Mike Curb Institute

The Lone Bellow, opened by Becca Mancari, played a joyous, soulful concert in the 1884 Lounge at Memphis’s Minglewood Hall on February 28, 2018. Becca Mancari began the evening with gentle, thoughtful roots-rock music. Originally from Staten Island, Mancari has lived in the South for a long time and is heavily influenced by the music she has discovered there. She plays with genre in her music, mixing roots and mountain music with an urban sound. Her lyrics are vulnerable and warm, sorrowful yet bouncing with a young spirit.

           In 1968, Stax Records was pronounced dead by the Recording Music Industry. Otis Redding, Stax’s biggest star, had just died tragically in a plane crash; the label had ended its deal with Atlantic Records, losing all of its masters; and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had been shot at the Lorraine Motel, an establishment frequented by Stax musicians and writers. Stax, Memphis’s most popular musical export since Elvis, had seemingly lost all importance.

On Thursday, February 22, award-winning journalist and author Jeff Chang visited Rhodes College and gave a lecture on the importance of arts in the era of Resegregation. Focusing on his latest book, entitled We Gon’ Be Alright, Chang articulated the relationship between music and moments of cultural shifts. A particularly poignant aspect of the lecture is occured when Chang asserted that today America faces the biggest concern for race relations since 1992, the year the LA race riots greatly impacted the nation.

Elliott Ives grew up in East Memphis and went to Memphis University School before attending Rhodes College. After graduating in 2000 with a degree in music, he worked as a recording engineer at his father’s studio Young Ave Sound and played guitar in local bands such as Lord T & Eloise, Cooper-Young Cyndicate (CYC), and Free Sol.

After almost five years of not releasing any music of his own, Justin Timberlake is finally back on the music scene with Man of the Woods, an album that he describes as his most authentic and closest to his heart. In an interview with Zane Lowe of Beats 1 Radio, Timberlake said that he wanted to create a record that his toddler son Silas could listen to and enjoy. He really couldn’t listen to any of Timberlake’s earlier albums due to the content.

On the night of January 26, 2018, Tigerlake, The Brazen Youth and Bradford Evans performed at Growlers in Midtown, Memphis. Starting off the night  was Tigerlake, comprised of mainly individuals in high school. However, the bands gritty sound, think Twin Peaks mixed with The Districts, would have you believe them to be much older. The Brazen Youth brought a relaxed lo-fi sound to the stage which both complemented and contrasted with that of the previous performance by Tigerlake.

For the 2018 Springfield Lecture, the Rhodes College Music Department invited Pamela Z to speak as a continuation of the annual tradition of bringing acclaimed music theorists, music historians, musicologists, or composers to Rhodes to foster appreciation of music as an academic discipline. The Springfield Lecturer each year not only gives a formal lecture but also interacts informally with students in different classes, depending on their discipline.

Born February 21, 1977 in Greensboro, North Carolina, Rhiannon Giddens has used her relationship with the South as well as her mixed race identity as a focal point for her music. Giddens attended the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Ohio before returning back home to North Carolina. There Giddens immersed herself in the traditional and folk musical styles of North Carolina. In 2005, Giddens met Dom Flemons and Justin Robinson at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, North Carolina.

Denise Eileen Garrett, known later in life as jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, was born on May 27, 1950 in Memphis, Tennessee. Her earliest exposure to music was through her father Matthew Garrett, known to his fans as “Matt the Platter Cat.” Matthew Garrett was a jazz teacher at Manassas High School, a famous trumpet player, and an MC on the hit local radio station WDIA. At the age of three, Bridgewater moved to Flint, Michigan with her family for her father’s new job.

Alexandra Howard ‘18 worked this spring semester with Dr. Bass on an independent study on the life and legacy of Memphis jazz legend Joyce Cobb. Her final product was the April Block Party honoring Joyce Cobb and a final paper. Below is a condensed version of her final paper.

Passing on the Tradition: Joyce Cobb’s Influence on the Memphis Community as an Educator