gregg and BlackOak find Jazz on Beale Street
I had been talking to my friend Ronnie, (alias BlackOak) about our schedules and how to best do an airport retrieval exercise in Memphis. We figured out that he was getting back before I could get off work and make it to Memphis, an hour and a half away to the airport. So I came up with the plan. Ronnie could take a taxi downtown and I could meet him on Beale. His first question “so who’s playin down there?” Like I know something no one else knew. I dunno, I replied maybe we’ll get lucky. We could have a beer or two, its fifteen or twenty minutes closer to me, as if that matters, but hey it just sounded more fun. He would have time to have a beer or two and then I would be there. So we decided to meet at the Rum Boogie Cafe. I got down there in good time and there sits Ronnie at the bar, looking like he just got there. “Hey there!” He hollers and here we go, with Black Oak showing me the camera he got at a flea market and letting me inspect it. Nice old Kodak, with a good looking lens. Ronnie had found an airport shuttle to the downtown hotels and didn’t even have to take a cab. Anyhow we continue this never ending conversation we’ve had going since I met him at the Biscuit a few years ago, have a beer and decide to go somewhere else and eat, since all Rum Boogie has is basic bar food. I suggested Kings Palace Cafe, cause I wanted a bowl of gumbo. They have good ribs and lots of other things and besides that its really the only real meal on Beale, except for Blues City which has good southern stuff too, but no music that time of night. Here starts the photo part of the story...  We get out of Rum Boogie and go down the street to Kings Palace where we are greeted at the door by the ambassador and mayor of Beale. We go in expecting to hear Charlie Wood as usual and hoping someone good would sit in and the band room was full, and full of the jazz cats from Memphis. Jim Spake sat at the next table. A friend in the Memphis Jazz community sat with us shortly after we sat down. Chris Parker and Jonathan Wire were on stage with Kelley Hurt. Goodness, what a set of pipes... It turns out that it is a tribute to James Williams, just deceased, the great jazz pianist, known still for the Memphis days and his New York glory, often helping younger players out who were local. Next up was another band with Honeymoon Garner and Scott Thompson and Renardo Ward on drums. Shame it takes something like that to get people out, but good gravy there are SO MANY GREAT PLAYERS who can jam on a night like this.  The food was good but the jazz was better. More players came and went. I could melt into the furniture after a couple more beers and a meal with this music. Ronnie had to go check and make sure the tip hadn’t worn out on his luggage at the Rum Boogie, so he went back to see Billy Gibson, who had started playing by now, back at the Boogie. I stayed and listened to a couple more songs. I’m much more of a jazz nut than Black Oak. Sam Shoup, and some young diva, exotic and with a voice like nothing I could compare played an old standard. Wow, I was always told that Sam played studio stuff with the Muscle Shoals cats on a lot of the old Atlantic stuff like Arethras. I hated to leave but I finally went back down to the Boogie to meet up with Oak.  We have a couple of more high priced Rum Boogie beers. Couldn’t have stood much more on the wallet we both commented. Gibson was great too, with a really seasoned band that could all be leaders. Real talent there on that stage too. I got some more pics just for fun. Ronnie was really glad not to be in DC. I was really glad not to be sitting in my den on a Friday night. Why not see what was happening over at B B.s across the street while we are on a roll.  Over at B.B.s across the street, the joint was rockin. Ronnie asks me, “Is that Kenny Neal?” I said it kinda looks like him, but skinnier. Well guess what? It was, cause it had been a while since I had seen Kenny, probably 10 years or so. Man was he rockin it too, with a young kid on guitar. We got to see a couple more songs from Kenny, just slippin in too late to pay cover and have another beer or two. I had two more shots left on the roll of film in the camera. Consider that roll burned. We both were burned too. Burned out. We called It a night and walked to the car and drove home. We both agreed that he had picked a good night for an airport pickup and a good night of live music on Beale. Who says that there isn’t any good music on Beale Street any more?  |