We expect the music featured every year at the Cooper-Young Festival to be very extremely “Memphis,” but since 2024, when the festival handed its music curation duties to John Miller and Jeff Hulett, the neighborhood festival has truly leaned into presenting the crème de la crème of local performers. This year’s 38th Guaranty Bank Cooper-Young Festival, happening on Saturday, September 19th, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., will be no different.
The Guaranty Bank Stage will feature, in reverse order, the Afrikan Jazz Ensemble, Eillo, the Joe Restivo 4, Degenerate Breakfast, Massey Lane, Twin Fiction, and Raneem Imam, starting at 11 a.m., while Impala, Yesse Yavis (aka Jesse Davis), Mama Honey, The Narrows, and San Salida will grace the Mempho Stage, starting at 12:30 p.m. A more inclusive cross-section of beautifully crafted Memphis music would be hard to imagine. And while ageism is rampant elsewhere, that can’t be said of these 12 bands, whose members range from teenagers to some very spry examples of “the elderly.” Here, we present two groups on either end of that spectrum.
The Narrows
Now approaching their third year as a band, The Narrows are already poised to release their finely honed debut album featuring the original lineup of twentysomethings Owen Traw, Bella Frandsen, Aidan Smith, and Chris Daniels. And, as singer, songwriter, and guitarist Traw points out, much of the album’s drive comes down to Daniels’ powerful drumming.
“Matt Qualls at Easley-McCain Studios said that after our session, he had to replace the kick drum head. Chris was loud, man.” Traw emphasizes “how important his drumming was to the feel of the music. He didn’t come from a rock music background. When we first started jamming, he was like, ‘I don’t know anything about rock,’ so he was basically playing straight-up gospel beats.
“He’s a pretty singular drummer,” Traw continues. “Those are all his drums on the album. By coincidence, we had finished all his stuff before he started getting sick.”
That, for The Narrows, not to mention the School of Rock community and Daniels’ family, was when tragedy struck. This April, Daniels passed away due to the sudden advance of a chronic health issue diagnosed years before. “He’d had lung issues for as long as I knew him,” muses Traw, but no one thought they’d be deadly. “It was just a total shock. Like, what??”
Accordingly, the band has dubbed their new album Chris, and they’ll make its release a celebration of his memory. That will start well before Cooper-Young Fest, first when they host a listening session at Memphis Listening Lab on August 26th, then at the album release show at Growler’s on Saturday, August 29th, which will also serve as a fundraiser. “We want to make sure his family keeps getting help, and we’re going to keep supporting them as much as we can,” says a choked-up Traw. “Even in death, Chris is entitled to his cut.”
Afrikan Jazz Ensemble (Photo: Ekpe Abioto)
Afrikan Jazz Ensemble
Reflecting on his 34 years of playing jazz and soul with a decidedly African bent, Ekpe Abioto agrees that one phrase sums it up: “Playing the long game!” he chuckles.
All the while, the virtuoso kalimba, flute, saxophone, and African percussion player has crusaded to remind listeners of the centrality of African music to the culture of North America. And, judging by how they light up a festival crowd, his Afrikan Jazz Ensemble does it with style, grace, and an infectious sense of fun.
Abioto has been playing professionally since at least the early ’70s, when he was with the band Exotic Movement. In more recent decades, he’s led a fluid ensemble of those who share his love of straight up African innovators like Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Fela Kuti, or more obscure acts like Osibisa, a London-based Ghanaian-Caribbean Afro rock band of the ’60s. The specific music of any gig depends on the context. “If we perform at a Juneteenth celebration, we play songs like ‘Freedom Day’ by Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln,” Abioto offers as an example.
Yet, as a kalimba player, he also embraces ’70s pop, a veritable golden age of the kalimba on American radio — thanks to Memphis native Maurice White. “Maurice played kalimba on every Earth, Wind & Fire album,” Abioto offers. So don’t be surprised if you hear the one song that fits the timing of the Cooper-Young Fest better than any other. “We’ll play ‘September,’ as a matter of fact!” exclaims Abioto. “We love Earth, Wind & Fire!”
