Memphis -- Home Of The Blues, Soul, & Rock 'N' Roll (And Jazz?)

Modern day Beale Street

In the early 20th Century, Memphis, Tennessee was a booming commercial center. It's strategic location on the Mississippi River made it a magnet for trade and migration - drawing tens of thousands of workers from rural areas in Arkansas, Tennessee, and the Mississippi Delta. In the 50 years from 1900 to 1950, the population of the city nearly quadrupled, from 102,350 to 396,000 residents.

The hub of the city's large Black community was the area around Beale Street, where Black-owned businesses, churches, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues created a vibrant commercial district. Night life, which centered around the dance halls, juke joints, and bars, was a potentially dangerous mix of seedy characters, easy money, and liquor. Music poured out of the clubs day and night, and Beale Street soon became a Mecca for young musicians. 

W.C. Handy

In 1909, an itinerant trumpet player, band leader, and composer named W.C. Handy moved to Memphis to try his luck. Handy published what is considered the first ever 12-bar blues composition in 1912, a local hit called The Memphis Blues. In 1914, Handy produced St. Louis Blues, a song that quickly became a national sensation. (According to Discogs database, the song was recorded more than 250 times by 1929.) 

Handy would go on to produce the first great body of original blues music, including classic tunes such as Yellow Dog Blues, Beale Street Blues, Aunt Hagar's Blues, Friendless Blues, and Careless Love, cementing his status as the Father of the Blues. 

Other great Blues artists followed in Handy's footsteps, including Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis, Memphis Minnie, Gus Cannon, Jim Jackson, Alberta Hunter, and Bessie Smith. And, the most famous of them all, Riley B. King, better known as B.B. 

B.B. King

B.B. King moved to Memphis in 1946, and like W.C. Handy he sought his fortune in the clubs of West Memphis and Beale Street. King's popularity grew rapidly after he began hosting a show on local radio station WDIA. He became known as the "Beale Street Blues Boy," later shortened to "Blues Boy," and finally just "B.B." After a seven-decade musical career, B.B. King was arguably the most influential figure in the history of the blues.

All of which to say that Memphis's longtime motto, "The Home of the Blues," seems pretty much beyond dispute. However, a few years ago, the city of Memphis changed its motto, now claiming to be the "Home of Blues, Soul & Rock 'N' Roll."

Well. I mean you can certainly make a good case. In 1951, barely five years after B.B. hit town, Memphis's own Sam Phillips, a former DJ, radio engineer, producer, and the owner of the Memphis Recording Studio, helped jump start rock 'n' roll by recording what was arguably the first real rock record, a tune called Rocket 88, which became a monster hit for Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, a band led by 19-year-old Ike Turner. 

With the royalties from Rocket 88, Philips started his own label - Sun Records - and by 1956 he had recorded and released the first hit singles by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis. No question that Memphis deserves at least a share of the title of Home Of Rock 'N' Roll. 

Stax Records, Memphis

But Memphis wasn't done yet. In 1959, siblings Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton leased an old movie theater on McLemore Avenue in Memphis and founded STAX Records, which would soon become the beating heart of Soul music in America. [Fun fact: The name STAX was created from the first letters in the siblings last names, STewart and AXton.] 

Over the next 15 years (until the label went broke in 1975), Stax had more than 167 hit songs in the Top 100 on the pop charts and a staggering 243 hits in the Top 100 R&B charts. It launched the careers of legendary artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, and the great Isaac Hayes, among others. So, once again, a pretty solid claim to being one of the seminal cities for the development of Soul Music in America.

Which finally brings me to my point. Memphis had an enormous impact on the history of American music in the 20th century. But despite that, you don't often hear anyone talk about Memphis as being a great jazz city. Certainly not in the same breath as places like New Orleans, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, or New York.

I mention all this because earlier this year I picked up an album titled Magical Trio 2 by the talented pianist James Williams. I confess that I did not recognize Williams when I found this album in a box of used records at an antiques mall. The reason the cover originally caught my eye was because of the other two members of the trio - Ray Brown on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. I mean, if you've got those guys for a rhythm section, does it even matter who's playing piano?

When I got the record home, I did a quick search for James Williams in my music database and found that I have about ten albums on which he plays as a sideman, including a couple of discs by Art Farmer, one each by Art Blakey, Donald Byrd and Tal Farlow, and a particularly tasty collaboration with Sadao Watanabe on the album Parker's Mood. Yowser.

While listening to The Magical Trio 2 and reading the liner notes, I learned that James Williams was born and raised in Memphis. And that's what originally got me wondering about the history of jazz in Memphis. Or, more specifically, why Memphis doesn't seem to have much of a jazz history.

If you asked me to name some great jazz musicians from Detroit or Philadelphia or Los Angeles (or Rocky Mount, NC), I could come up with a name or two without much effort. But until my recent happy discovery of James Williams, I'm not sure I could have identified a single notable jazz musician from Memphis. (Although, as it turns out there are quite a few; I just didn't know they were from Memphis.) Still, my larger point is: When you think Memphis, you don't usually think jazz. As one of, if not the most important crossroads of American music, why didn't Memphis develop a great jazz tradition?

A perceptive article written by Richard J. Alley in the June, 2013 edition of Memphis Magazine, posits that New Orleans Jazz and Memphis Blues were the results of the unique cultural and racial makeup of the two different cities. 

According to Alley, Jazz was born in New Orleans's unique "Gumbo stew of African, Haitian, and Creole cooked up in a pot boiled on the fire first lit by John Philip Sousa." The latter presumably referring to the influence of European concert band music, and particularly brass instruments, on the emerging style of New Orleans jazz. 

On the other hand, Blues music, in Alley's view, was created by "Sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta, the children of slaves, telling their own stories handed down through song and gospel, and put to music made with a six-string and upturned bucket . . . The blues worked its way from those front porches up Highway 61 and into the big city called Memphis, and onto a street called Beale. And thus did Memphis become the Home of the Blues, and rightly so." 

It makes sense to me. But all that said, it turns out that Memphis isn't quite as bereft of jazz as it might seem. After I started digging a bit, I found a number of well-known jazz musicians with Memphis roots (although not all were born there). 

Among them is a surfeit of fine piano players. In addition to Williams, the list includes Phineas Newborn, Harold Mabern, Donald Brown, and Mulgrew Miller. If you were putting together an all-Memphis jazz band, any of these pianists would be a great place to start. Then, you could take your pick of such top-notch sax men as Charles Lloyd, Hank Crawford, Kirk Whalum, Frank Strozier, Sonny Criss, or George Coleman. On trumpet, Booker Little is probably your top choice, but Louis Smith wouldn't be far behind. And on vocals, you can't go wrong with the great Dee Dee Bridgewater. Alas, though, you will probably still need to call in Ray Brown (Pittsburgh) and Elvin Jones (Detroit) to be your rhythm section, as I couldn't locate any notable jazz bassists or drummers from Memphis.

After delving into the history of jazz and jazz musicians in Memphis, I began a fevered search for more recordings by James Williams and started reading up on his life and career.

James Williams

Born in 1951, Williams began studying piano at 13, and while still a young teen became the organist at the Eastern Star Baptist Church in Memphis. In 1973 he graduated from Memphis State University with a degree in music education, and at the age of 22 was offered a teaching position at the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston. 

For the next four years, Williams taught music while gigging in the Boston area. He often worked with drummer Alan Dawson to accompany visiting musicians, working with such greats as Joe Henderson, Art Farmer, Milt Jackson, and Sonny Stitt. 

In 1977, Williams left Berklee and joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for a four-year stint, replacing Walter Davis Jr. on piano. In all, Williams played on ten albums with Blakey and The Messengers. Then, in 1981, he returned to Boston where he performed and recorded regularly before moving to New York in 1984. During his career (which was tragically cut short by cancer in 2004 at the age of 53), Williams released some 20 albums as a leader and appeared on more than 150 other albums as a performer. He was also a prolific composer and has more than 30 credits as a producer. 

Williams's first album as a leader was called Focus, a duet recorded with bassist Dennis Irwin while touring in Italy. The album was released on the Italian label Red Records in 1978. That same year, he released his U.S. debut, Flying Colors, a quintet session for Zim Records featuring the great trombonist Slide Hampton. 

Williams went on to record for much more established labels, including Concord Jazz, EmArcy, and Blue Note. However, his albums were never big sellers, and as a result he frequently switched labels in order to secure a record deal.

Allmusic reviewer Jason Ankeny sums up Williams's legacy thus: "He channeled the gospel and R&B influences of his youth to forge a soulful, deeply expressive approach to contemporary jazz. A gifted soloist and accompanist, he was also a respected producer and educator."  

Over the past few months, I've tracked down six more of Williams's albums, including Magical Trio 1 (featuring Elvin Jones and Art Blakey) and his two releases on the Concord Jazz label, Everything I Love (1979) and The Arioso Touch (1982). The later album, from 1982, which features Buster Williams on bass and Billy Higgins on drums, may be my favorite to date. It's a driving album with terrific interplay that puts me in mind of some of Bill Evans's best trio work. While The Arioso Touch is my current favorite, I have to say that all of Williams's albums that I've heard so far are excellent.

Since Williams was not very well known and his albums didn't sell widely, I almost never see them in the wild. However, most of his LPs are available on Discogs in VG+ or better condition in the $10-15 range. Sadly, about half of Williams's albums (everything after 1990), were only ever released on CD. And I think it's doubtful that any of them will be reissued on vinyl. Dang.

Enjoy the music!