Events

Crosstown Arts Spring 2022 resident artists Lucy Wang, Kate Roberts, John Rash, Gunter Guapp, and Jasmine Marie will present artist talks.

Morgan Massey, a graduating senior from the University of Memphis Music Business program, is presenting Taking Over: Women in the Music Industry. The event is a benefit concert for A Step Ahead Foundation and will be held on April 1st at The Green Room in Crosstown Arts. The show will serve to empower and encourage young women who are navigating a male dominated industry. Taking Over features four incredible female performers and a fully female crew. The event will include exclusive shirts for sale and a sponsored raffle to raise funds for donations. Come close out Women’s History Month by supporting these ambitious and passionate young women!

Marcella Simien was born into one of the first Creole families to settle St. Landry Parish. Daughter of two-time GRAMMY™ Award-winning Zydeco luminary Terrance Simien, Marcella was practically born on-stage and grew up immersed in sound and performance. Visits to the family home from legends such as David Hidalgo of Los Lobos or Taj Mahal, who once sang her “Happy Birthday,” were not uncommon.

With a voice as smooth as velvet, SAMARA JOY’s star seems to rise with each performance. Following her winning the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, she is currently recording her debut recording, which will feature Samara backed by the Pasquale Grasso Trio. Not yet 21 years old, Samara has already performed in many of the great jazz venues in NYC, including Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, The Blue Note, and Mezzrow, in addition to working with jazz greats such as Christian McBride, Pasquale Grasso, Jon Faddis, Kirk Lightsey, Cyrus Chestnut, and NEA Jazz Master Dr. Barry Harris.

In the mid 1990s, The New York Times described Larry Goldings, Peter Bernstein, and Bill Stewart as “the best organ trio of the last decade.” The trio, which has now been together for over 30 years, has been recognized for charting new ground, with its synergistic playing, and thoughtful music. They have over a dozen recordings, all of which display their distinctive sound, whether exploring the depths of jazz standards, or playing their own original compositions.

Henry Booker, also known as Sir Henry, is a versatile musician who performs across the Mid-South with several bands. Henry started the Hood 2 Hood Recitals to promote nonviolence, peace, and positivity in urban neighborhoods in Memphis and beyond by playing classical music and R&B hits after he was in a tragic incident that nearly ended his life. The Hood 2 Hood Recitals began with Henry setting up his keyboard in public neighborhood locations so that music could be brought out into the community, for the community.

More than three decades into his career, singer/songwriter David Wilcox continues to push himself, just as he always has. Wilcox, by so many measures, is a quintessential folk singer, telling stories full of heart, humor, and hope, substance, searching, and style. His lyrical insight is matched by a smooth baritone voice, virtuosic guitar chops, and creative open tunings, giving him a range and tenderness rare in folk music. His innate sense of adventure and authenticity is why critics and colleagues, alike, have always praised not just his artistry, but his humanity, as well.

About Folk All Y’all: Intimate, attentive performances by exceptional singer-songwriters, proudly presented in Memphis, Folk All Y’all is a public listening room series dedicated to providing artists and audiences with unforgettable music experiences.

Roland Barber has performed in venues the world over, from Manhattan to Estonia, including Carnegie Hall, Birdland, the Blue Note, the Smithsonian, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Madison Square Garden. Beyond the jazz realm, Roland has performed with a “who’s who” of the music scene, including the Wooten Brothers, Slavic Soul Party, Lauryn Hill, the Nashville Symphony, Lady A, Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Lauren Daigle, Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo, the Wood Brothers, Ron Isley, La India, Roberto Blades, Take 6, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Kirk Whalum, the NBC Saturday Night Live Band and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra.

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.

Ata Kak is the mysterious Ghanaian electronic/rap/highlife icon who kick-started the whole Awesome Tapes From Africa phenomenon. After a long wait, he's presenting his first-ever live performances in Europe and the United States.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Guitarist / composer Joel Harrison reunites his groundbreaking group Free Country to tour the mid-Atlantic and Southern regions of the U.S. in April 2022. In visionary arrangements of country and Appalachian tunes, Harrison gave new width and depth to the word Americana. Harrison will be joined by David Binney (saxophone), Stephan Crump (bass), and Jordan Perlson (drums). The group will perform music from all three of their Free Country records. The timeless, haunting melodies of this music anchor the flights of improvisation that the band creates anew every night. The tour is funded in part by South Arts through the auspices of the Doris Duke Fund and the Jazz Road initiative.

Jon Mueller's Afterlife Cartoons are solo acoustic percussion performances that use repetitive tom patterns and subtle shifts in grid-like pulsing to instigate overtones, phasing, and choir-like acoustic phenomena that transform the work from mere drum solo to the sonic illusion of a small orchestra. Rhythmic minimalism, contemporary phrasing, and energetic sustain drive Mueller's improvisations into a space somewhere between modern electronic music and primal drumming, inspiring audiences toward movement and contemplation.