Tag: The Green Room

Listening Sessions at the Green Room: Woman to Woman by Shirley Brown (1974)

Despite the difficult financial times Stax Records faced in 1974, it was still able to churn out one more classic album and single, the incredible Woman to Woman cut by West Memphis’ own Shirley Brown.

Produced by Jim Stewart and Al Jackson, Jr., Woman to Woman was the label’s swan song, but not before the single (Stax’s final #1 song) became an anthem to every woman whose man dared covet another.

Join Dr. Charles Hughes of Rhodes College and Memphis author and filmmaker Jamey Hatley for a close listen of and a lively discussion about this classic album.

Spotlight Concert Series: Lenore McIntyre, Shelly Sublet, and Tingting Yao

Join us in The Green Room at Crosstown Arts for a special performance of the Spotlight Concert Series, featuring Lenore McIntyre, Shelly Sublet, and Tingting Yao of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

Doors 7pm | Performance 7:30pm
Admission $10 (or $5 w/ student ID)

The Spotlight Concert Series showcases members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in the intimate Green Room at Crosstown Arts. The series provides the Memphis community the opportunity to get to know and learn more about the talented musicians that make up the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Each month will feature a different musician or small chamber group as soloist or featured ensemble.

Program:
J.S. Bach: Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C minor BWV 1060
Brahms: Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano
Rachmaninoff: Vocalise Opus

About the artists :
Lenore McIntyre has been a core member of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra Violin section since 2005 and will celebrate her 15th Season in 2020 as Assistant Principal Second Violin of the MSO. As a celebrated violinist in the United States and Canada, she has brought exceptional musicianship and virtuosity to many Solo and Chamber Music performances. Lenore is enthusiastic about performing the Classical repertoire as well as modern day compositions. She has performed on stage for world premieres of some very relevant compositions by modern composers Jennifer Higdon, Mason Bates, D.J. Sparr and John Corigliano.

Tingting Yao is currently Staff Pianist at the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. Before joining the staff of the University of Memphis, she was a freelance pianist in Oklahoma City area, the University of Oklahoma, and University of Central Oklahoma.

Shelly Sublett has been Solo English horn and assistant principal oboewith the Memphis Symphony Orchestra since 1985. She has also held theposition of second oboe and English horn with the American Sinfonietta andthe Tennessee Summer Symphony. Her recordings are available on the Pro Organo label.

Austin Lucas at The Green Room

Austin Lucas returns to Memphis for a performance at The Green Room at Crosstown Arts with his band, The Bold Party, on their fall US tour.

Doors 7:00pm | Performance 7:30pm

“Sometimes an artist just has a voice that’s so true and so clearly coming directly from the soul that you just can’t argue with it, and Austin Lucas is one of those guys.” – BBC Radio

It’s been over two decades since the songwriter packed his bags and left Bloomington, Indiana, the Midwestern town where he spent his childhood years falling in love with rock & roll, embracing his punk roots, and standing his ground whenever intolerant locals didn’t understand his way of life. He returns to that place – both creatively and physically – with his seventh studio album, Immortal Americans. Written after a tumultuous period that found Lucas getting sober, supporting his partner through a battle with cancer, and breaking up with his longtime record label, Immortal Americans is a clear-eyed album for murkier times, rooted in stripped-down heartland rock songs that find the artist reflecting upon the changes in both his hometown and himself.

Co-produced by Lucas and Will Johnson (Centro-matic), recorded/engineered by Steve Albini, and captured in a series of live, full-band performances, Immortal Americans was written after Lucas resettled in Bloomington. He’d been away for years, touring the world as an independent solo artist before signing a record deal with New West in 2013. In many ways, the albums he released during that period were reflections of the music he’d grown up with, from the mountain music of his father (bluegrass musician Bob Lucas) to the punk records that soundtracked his teenage years. Appropriately, Lucas earned a fanbase as a folksinger with punk roots – or was it the other way around? – while touring the country with artists who represented both ends of that spectrum, sharing shows with Willie Nelson one minute and Chuck Ragan the next.

 

Two Tons of Steel at The Green Room

Crosstown Arts welcomes Americana pioneers and legends Two Tons of Steel to The Green Room.

Tickets: $10
Doors 7pm | Performance 7:30pm

Before there was Americana, before there was Texas Country, Two Tons of Steel rocked a sound that blended the best of musical worlds and pushed the envelope with a signature brand of country punk.

The San Antonio-based group packed the small bars and local hangouts and quickly became the Alamo City’s most-loved band, earning them a spot on the cover of Billboard Magazine in 1996. It was the beginning of a twenty year journey for the 4-piece ensemble.

Releasing “Two Tons Of Steel” in 1994 and “Crazy For My Baby” in 1995 on Blue Fire Records, a sponsorship deal with Lone Star Beer quickly followed. In 1996, the band began traveling outside of Texas, including stops at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, the National Theater in Havana, Cuba, and European tours to greet fans who had embraced their Texas-born sound.

Two Tons of Steel continues as an institution at Texas’ Gruene Hall, where its annual Two Ton Tuesdays summer series draws 12,000 fans and as a popular act at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. They have been repeatedly voted “Best Country Band” by the San Antonio Current, one of its hometown weeklies.

The Orrin Evans Trio at The Green Room

Join us in The Green Room for a performance by jazz pianist Orrin Evans.

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

Many may know Orrin Evans as the pianist for Jazz juggernauts The Bad Plus. But with more than 25 albums to his credit, without ever relying on the support of a major label, Evans has become the model of a fiercely independent artist who’s made a habit of rattling the jazz world’s confining cages. That determination has paid off in accolades like topping the “Rising Star Pianist” category in the 2018 DownBeat Critics Poll.

As a daring pianist, Evans combines raw-edged vigor and left-field nuance into a sound wholly his own. As an adventurous composer he traverses stylistic boundaries with abandon, drawing on full-throttle swing, deep-rooted blues, expressive soul, or bracing excursions into the avant-garde. As an audacious bandleader, he delights in daring fellow musicians to take bold risks, whether in mutable small group settings or his raucous Captain Black Big Band. As an inventive collaborator, his projects range from the nerve-rattling collective trio Tarbaby to the latest twist in his never predictable story, becoming the first new member to join The Bad Plus in the band’s nearly 20-year history.

Evans’ broad-minded, provocative approach has led to a stunning variety of collaborations with a who’s-who of modern jazz including Nicholas Payton, Sean Jones, Oliver Lake, JD Allen, Christian McBride, Eric Revis, Buster Williams, Karriem Riggins, Bill Stewart, Nasheet Waits, Kevin Eubanks and Kurt Rosenwinkel, among countless others.

In 2018, Evans relaunched his Imani Records label with a newfound focus on projects by young, innovative musicians, beginning with albums by saxophonist Caleb Wheeler Curtis and bassist Jonathan Michel. He’s also produced recordings by JD Walter, Denise King, Joanna Pascale, Sharel Cassity, and Eric Revis.

Evans pays homage to his mentors and influences while passing the torch to new generations. He’s recently performed concerts paying homage to the late Geri Allen alongside drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and a celebration of the centennial of Thelonious Monk at Duke University, along with curating concert series at Philly’s South and New York’s Smoke. As an educator he directed the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts’ Jazz Standards and taught at Connecticut’s Litchfield Jazz Camp.

The PRVLG at The Green Room

Join us at The Green Room for a performance by The PRVLG, a musical twin duo from Memphis. This is a benefit concert for their mother who has Multiple Sclerosis. All funds raised will be donated towards her treatment

Doors at 7pm | Performance 7:30pm

A privilege is considered a rare opportunity, which is exactly why The PRVLG fits this dynamic duo so effortlessly. Their act brings the rhythm section to the forefront of the stage unlike any other band around.

The duo, consisting of twin brothers Christian and Christopher Underwood, grew up surrounded by music. The brothers developed a very unique musical connection, which is on full display in their live performances. As bass and drum players, the pair have the ability to lock in a powerful rhythm and bass foundation, effortlessly making up for each other’s shortcomings and complementing one another’s strengths.

Growing up in a musical family and listening to their father – a guitarist – play classics by the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Isley Brothers, and Earth Wind & Fire, it was only natural for them to begin writing together at the age of 16 and continue to develop their writing talent from then. Since officially forming in early 2017, the duo named themselves The PRVLG, chosen due to the privilege they experienced by growing up playing music together and connecting with others through the universal language.