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JUNE july
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artistic director
SMA + tscs
Staxular Greetings [READ MORE]
justinmerrick Artistic & Operations Manager
SMA alumni band summer series! June 2nd - July 25th
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FROM thE SOUL contact more info
Artistic Director Newsletter Report Staxular Greetings One and ALL! Delta Flight 4291, leaving Atlanta, Georgia nonstop to Heathrow, England! As I pull out my iPad & iPhone to iChat with my students congratulating them on graduation and their completion of yet another school year, I realize; :) this 14th year of the 21st century, the internet age has produced a radical new style of human intelligence and communication. With every swipe of a screen and stroke of the keyboard, we have the power to “resolute” our own purpose and even rewrite history. “Delete your Facebook today, tweet about it tomorrow, reinvent your Instagram and become famous within a single day.............
thats what I'm talking about!!!!”
We live in a digital age, where social movements are sparked by industry and technology, but what happens when technology can’t even begin to capture the power of a brand? As it is the work that we do in the four walls of this academy that can never be fully captured on paper or one’s website. It is the impact and meaning of what stands behind the S.N.A.P. (Soul Nurtures Academic & Artistic Performance) logo, an
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amalgamation of many walking raw and eclectic talents fused to the idea of creating an experience, dare I say a movement. What is being developed in this small Soulsville community cannot be captured in the bricks and mortar of computer interfaces, but lives in the souls that pour their hearts into a music, their music, that incites and inspires communal change. My experience in England only confirms my unwavering belief in the power of our students, as there is a global trend resurfacing in where society is wishing to have the tangible, and return to the nostalgic feel of everything that Stax stands for! As I sang “Try a Little Tenderness” on the small stage of the 606, I channeled the energy of Otis Redding, in what we here at the academy challenge our students to do in their everyday lives. Take the lessons off the page, take the notes off the scores, take the music off the iPad and “I realize” our potential, as no recording will ever compare to the real thing! Each student in the Stax Music Academy IS the real thing and we must continue to celebrate this every day.
An academy teacher recently shared her self-made mantra with the staff which I want to send out to the rest of the world,
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Your voice
carries the DNA of who
you are!
...a wonderfully made
ORIGINAL! -Jiana Hunter
Staxed and Sealed, Just.in Granville
justinmerrick
Artistic & Operations director
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programming
SMA@ TSCS What an exciting school year! In a year marked by new experiences and big changes, the staff and students of The Soulsville Charter School made admirable adjustments with the implementation of the Stax Music Academy day programming. After just three and a half months of preparation, the eighth grade choir, strings, winds, and percussion students joined forces with SMA@ TSCS after school program to perform a concert for a packed house on May 13th at the Metropolitan Baptist Church.
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I applaud every student and every teacher who participated in this event and supported music education on our campus. With such an awesome end to a great year, I am pumped for next year’s programming! Enjoy your summer vacation, be safe, and keep practicing.
constanceshepherd
tscs program manager / sma strings instructor
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SMA alumni band summer series! June 2 - July 25 nd
B.b. king's Blues club on beale st.
Every Monday and Friday 12:30 - 4:30 PM *No Charge
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stax museum, studio A
Every Tuesday 2:00 - 4:30 PM *Free admission from
1:00 to 5:00 PM on Tuesdays year round Shelby County residents with valid ID
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Creative aging
Booked upon request *Check staxmusicacademy.org for performance times
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Stax All-stars return home from across the country and world of academia, Young Memphis Soul and Alumni of the Stax Music Academy join together to create the future Memphis sound.
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From Beale Street’s BB King’s to Creative Aging’s nursing homes, under the direction of Artistic Director, Justin Merrick, Stax Alumni will perform across the city. These young superstars will take you through a journey of funk, soul, R&B, and Blues; continuing to nourish and nurture their budding artistry and fulfill the vision of creating the next generation of Soul Communicators. Welcome to Soulsville!!
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see alumni summer schedule for performance details
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Second Annual Stax Music Academy Alumni Band partners with Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Creative Aging, and B.B. King's Blues Club for soulful summer of music and jobs. The formal launch of the Alumni band will be Monday, June 2, 2014, with its first gig of the summer at B.B. King’s Blues Club on Beale Street, 12:30 – 4:30 p.m. Following that, they will perform each Tuesday in the Stax Museum’s Studio A, 2-4 p.m. until July 25th. There is no cover charge at B.B. King’s during those hours and the Stax Museum offers free admission 1- 5 p.m. on Tuesdays year round to Shelby County residents with proper I.D.
but interest this year was even greater and that number has grown to 20 for 2014 and will be separated into two different groups.
In addition to their schedule this year they will be performing at area elderly care facilities, performances that will be booked by Memphis’ Creative Aging agency. Formed last year as a way to offer summer jobs and bring unique entertainment to Memphis, the Stax Music Academy Alumni Band is a group of Stax Music Academy graduates who are in college but home on their summer break. They enjoyed great success performing at the Stax Museum and B.B. King’s in June and July 2013. The original band was made up of 10 students,
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Both include a rhythm section with keyboards, drums, guitar, bass, and a horn section and each will include some 6 vocalists. Their repertoire of Stax hits and other soul music standards is a highly charged, high-energy act designed to entertain and engage audiences of all kinds and all ages.
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This is way to keep our former students in the ‘Stax Music Academy family,’ provide them with paid summer employment, further hone their musical performance skills, and offer tourists and locals alike a unique music experience,” said Stax Music Academy artistic director Justin Merrick. “Last summer this started out as something of an experiment and halfway into their summer shows, they were performing like the tight-knit cast of a Broadway musical.” Speaking of musicals, MEMPHIS, Tony Award-winning musical that debuted on Broadway in 2009, will have its London run beginning in October 2014. Lead singer/actress Beverley Knight, one of the United Kingdom’s most popular soul singers, will head to Memphis in June. She will film, among other promotional videos, a song with the Stax Music Academy Alumni band that will be used to promote the show throughout the UK.
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See Alumni band schedule for more details!
timsampson
soulsville foundation communications director
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JUNE
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July
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There is no SMA programming for the month of july. For Summer Soul Tour and additional performance dates and details visit staxmusicacademy.org
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community corner Our students are always achieving! Here are just a few of their accomplishments:
JaViya Minor received full-
tuition to Berklee College of Music.
Jarveous Williams will be on the upcoming season of BET’s television show Sunday Best, which begins airing July 6th at 7 p.m.
Christen Dukes
was featured in The New Tri-State Defender newspaper for overcoming many health-related obstacles and simultaneously being an honor student from kindergarten to 12th grade. Read the article at staxmuseum.com/events/news
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Our alumni always come home to give back! SMA Alum Interns: Alexis Cole | ‘10
Saxophone University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, 2014 - Business Marketing
Austen Cunningham | ‘12 Vocalist, Saxophone Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 2016 Engineering
Kyiara Jackson | ‘12
We are excited to welcome the summer interns to the SMA family! Summer Intern Staff Adrianne Gore University of Memphis African and African American Studies
Taylor Gray
Indiana University Bloomington Marketing
Pauline Ottaviano University of Louisville Music Education
melodybarham
Community Engagement Manager
Vocalist - Bethel University, 2016, Vocal Performance
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from
the
soul
B.U. Have I ever shared with you the two most devas-
tating disappointments (so far!) in my career? I apparently lived to tell about them, so they didn’t kill me! But boy were they hard. The first was when I signed my first recording contract in 1981. My band loaded up the van and drove out to Hollywood to make it big! That 2-day drive seemed like an hour. When we arrived the record company put us up in nice apartments and even took us to the Adidas warehouse and said “have at it!” It was like a dream... until it turned into a nightmare. It took the company about two months to realize that the producer was much more focused on completing his home studio than making a great record with me! In other words, he took the money (recording budget) and ran. Well, that drive back home from Cali seemed to take two years! My dreams, and my bloated expectations of just how my story would go, were shattered. How embarrassing it was to have to retell that story 100 times to all the folks back home...
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Okay, the second example happened much later, after being signed to another label, Sony, for 12 years. One day my manager called to check on a meeting there at Sony in NYC, the meeting having been rescheduled a couple of times. Well the person on the other end of the phone simply, and unceremoniously said, “Oh, they didn’t tell you?” Uh... tell us what?! Turns out I had been dropped from the label. They had already moved on! You find out pretty quickly that in this business, you’re all that... until, sometimes suddenly, you’re not! Boy, you gotta know who you are and whose you are before you ever leave home. Well, when the news sank in, I was about ready to have my pity party. I had already bought the balloons (just kidding)! What happened next is the reason I’m writing to you today. At that point, when I was truly depressed, my wife said something to me that I’ll never forget. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, she said, “Okay, so what can you do today, that you couldn’t do yesterday, when you were a Sony recording artist?”... WOW!
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I could speak much more on that incident and how it changed my life. But suffice to say, my career did not end when my record contract did! In fact, I made far more money, and far more of an artistic and spiritual impact in the world AFTER that day than before... far more. So what was my answer to my wife Ruby’s question that sad day? I said; “I’d love to make a Gospel According to Jazz record... maybe even a series!” That was an idea that Sony, for obvious reasons, had no intention of doing. Long story short: I’m writing to you from Osaka, Japan, where I just finished signing a bunch of Gospel According to Jazz CDs to fans after the show––like the ones I met in Brazil, Mozambique, Johannesburg, Belfast, London, San Diego––all of whom thanked me sincerely (many with tears) for that Gospel jazz series. What’s the moral? Be you. B!U! Whoever that is, as India Arie says, just do you. Believe in yourself, even when disappointments come, and the world will eventually catch up with you! It’s easy to say, but really hard to do. The disappointments will become an im-
portant part of your story just like they did mine! Love, Mr. Whalum
kirkwhalum
soulsvile foundation artist - in- residence
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SMA STAFF Justin Merrick
Artistic & Operations Manager Adrianna Christmas
Operations & Program Manager Junior Academy / Vocal Instructor Paul McKinney
Instrumental Music Director / Jazz Studies Coordinator Leona Johnson
Family Resource & Office Manager Melody Barham
Community Engagement Manager Constance Shepherd
TSCS Program Manager / SMA Strings Instructor Terrilyn Douglas
Program Coordinator / Voice Coach Choreographer Victor Sawyer
Woodwind & Brass Coordinator Lenora Green
Artist in Residence; Lemoyne Owen & Stax Music Academy Mary Robinson
Program Assistant Darryl Pruitt
Junior Academy Instrumental Instructor / Beginning Guitar Track Instructor
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926 E. Mclemore Ave. memphis, TN 38106 901-946-2535 staxmusicacademy.org info@staxmusicacademy.org @staxacademy
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