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Crosstown Arts presents Art Edmaiston with Ra Kalam Bob Moses in The Green Room.
The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Friday, March 22, 2024
Doors open at 7 pm | Show begins at 7:30 pm
Tickets: $15 in advance | $20 at the door
Memphis saxophonist Art Edmaiston wants to share his version of “Ecstatic Energy Music” with the world. Thirty-plus years of experience touring and performing on stages and in recording studios with a wide array of artists (Gregg Allman, Bobby “Blue” Bland, the Doobie Brothers, JJ Grey & Mofro, Stevie Wonder, Little Feat, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Justin Timberlake) earned Edmaiston the ability to enhance music in colorful and exciting ways that make him a crucial element in every setting. Art’s voluptuous sound on the tenor saxophone was sculpted from years spent playing R&B and blues in Memphis, but has origins in the small country town of Troy, Tennessee, where he grew up playing alone in wide open cow pastures and soybean fields. Now at the age of 51, Edmaiston feels ready to make music that looks forward while being fully present in the moment.
After a year of intense mentorship with legendary percussionist/composer/visual artist Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Edmaiston’s improvisations have a fresh energy that feature melodic lines alternating between husky subtones and brilliant multiphonic flourishes. Art has developed a unique and creative approach to the soprano saxophone that makes use of smeared notes, pitch bends and tonal manipulations offering listeners an aural picture of abstract liberated instrumental expression unlike anything heard in mainstream music performances.
The upcoming concert at The Green Room will showcase Edmaiston on saxophones along with master rhythmatist Ra Kalam on drums/percussion/gongs in various instrumental configurations with an eclectic mix of talented guests.
