which used samples of classic jazz records or jazz session players to enhance tracks, Silas the rapper is also Silas the trumpet player. “I’m incorporating my horn into the hip-hop I’m doing. It’s fun, trying to figure out ways to make it fit in, where it doesn’t overpower what’s going on, but adds to it.” While Silas uses pre-recorded tracks to some extent, there will always be a live element as well. “For the jazz festival,” he says, “it will be me, my DJ, a horn, and piano.”
Visit downtownmemphis.com/events/memphis-jazz-festival for more details.
