Tag: The Green Room

** This event is postponed until further notice.

Crosstown Arts presents Morgan James’ Memphis Magnetic Tour in The Green Room.

Tickets: $20 General Admission | $50 VIP with artist meet & greet
Doors at 7 pm | Show at 7:30 pm

Memphis Magnetic is the third studio album from soul singer Morgan James. This album is a love letter to one of the great American birthplaces of soul. Rooted in her love of Aretha Franklin, Al Green, and Otis Redding, Morgan James delivers as only she can. The Memphis Magnetic Tour will be a feast for the ears and the heart, from the soul of a great artist with a love for what is real and true in American music.

Let’s start with the voice, an instrument through which she can communicate anything. A gift bestowed upon her that she has expertly trained, meticulously nurtured, and passionately galvanized into action by an urgency to make real music. Next, the stories, and she has them in spades. They are full of truth and beauty, heartache and thoughtfulness. They reveal colors we weren’t expecting to see. They make us close our eyes and relate. And finally, the soul – the emotional and intellectual energy through which these parts are fueled. That special something that prompted The Wall Street Journal to herald her as “the most promising young vocalist to come along so far this century.” That young vocalist is Morgan James. And Morgan James is a soul singer.

Armed with her dedication to create authentic soul music, James and her husband Doug Wamble, her producer, co-writer, and arranger, spent months writing twelve new songs in New York City. “Doug and I have always wanted to make a classic record like this,” she says. “Doug is originally from Memphis and we are both so inspired by the roots of classic soul music. Being entrenched in a place like that really informs everything you make there.” So, instead of recording in New York, she aimed straight for the source and booked a week at a new music studio in Memphis, at the recommendation of drummer George Sluppick.

She immediately connected with the space: Memphis Magnetic, a renovated old bank transformed into a classic recording studio, decked out with a collection of vintage Nashville gear by owner Scott McEwen. The space exemplified exactly what James wanted her album to be: something new through the prism of something old. She and Wamble assembled a group of local musicians, including Sluppick, organist Al Gamble, bassist Landon Moore, and pianist Alvie Givhan. They tapped legendary Memphis musicians Reverend Charles Hodges and Leroy Hodges, who were the backbone of the Hi Records rhythm section, which played with Al Green and Ann Peebles, to contribute to two tracks. And finally, the team was rounded out with a classic Memphis horn section, plus the amazing Memphis String Quartet.

“What I’ve learned over the years is to hire great people and let them do what they do best,” says James. “We came in with all the music charted and ready and left space for people to be themselves and infuse it with their own magic. I really wanted every single person involved in the album to be from Memphis and to channel the great albums I admire so much. From every end of the spectrum, in every department, it felt like the right people.”

The entire album was recorded to analog tape, a first for James. She wanted to be less precious about the process overall and to capture the same invigorated feeling as her live performances. Much of the album comes from single, complete takes, giving it a vibrant, in-the-moment sensibility. The songs on the album range in tone, but there’s a hopeful, life-affirming feeling that threads through the tracks. The playful “I Wish You Would” takes its cues from “Mr. Big Stuff,” while “All I Ever Gave You” looks back on losing someone after endless sacrifices. The album also features two duets, another first for James, with Marc Broussard and three-time Grammy nominee Ryan Shaw. The collaboration with Shaw, “I Don’t Mind Waking Up (To A Love This Good)” is the first single and a song James calls one of her favorites she’s ever written. And a standout moment comes on the closing track “Who’s Going to Listen To You? (When You’re Crying Now),” a song James and Wamble wrote with lyrics from a poem by Spin Doctors’ lead singer Chris Barron. It creates a poignant and heart-wrenching final note for the album, a collection of genuine, satisfying songs that embrace the best of American songwriting. The experience was so inspiring and affirming that James ended up titling the album Memphis Magnetic after the studio where it was made (an homage to Jimi Hendrix and his Electric Ladyland).

For James, Memphis Magnetic is the culmination of a life-long love affair with music. She grew up listening to everyone from Joni Mitchell to Paul Simon to Prince to Aretha Franklin, cultivating an insatiable love for strong songwriters. After graduating from The Juilliard School with a classical music degree, and performing in the original companies of four Broadway productions, James began writing and recording her own music. Meeting her mentor Berry Gordy, Jr. led to a record deal at Epic Records, where she recorded and released her solo album Hunter in 2014. In addition to her studio albums, James recorded and released a full album cover of Joni Mitchell’s seminal Blue as well as The Beatles’ White Album in 2018 to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Through her unique and varied career, there have been many ups and downs, but James cites her failures as more important than her successes in shaping the artist she is today.

After her tenure with Epic Records, she took charge of her career from the business side as well. She cultivated a new world of fans with her viral YouTube videos, and while connecting with them on social media and at her live shows, she found the support and strength to go out on her own as an independent artist. Over the last several years, James has built her own empire and established herself as a touring powerhouse, allowing her to raise the funds to create her albums and make every decision from the ground up.

“This album feels so unburdened by anybody or anything. All of the songs were written for this project. They were recorded in the same way, in the same room. It’s a moment in time captured. I felt like I was a part of the lineage of soul music. My guiding force throughout the record was ‘What would Aretha say? What would Otis say?’ It’s not a retro album or a throwback by any means. This album is me: classic elements, timeless melodies, and lyrics from my soul and experience. We need that right now. We need real music now more than ever.”

** This event is postponed until further notice.

Join us in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts for a special performance by Tonya Dyson in a tribute to the legendary Sarah Vaughan.

Tickets: $10
Doors at 7pm | Show at 7:30pm

Tonya Dyson wears so many hats: non-profit arts executive, music educator, serial entrepreneur, community leader, and festival organizer. You name it. She’s also a beloved artist who has not only built a devoted following in a creative landscape of her own design but has helped develop and nurture that same environment for countless other Memphis artists. She’s the genuine article in Memphis’ new soul underground. Join Tonya as she pays tribute to one of her favorite artists, the legendary Sarah Vaughan.

Join us in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts for a performance by guitarist Julian Lage and drummer Dave King.

Tickets: $20
Doors at 7 pm | Show at 7:30 pm

Hailed as one of the most prodigious guitarists of his generation, Julian Lage has spent more than a decade searching through the myriad strains of American musical history via impeccable technique, free association, and a spirit of infinite possibility.

Though only 31, the New York-based musician boasts a long, prolific resume that includes collaborations with Gary Burton, John Zorn, Nels Cline, Chris Eldridge, Fred Hersch, David Grisman, Béla Fleck, and Charles Lloyd.

Love Hurts , which marks his first album to feature drummer Dave King (The Bad Plus), sees the GRAMMY-nominated guitarist exploring the American song catalog from a truly unique vantage point, performing music written by a range of audacious and original artists, from Roy Orbison to Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Giuffre to Peter Ivers.

Love Hurts finds Lage searching through the unfettered artistic freedom of the late 1960s and 1970s, the ambitious energy and lack of restrictions placed upon artists of all genres providing a guiding light for the sessions. “The covers on this record are like when you move into a new apartment; the last thing you do is hang your pictures on the wall,” Lage says. “Those pictures define your aesthetic in a way. So the tunes we chose kind of define the aesthetic I love but hadn’t put on a record yet.”

The impetus for Lage to delve deeper into his own improvisational influences was initially catalyzed by a series of 2018 live dates that saw him and bassist Jorge Roeder joined by Dave King, composer and drummer extraordinaire with The Bad Plus.

“Dave was like the most beautiful curveball being thrown in,” Lage says. “He’s one of the greatest improvising forces and artistic visionaries. We became close friends over the last couple of years. We played some shows together and I thought, this is really heavy. He brings something out in Jorge and I that is native to the music we grew up playing but doesn’t always get prompted in this particular way. I thought, this is someone who can do it all. He can light that fire as a player and he can help us formulate a strong collective vision.”

This event is postponed until further notice.

Join us in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts for a performance by Mississippi bluesman Willie Farmer, with an opening set by Tim Easton.

Tickets: $15
Doors at 7pm | Performance at 7:30pm

Willie Farmer is living proof that Mississippi continues to produce deep blues. The 63-year-old guitarist is neither a soul modernist nor revivalist, but simply a small-town auto mechanic who’s never shaken his love for old school legends like Muddy, Wolf, and Lightnin’.

A lifelong resident of tiny Duck Hill, located in the hills east of the Delta, Farmer grew up on the family farm. He first took up the acoustic guitar in his early teens, and through picking cotton, soon saved up enough money to buy an electric instrument.

He played for audiences at home and at school events and learned about blues and R&B, mostly through listening to a powerful station out of Nashville. “John R of WLAC, that’s how I listened to Lightnin’ Hopkins, Howlin’ Wolf. That’s how I got my first album by Lightnin’ [The Fire Records LP Mojo Hand]. I got the address off the radio, and they sent it.”

“I learned Lightin’ pretty good. I can play all the up-to-date stuff now — B.B., Little Milton — but I like the old stuff; that’s the real blues. The blues they’re singing today, that ain’t blues to me; it just doesn’t have the feel.”

Willie’s father Alex, a harmonica player who helped young Willie tune his guitar, had played as a young man with his brothers, including Walter, who was recognized as one of the best guitarists to come out of the area.

In the early ‘50s, Walter played together with Leo “Bud” Welch, who grew up in the region. Sadly, Walter was killed in Chicago in 1964 — “a woman liked Walter, and a man got jealous and killed him” — and Willie never heard him play.

In his early ‘20s, Farmer joined a loos- knit band that played at juke joints across the area — in Duck Hill, Grenada, Kilmichael, and down in the Delta in Greenwood and Charleston. He eventually tired, though, of the rough-and-tumble clubs where “people liked to fight like crazy. ”

For about fifteen years, Farmer worked regularly with local semi-professional gospel groups, including the Rising Sun Singers, who appeared on TV and over the radio in Greenwood, the Angelettes, and, for nine years, the Grenada-based Silvertone Gospel Singers. In 2003, he helped found the annual Grassroots Blues Festival, staged in a meadow outside Duck Hill. Through the event, he befriended down-home blues players from across the state, including Willie King and Welch.

“The Man From the Hill” marks the first time that he’s spent serious time in the studio. Recorded over multiple sessions at Producer Bruce Watson’s Memphis based Delta-Sonic Sound Studio. Farmer enjoyed working in a North Mississippi Hill Country vein with Jimbo Mathus and session drummer George Sluppick. He even dipped back into gospel, singing harmony together with Memphis’ Barnes Brothers on [the Sensational Nightingales’] “At the Meeting.”

For the past 30 years, Farmer has run his own auto repair shop and hopes that the release of this record and associated touring will allow him to retire.

“I’m trying to get out of that shop. I’m tried of messing with those cars. It’s been a long time.”

To celebrate 30 years of traveling with and writing songs on his black Gibson J-45 acoustic guitar named ”Paco,” Nashville-based songwriter Tim Easton recorded an entire album direct-to-lacquer at The Earnest Tube Studio in Bristol, Virginia. This performance-based method of capturing songs leaves no room for manipulation or overdubbing, therefore conjuring the roots of American Music. Each track was recorded via portable lathe, which cuts a mono signal directly to a lacquer acetate disc, much the way The Carter Family or Jimmie Rodgers would have made their first records in Bristol over 90 years ago.

In as much time as it takes to listen, Easton recorded nine original songs and one cover using a single 1940s RCA 74B ribbon microphone, alternating between the rapid fire flat-picking and steady, Travis-style thumb-picking technique that he has been streamlining all these years, coupled with his Country Blues style rack harmonica playing. The occasional foot stomp can be heard as well, vibrating through the floors. Easton sings songs from the personal experiences and observations of man who has spent a few decades on the road. His folk music is not always the gentle kind. His authenticity is pervasive. This is what the tradition of the troubadour sounds like.

This LP serves as a love letter of sorts to Easton’s trusty Gibson acoustic guitar, which he purchased in 1987 for $100, plus two cheap electric guitars on trade. Leaving Ohio and exploring Europe on and off for seven years, Easton traveled extensively by train, bus, and thumb, learning to write songs along the way. Soon after a Deadhead in Paris named his guitar “Paco,” Easton made his first recordings just a short walk away from the Charles Bridge in Prague, where he had been busking in the Summer after Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution.

After returning Stateside and signing with EMI Music Publishing, he released several critically acclaimed albums with both New West Records and Thirty Tigers. His last album, 2016’s American Fork (Last Change Records) reached #11 on the Americana Music Association Radio Charts. Easton continues to travel the world and perform while also delving into film score work done at his home studio in Nashville. He has scored two feature documentaries, “The Power Of Two” (2012), and “The Bullish Farmer” (2017) and also placed original songs in film and television. The American South has left it’s emotional and sonic mark on many a traveler, and it shows in Easton’s range of performances on this unique LP.

** This event is postponed until further notice.

Join us in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts for a performance of trumpeter Jamie Branch’s debut album, “Fly or Die.”

Tickets: $15
Doors at 7 pm | Show at 7:30 pm

A mainstay of the Chicago jazz scene and an active recent addition to the New York scene, Jaimie Branch is an avant-garde trumpeter known for her “ghostly sounds,” says The New York Times, and for “sucker punching” crowds straight from the jump off, says Time Out.

Her classical training and “unique voice capable of transforming every ensemble of which she is a part” (Jazz Right Now) has contributed to a wide range of projects not only in jazz but also punk, noise, indie rock, electronic, and hip-hop. Branch’s prolific as-of-yet underexposed work as a composer and a producer, as well as a sideman for the likes of William Parker, Matana Roberts, TV on the Radio, and Spoon, is all on display in her debut record Fly or Die — a dynamic 35-minute ride that dares listeners to open their minds to music that knows no genre, no gender, no limits.

 

** This event is postponed until further notice. 

Join us in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts for a performance by The Adam Larson Band, featuring tenor saxophonist Adam Larson with Michael Shults (alto sax), Joe Restivo (guitar), Carl Caspersen (bass), and James Sexton (drums).

Tickets: General Admission $10 | Student Admission $5 (with Student ID)
Doors at 7pm | Performance at 7:30pm

Originally from Normal, Illinois, Adam Larson is an American saxophonist, composer, and author. Larson has been described by critic Howard Reich of The Chicago-Tribune as “a player for whom the word ‘prodigious’ was coined.” Peter Hum of the Ottawa Citizen called him “a saxophonist who brings Donny McCaslin and Mark Turner to mind,” and Nate Chinen of The New York Times said he is “the sort of jazz musician who gets flagged early on as a promising talent and then hustles to meet every requirement for success.” Larson has garnered numerous awards that distinguish him as one of the most promising artists of his generation.

As a student, Larson was a member of virtually every national program dedicated to showcasing excellence in young jazz talent, including The Grammy Band, Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, Betty Carter Jazz Ahead, YoungArts Jazz Fellows, Telluride Student All-Stars, and Jazz Band of America, among others. Upon graduating from University High School in 2008, Adam moved to New York City to pursue his BM and MM in Jazz Performance on full scholarship from The Manhattan School, where he graduated with honors as a Master’s student and the recipient of the William H. Borden Award for Outstanding Performance in Jazz in 2014.

Larson has released five albums: one for Ropeadope Records, two under the Inner Circle Music label, and two produced independently. Larson’s most recent recording “Second City” received a four-star rating from Downbeat magazine, was listed as one of the best releases of 2017 in both Downbeat and Jazziz Magazine, and was prominently featured in several publications. Larson’s fifth record, “Listen With Your Eyes,” was released on Ropeadope Records on September 6th, 2019.

Larson keeps an active schedule with his own groups and as a sideman, having performed at several venues across the U.S., including The Jazz Standard, Birdland, The 55 Bar, The Jazz Gallery, The Blue Note, The Village Vanguard, Smalls, Jazz at The Bistro, The Jazz Estate, The Jazz Showcase, and several others.

Beyond maintaining an active touring and recording schedule, Larson continues to be a sought-after clinician and master class presenter at several high schools and universities across the country and beyond, including appearances at HKU Conservatory-Utrecht, University of Iowa, Drake University, University of Northern Iowa, Temple University, Yale, Manhattan School of Music, and University of North Texas among many others. Adam is currently on faculty at University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, where he teaches saxophone, jazz pedagogy, and music business.