Past Events › The Green Room

Talibah Safiya’s lyricism is truly inspiring, creating vivid, captivating stories that connect you directly to each experience. Her vocals, combined with instrumentals, blanket the audience with the warmth of soulful, earthy tones. Her career has been on an upward projection since 2011. In 2019, she travelled the U.S. on her first tour “A Deep Water Sound”. She was celebrated in 2020’s Oxford American Music issue in an article titled “The Oracle of Castalia”. Some of her many accomplishments also include performing for – Sundance, The Kennedy Center’s Arts Across America, Mempho, and Americana Fest.

Rahsaan Barber has set on a singular path of musical excellence in performance, composition, education and entrepreneurship. Rahsaan enjoys a career that encompasses an ever-expanding range of musical styles including jazz, blues, funk, classical, fusion, soul, Latin and world music. Rahsaan’s passionate, sincere and studious approach to music-making has garnered professional appearances on stage alongside such heavyweights as Christian McBride, Brian Blade, The Temptations, Delfeayo Marsalis, The Spanish Harlem Orchestra, the late Duffy Jackson, Winard Harper, Kirk Franklin, Meghan Trainor and The Wooten Brothers. He has performed on many of the world’s most prestigious stages for music including The Ryman, The Village Vanguard, Birdland, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture.

Doug MacLeod is known for his superb songwriting, guitar wizardry, warm soulful vocals, wit, and unforgettable live performances. At the heart of a Doug MacLeod performance is his knack for storytelling, bringing characters-from the faceless to the legendary-to strikingly real life.

Doug is a multiple Blues Music Award winner, including the 2020 Blues Music Award for Acoustic Artist Of The Year and the 2018 Blues Music Award for Acoustic Album Of The Year ‘Break The Chain’. He was recently nominated for the 2021 Blues Music Award for Acoustic Artist Of The Year.

Enjoy an evening with the very best jazz Memphis has to offer! Featuring three powerhouse performances by Southern Comfort Jazz Orchestra, 901 Jazz and University of Memphis Jazz Singers. Audiences will enjoy an eclectic showcase featuring jazz legends and newcomers.

Join us for the One-Woman Comedy show with artist in residence Lucy Wang in the Green Room.

During the past 40 years, Nat Reeves has been one of the top bassists in jazz. His supportive and stimulating playing has uplifted a countless number of sessions and recording dates (most notably with the great altoists Jackie McLean and Kenny Garrett) and he has led his own CD State of Emergency. Both as a performer and an educator, he has made a strong impact on the jazz world.

Early in his career, Nat Reeves not only performed with Jackie McLean but such greats as tenor-saxophonist Benny Golson, trumpeter Donald Byrd, drummer Art Taylor and pianists Mulgrew Miller, Kenny Kirkland, Walter Davis, Walter Bishop, Larry Willis and Kenny Drew. He became a longtime member of altoist Kenny Garrett’s group in 1994 and in recent times has worked and recorded with many of the who’s who of jazz including tenor-saxophonists Pharoah Sanders, George Coleman and Eric Alexander, trombonist Steve Davis, pianists Harold Mabern, George Cables, David Hazeltine and Anthony Wonsey, and drummer Joe Farnsworth among many others.