Paul McKinney, music director at the Stax Music Academy, gave a tour of revitalized Stax facilities, including music studios, charter school and museum of soul music.
Planning and economic development transformed Stax Records into charter school, museum and academy
By Albert C. Jones
America, The Diversity Place
MEMPHIS, Tennessee — The Phoenix Bird came to 926 East McLemore Avenue here in Memphis and resurrected Stax Records from the ashes, brought it back from blighted oblivion, breathed new life into the ruins — the very spot on earth, really — that made international musical icons of Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Johnny Taylor, Otis Redding, Albert King, Sam and Dave, among so many others.
The facilities rebirth of Stax Records, pardon this, are better than they were originally.
For sure, the music is enduring and it endures across the globe. The rhythmic notes of Booker T and the MGs are eternal. Otis Redding’s while-away-the-time anthem, “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay,” still has its own special category in heaven. The Staple Singer’s moments of deliverance — “I’ll Take You There” and “Respect Yourself” — are gospel inflections rebranded as pop, rhythm and blues, that made the world and you in it a better place to be.
Johnnie Taylor’s “Who’s Making Love” remains the best confessional preaching ever heard in song; its philosophical dictums plunge the depths of life’s most trying circumstances with that one perplexing question. Honest to goodness, Taylor knows redemptive purging begins with a shout. That drummer accompanies him note for note. Taylor had other preachments merged with legal advice, including “Cheaper to Keep Her.” That song is driven by those omnipresent Stax guitars and horns.
Left-handed Albert King’s guitar playing and lurking enigmatic vocals, “Born Under A Bad Sign,” seem like conjuring; elements that could only produce the blues.
This kind of litany could go on and on, on and on, really. All of the others not mentioned made Stax Records the epicenter of regional music that shook the nation and then sent tremors throughout the world. From those early first pressings, Stax Records had a more grown-up sound than Motown and its “The Sound of Young America.” Stax Records was more the expositor of an experience than The Sound of Philadelphia (TSOP).
Distinctions aside, Motown, Stax Records, TSOP and other converge here in Soulsville at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. To this place, bolstered by memories and lessons to be learned, we come and pay homage to what was and what is and what is to be. Oceans could not constrain the effervescence of music made in the studio here or the malaise that haunted this city and the nation then.
The Stax catalogue is canonized. Upon this canon, there will be much expounding later.
Still, it is better is not a misnomer or something sated loosely. Our eyes would not betray us. Such a dictum can be made because in its original incarnation there was no Stax Museum of American Soul Music, no Soulsville Charter School, with young people neatly dressed in school uniforms, polite with southern manners and astute academically, going single file from one class to the next.
There was no Stax Music Academy.
Players in the redevelopment of Soulsville, Stax Museum of American Soul Music and Soulsville Charter School would have made for good subjects in a story about redevelopment in Memphis. LeMoyne-Owen College Community Development Corporation worked in partnership with the Plough Foundation and those who gave cash gifts, otherwise known as Anonymous Soul 1 and Anonymous Soul 2, would have been excellent interviews.
LeMoyne-Owen College Community Development Corporation is a repeat player in development of the multimillion dollar Towne Center at Soulsville. It is a mixed-use project across the street from Stax that will feature housing, grocery store, post office, food court, an environmental court and a call center for the National Economic Opportunity Fund. NEOF is a nonprofit that helps women, minority and disabled-veteran business owners in community development projects.
To mention involved people like Jeffrey Higgs, executive director of the Lemoyne-Owen College Community Development Corporation, Dexter Muller, senior vice president of community development for the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce or Cardell Orrin, community investment banker for NEOF, is to know they have played a part in the redevelopment of Soulsville.
Paul McKinney, music director at the Stax Music Academy, was the one who could respond in a tight time frame to the request for an interview. Deanie Parker, president and CEO of Soulsville, could have been interviewed, but she was not available on such a short notice. Parker is a jewel because she the one who directed publicity, artists and community relations for Stax Records in its heyday.
Ashley Keith Davis, artistic director of the Stax Music Academy, would have also made for a good interview subject. Accomplishments are no stranger to Davis, pianist, songwriter, producer, conductor and preacher, who has performed in 23 countries and toured with Stevie Wonder, Yolanda Adams, Jeffrey Osborne, Michael and Regina Winans, among others. He, too, was unavailable on such a short notice.
Interviewing Paul McKinney, however, was a superlative; he is invested in the continuity of Stax and music in general. He comes from a musical family and is in possession of that distinct quality of being learned and at the same time southern.
People in this part of the South are at once rooted in good manners and the ability to speak correctively straightforward or one at a time, if need be.
Southern hosptality at Stax Music Academy makes for a comfortable interviewing and photo shoot experience
Bless his heart, McKinney responded to a six-thirty in the morning phone call from a perfect stranger. Amid apologies and explanations, McKinney spoke in pleasantries normally heard mid-morning; he could have, understandably, spoken straightforward and been very unpleasant. Instead, he was very southern in his manners. If the interview, tentatively scheduled then and there for later that afternoon, was a no go, he would call. Otherwise, I would not hear from him.
The cell phone rang — not normally answered in the car — but it was this time, on McLemore, en route to Soulsville, happy, memories just created at Jim Neely’s Interstate Barbecue, barbecue ribs, barbecue spaghetti and sweet coleslaw.
It is McKinney.
“Coming early to do a tour of the museum before the interview. On East McLemore, just crossed Louisiana Street.”
“Never heard of that street,” he said.
“Just went under the viaduct.” Determined, looking on each side of the street in the heavily industrial area for Stax. It must be just ahead.
“Okay,” he said. “Our students won’t be available until five o’clock. Stax Music Academy is an after-school program.”
“That will be okay; will come back later to take photos. Should be there in a couple of minutes.”
“Parker was okay with the interview, but we needed to follow protocol,” he said.
Turned around after the road ran out and crossed over South Third Street again; which is also B.B. King Highway. The car had been going in the wrong direction on East McLemore Avenue. McKinney came out as the car was being parked in front of Stax in a space reserved for tour bus loading-only.
“Left turn should have been a right turn.”
McKinney smiled, extending a right hand.
Explained America, The Diversity Place, how it grew out of The Diversity Times, a monthly newspaper in Utah. It came about after attending inauguration of President Barack Obama. We wanted to capture the market seen in Washington, D.C. How to do this? The Diversity Times was folded after wrapping up the February 2009 issue. America, The Diversity Place is an online publication.
“On the Road: People Bridges to People” is the first project with a plan of reporting on “diversity in action” and “Multicultural Voices Across the Nation” in all 48 of the continental states. Alaska and Hawaii will be added later. We — using the editorial “we” — have been on the road since August 1, 2009, arriving in Memphis on Saturday from Branson, Missouri. (Today is Thursday.)
McKinney is actively involved in music at Metropolitan Baptist Church, directing the James Harris Orchestra. He has toured extensively as a trumpet player, toured with Bobby Blue Bland. He spoke his approval of “On the Road: People Bridges to People.” Then it was on to business.
Photographs of him were taken near the historical marker, near posters of photo exhibits to come, under the Stax marquee, inside in front of the mural that shows evidence of the blight the Phoenix Bird brought Stax back from, near the cornerstone lighted in purple sign.
McKinney had Tim Sampson, media relations, called to the foyer. Sampson was given a shorter version of what McKinney had been told about America, The Diversity Place and “On the Road: People Bridges to People.” An apology was given for not following proper protocol to request and then arrange an interview. Sampson said okay to the interview.
Elvis, during cordial getting-to-know-you talk, was brought up, driving yesterday on Elvis Presley Boulevard, passed by Graceland, the Lisa Marie and Heartbreak Hotel. “Do you like Elvis?”
“I like some of his music, but not all of it,” Sampson said. “I could listen to ‘Suspicious Minds’ all day.”
He extended an invitation to come back tomorrow for the Spirit of Memphis Pep Rally. Stax Academy of Music students would be playing and the play date would provide for photo opportunities.
McKinney gave a short tour of the facilities, classrooms and then settled into a recording studio for the interview, which began with a question about his background and his role with the Stax Music Academy?
“I have been a lifelong musician,” he said. “My father, being a musician himself, taught band for 41 years. He retired in 1999 after teaching music for 41 years. I have an older brother who also teaches. He is a professional musician. He is a saxophone player. My instrument of choice is trumpet. The Stax music, Ben Cauley, listening to him play, you know, I felt a really good connection with this place.”
His father is keyboardist Kurl McKinney and his brother is the Rev. Dr. Alvin K. McKinney. Cauley was the only survivor of the plane crash that killed Otis Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays in 1967.
“I was hired to teach at a summer camp here in 2003,” said McKinney, who has also taught music in the public schools and is an adjunct professor at LeMoyne-Owens College. “That experience was eye-opening and I enjoyed it quite a bit. After going back to graduate school at the University of Memphis to get my Master’s in jazz studies, my cousin, ironically, Mr. Ashley Davis, he is the artistic director here. He knew they needed someone to be over the jazz band. It’s called the Soulsville Swing Band. He knew that was my specialty.
“I work with that group and another group called the Premiere Percussionists,” he said.
The Stax Music Academy broadens students who are multidisciplinary in their approach to music.
“We are focusing to make sure that all these young musicians are first and foremost fundamentally sound in terms of understanding music theory, ear training and the very basics of music and the connection those basics have with the music they are playing,” McKinney said. “We make sure they can perform all the legendary music that Stax has to offer that the world still loves, the “Hold On, I’m Coming,” all the Isaac Hayes, the Eddie Floyd music, “Knock on Wood,” Otis Redding, “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.”
“We make sure they are learning that music and have a connection with where that music comes from and where it is going,” he said.
Many more students used to get into the Stax Music Academy, but that is not currently happening because of the need to be focused.
Relationship with Berklee College of Music creates inroads and outward paths for music students in region
“Students have to audition to be a part of the program,” McKinney said. “They have to come in and do what we call a fairly standard audition. They have to come in and play a prepared piece. That means a solo of some sort that they are working on. We don’t normally try to coerce them in any way or try to make them play a particular genre.
“Even though in our studies, Mr. Davis and myself, we studied rhythm and blues, jazz, and we also studied classical,” he said. “It’s preferred when a student can come in and play a classical prepared solo, something that would be in their long list of repertory that they should be learning to enhance themselves musically.”
Of course, once a student gets in, they become part of a musical lineage that includes the funk of Rufus Thomas, “Boogaloo Down Broadway” with The Fantastic Johnny C and guitarist Charles “Skip” Pitts’ wah-wah effect on the “Theme from Shaft.” The legacy of them gives goose-bump sensations. Imagine the inspiration it gives students as musicians or children as musical prodigies.
“We try to make sure they are immersed in soul music,” McKinney said. “First of all, we have four different groups. So the kids can audition to be in any of the four. We currently have a very few of the students in three of the ensembles. The four groups are Street Corner Harmonies, the Premiere Percussionists, Soulsville Swing Band and the Rhythm Section.
“The Rhythm Section is a group not unlike Booker T & the MGs,” he said. “You got two keyboardists, two guitar players, a bass player and a drummer. They function also as the rhythm section for Street Corner Harmonies. We combine those groups to do our instrumental and vocal pieces that we do. The Soulsville Swing Band is a jazz ensemble — a large big band. That music is extremely sophisticated music. It really stretches them to get them ready to play, you know, anything. They can get ready to go to anyone’s college, anyone’s university, anyone’s school of music and/or on anyone’s tour. Those are the things we are teaching. We have done Michael Jackson tributes over the past year. We play Gap Band music. We play a lot of rhythm and blues and pop music as well.”
The Stax Music Academy has a growing involvement with the Berklee College of Music, which holds regional auditions at Soulsville. Soulsville is a charter member of the Berklee City Music Network, a program designed to establish beneficial relationships with organizations that have a mission and commitment “to helping underserved youths obtain a contemporary music education.”
Throughout the year, Berklee auditions students around the globe in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, South America and North America, including at Stax.
“The connection is that we formed up a partnership with them for several reasons,” McKinney said. “They are the premiere school of music in the country. They are the standard by which most music departments are set. They have a five-week summer program. Kids can audition to make that and we have had several kids over the past two or three years make the summer camp. If they perform well enough and if they are seniors, they may have the opportunity to make it into the College of Music. Honestly, it is just another partnership and another opportunity for our kids to be exposed to other music industry professionals.
“We love the partnership,” he said. “We also have something that is unique, I think, to most music programs throughout the country. They have an online music theory program called The Berklee Pulse. All of our students have their own usernames and passwords to login to this program. It teaches basic theory things. It teaches you some basic fundamental things like warming up vocally, how to do some jazz improvisation and things like that.
“Our connection with them is fairly unique,” McKinney said. “As I mentioned, they currently do their regional auditions here at the Stax Music Academy. The regional auditions anyone from any part of the country can come here to audition. You just have to sign up online and say I am coming to the Memphis site and audition for the college. We have had people from Indiana, Kansas and Texas, all over the place come and audition for Berklee here at the Stax Music Academy.
“They go to a few sites around the world to do auditions,” he said. “We are one of those few sites. We feel very fortunate to have that partnership. In fact, they are coming back on the twenty-seventh of this month for a community outreach, where they are reaching out to all the band directors in the city. We are excited to host that because we get to have access to all the band directors as well.”
The next day, during introduction at the Spirit of Memphis Pep Rally, Ashley Keith Davis, speaking as a proud surrogate father, announced that seven Stax Music Academy students had been accepted into the Berklee College of Music. One of those students is Ashton Riker, who has received a full scholarship.
“He is one of the most soulful singers that you ever heard,” McKinney said of Ricker. “He is doing a combination of soul and pop. He is extremely talented. At this time, he is one of our more prominent students.”
Music, as performance art, is a main part of the Stax Music Academy experience for up can coming musicians.
“We have three main performances,” McKinney said. “We have our winter concert, spring concert and summer grand finale. That’s our main three programs that we have as our semester-ending programs. Our artistic director normally sets the direction for those. All the ensembles gear their performances toward a particular theme. We are very theme-oriented. They are catchy themes like “Hey Sister, Soul Sister” and “Divas of Soul,” you know the different divas in soul music. Of course, our students emulate those musicians and sing those parts.
“Our kids did ‘Lady Marmalade’ and they had on these wigs and costumes,” he said. “It was something else. Now those are our main programs, but we perform several other times throughout the year for various functions.”
One of those various functions was the Spirit of Memphis event, a project created by Memphis Institute for Leadership “that will turn the tide of the self-esteem of our citizens. The Pep Rally events and movements will help citizens become ambassadors and fall in love with their City again.”
Pep rallies were citywide events centered on themes of “favorite music, favorite food, and what you love about Memphis.”
Dean Deyo, president of the Memphis Music Foundation, said that within a hundred-mile circle of Memphis, every musical influence is to be found.
“If you take all of the music genres, there are more top musicians that were born, raised or lived within a 100-mile circle of Memphis, Tennessee,” Deyo said. “It’s more than any other spot on the planet. This area is the hub of music talent.”
Traveling, in country or out of country, Stax gear is a hot commodity.
“When I travel, anywhere in the U.S. or Europe I love to wear my Stax T-shirt,” Deyo said. “Many people have asked me if I had another one that they could buy and many just ask me if they can buy or trade for the one that I have on. I have to make sure I carry a back-up shirt to wear or I may end up going topless.”
The Memphis Music Foundation announces on its Web site that it is “dedicated to working with the community to cultivate a viable economic engine for Memphis by providing musicians and the music industry with resources and opportunities for growth and independence.”
Stax, past, present and future fits with that objective.
“Stax is very much like the Memphis Music Foundation,” Deyo said. “It is dedicated to growing Memphis Music and making sure that our future continues to be full of talented, professional Memphis musicians. We make a great partnership as the STAX Academy starts out with musicians at a very young age and then can feed them to the Music Foundation where we can take over the training and mentoring. We make great partners.”
Memories, akin to “Wanna Be Startin’ Something,” came back later after thinking about what Deyo had said.
“The city of Memphis is mentioned in the title or verses of over 900 songs,” he said. “That’s more than any other city.”
Miss Baby, old enough to be your grandmother, the South living in North, used to play “Memphis” the Johnny Rivers cover of the Chuck Berry song. She played it loud — meaning real loud — on the record player, back when 45s were in vogue, outside, in the summer, barbecuing — in Albion, our hometown in Michigan, swing arm replaying that song over and over.
No one minded because the whole neighborhood would be in a party mood and it didn’t have to be a holiday, just the middle of the weekend: “Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee. Help me find the party trying to get in touch with me . . . .” Of course, Deyo is correct.
Such memories bring back song, place and time. Miss Baby may have been living in the North, but as memory serves correctly, her thoughts were on Memphis, Tennessee. Without a doubt, she was mesmerized, too, by that guitar of Johnny Rivers and the heavy backbeat.
Not to rank, but to say, Memphis was most enjoyable — the ribs and the music — knowing, too, that if “On the Road: People Bridges to People” heads south into Mississippi, that William Faulkner is just across the Mississippi River not that far away from Memphis.
“. . . Help me, information, more than that I cannot add. Only that I miss her and all the fun we had.
Marie is only six years old, information please. Try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee.”
Players in the Soulsville Swing Band at the Stax Music Academy are learning to master sounds that continue to provide the Stax label with a global footprint.