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[music] -Dedicated to the promotion and perseverance of bebop and blues music, the Jazz Foundation of West Tennessee's goal is to bring true jazz and blues to Jackson.

Hello, I'm Don McCorry.

On this edition of Tennessee is Talking, the topic is the Jazz Foundation of West Tennessee.

Committed to the development of jazz tradition in West Tennessee, the foundation hopes to increase public awareness of this US-born genre with roots stretching to every corner of the world.

Let the conversation begin.

-That's so cool.

-Then that's when I said that-- -The problem with that idea is-- -That was amazing.

-Then I came up with a solution.

-What was that about?

-Here's what I think about it.

-Now we're talking.

-West Tennessee PBS presents Tennessee is Talking.

Let the conversation begin.

-Thanks for joining the discussion here on Tennessee is Talking.

Hello, I'm Don McCorry.

The Jazz Foundation of West Tennessee is helping Jacksonians connect to their roots through their music.

Here to tell us more is founder and president, James E. Cherry, and board member, Howard Ramsby.

Thanks for joining us.

-It's a pleasure to be here.

-The foundation received a grant from Tennessee's Art Council for Christine Chapman's historical marker.

Can you tell us a little bit more about her and the significance of that marker?

-Dr. Ramsby.

-First of all, Christine Chapman was a phenomenal musician.

To be from Jackson, she was a woman of today before today's time.

By that, when we go back, Christine Chapman fronted her own band.

She managed her own band.

She did all the things that women did not traditionally do.

One of the things that I love about her most definitely is the Sweethearts of Dixie, which was an all-female band during the time of World War II.

Just like we see the movie A League of Their Own, these women had a league of their own.

The star of female Chapman's band was another Jacksonian, Big Maybelle.

Big Maybelle was also a piano player.

Christine Chapman, by the way, played 12 different instruments.

-I was going to ask if she was a vocalist -or if she played an instrument.

-She was an instrumentalist and a vocalist.

When Big Maybelle joined the band, Christine moved over from piano and gave the piano playing job to Big Maybelle.

Christine started playing accordion, which was a-- Sometimes I joke to myself and I say, "She was a forerunner to Lawrence Welk.

She had to show him what to do."

She was an arranger.

She was a great session musician, playing with so many of the greats.

-Diana Washington.

-Diana Washington, Lou Rose.

-Frank Sinatra.

-She was just a phenomenal person.

The thing that I like about it more than anything, she was from West Tennessee.

She was from Jackson.

Now, unfortunately, so often when, people, women do too much.

Her career was tarnished because people got jealous of her, so to say.

That's my interpretation.

It was a rumor put out that she was blackballed from the union.

Fortunately, one of her relatives came and cleared up her name about three or four years ago.

We're able to look at her, and I do not use this word lightly, as the hero that she was.

-Great.

I would have to say the accordion ha..

I have to applaud her for being a significant and able-bodied musician.

Tell me a little bit about the creation of the Jazz Foundation of West Tennessee.

What was the inspiration behind it?

-We're jazz enthusiasts.

Jazz is considered America's classical music.

I just felt that a city with the potential of Jackson, Tennessee, deserves to have a jazz presence here, a jazz and a blu..

I got together with some like-minded people, this great historian here, Howard Ramsby, and we decided to do something about it.

We've been putting out-- As an organization, we've only been in existence for a year, but during that time, we've had some wonderful concerts thus far.

Traditionally, our concerts are downtown at the NED, and we bring in regional musicians, but they have national reputations.

That's one of our missions.

Another part of our mission statement is to introduce high schoolers and students to the art form.

We'll be developing that aspect.

Also, eventually, we're going to have a jazz festiva.. -That would be-- -Those are our primary objectives, and we're moving toward those.

-Great.

You mentioned helping students.

Do you have a partnership with the Jackson-Madison County School System or some of the private schools?

-We have already reached out to-- There's a couple of high schools that have jazz bands.

We're working with those band directors.

We're going to get those young musicians a platform where they can show what they can do, and we'll bring in some professional musicians to be mentors to them.

-Great.

Tell me about the selection process that you go through for choosing an artist to perform here locally.

-First of all-- -Do they ask to perform?

Is there a waiting list of people to perform?

Do you go to them?

-I know just about all the jazz musicians from here, the Nashville, Atlanta, the St. Louis.

That's the thing too, Don.

You don't have to travel an hour or two now to hear .. We're going to bring it here to Jackson.

These musicians may be regional, but these guys have played all over the country and all over the world.

Once I reach out to them and let them know what we're trying to do here in Jackson, they are excited about coming here.

Matter of fact, we're going to touch on the grant in a minute, but we received the grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.

In June of 2025, Donald Brown, who's a jazz legend, will come and celebrate African-American Music Month here in Jackson.

-Prior to the foundation being formed, was there ever a place here in Jackson to go and hear jazz except for in the privacy of your own home?

-I'm sure he could tell you.

-There have been places.

I came to Jackson, Tennessee so many years ago as a student of Lane College.

I say that because during that time, Lane College used to have a yearly jazz festival.

It was the thing that just blew my mind.

We had Paul, one of the saxophone players who played the saxophone on Dave Brubeck's Take Five.

He bought his band.

The highlight of-- -Paul Desmond.

-Paul Desmond, right.

That's what I was trying to say.

I had the opportunity to meet Dizzy Gillespie because he came to Jackson as a part of the jazz series.

We had almost everybody who was a part of the Dave Brubeck band came with their own bands in the day.

Jazz has been around.

One other thing that I want to say, when you were speaking about the foundation, the reason why the foundation is successful, Mr. Cherry has a passion for it.

He has a passion for jazz.

That passion bleeds over into the foundation.

As a result of that, the foundation is very successful.

-Great.

-Thank you so much.

-Are you also a performer?

-Oh, well-- -I know you are an accomplished -and acclaimed writer.

-Yes.

-I did not know if we were going to see you on stage performing with-- -Oh, no.

You may see me up there introducing the band.

I wanted to double back to Christine Chapman for a minute.

What we decided to do, because she's such an important and innovative person, musician from Jackson, we're going to erect a historical marker in her honor in 2025.

What we'll do, it'll be located-- She was raised on Institute Street.

She was born in I believe May of 1920 and she died in December 1979.

Institute Street is South Jackson.

-Yes.

-The marker will be erected across the street from the Neely House where the Soul Collective is, which is a stone's throw from Institute Street.

That's going to be a big deal.

We've already made plans to reach out to her family, which she still has, I believe in Ohio, if I'm not mistaken.

The family will be here and we expect some national media to be here.

-Starting local.

-Let's make sure that everyone here knows.

-Yes.

You're invited.

-Channel 11 has to be there.

-We will see if we can get Channel 11 there.

We will get some of our other friends and media experts.

Which leads me to the fact, where can viewers find out more information about the foundation?

-Do you have a website?

-Oh, yes.

We're all on social media.

thejazzfoundationofwesttennessee .orf.

You can find us on Facebook and Instagram and all that good stuff.

Don, we're serious about the music.

The schedule for 2025 is already planned out.

-You already got your calendar?

-Oh, yes.

Martin Luther King weekend, we'l..

It'll be Let Freedom Swing that weekend.

We'll have a vocalist, Patrice Williamson, and a guitar player, Joe Restivo, he'll be here.

In April, another saxophone legend, Gregory Tardy.

I mentioned in June, Donald Brown.

Hopefully, in the fall of 2025, we'll have a Jazz Festival.

-Great.

You're going to have to find yourself a larger venue.

-Yes, we hope so.

-Okay.

Has it been difficult to have young musicians, young students to find a level of enthusiasm about jazz?

Is there a way to make it more relevant to their day-to-day lives?

-What do you think, Howard?

-I was thinking about the last concert that we had and everything.

Seasoned musicians, but each of those seasoned musicians had young players.

-You're partly right.

-I was blown away with one of the bass players at the last event.

-18-years-old.

-He was a college kid.

-Then the jazz community is like a community.

They feed off of each other.

The older guys work with the younger guys.

Now, what we have to do here in Jackson is develop an appreciation for it.

Jazz does take an appreciation for it.

As you were just talking about the blues and everything.

When we look at the foundation of jazz music, it all started with the blues format.

Duke Ellington wrote more blues than any other.

He played it in the jazz flavor or whatever.

When you look at the blues, actually jazz is inviting his great-grandfather up here in November.

The young people, the other thing, the caliber of musicians that have been at the concerts, once they see them, they are motivated to want to go.

That is the key.

Bringing in great talent.

When these young people see the great talent-- When you're young, you think you can accomplish anything.

You have to see what it is you want to do before you can accomplish it.

-Yes.

Do you happen to sometimes make connections between young musicians and seasoned musicians to serve as a mentor or teach them some of the history behind them?

-Oh, yes.

That's going to be one of our focuses in the future.

We'll bring in seasoned musicians and we'll get a-- -A work session.

-Yes, exactly.

We'll take the musicians to the schools and they'll do a workshop and all that good stuff.

I just want to say, as far as the jazz community goes, we've been very pleasantly surprised at the turnout at our concerts so far.

we average between 100 and 150 people per show and they are excited about the music.

Every show, I recognize the same faces.

There is a market here for live jazz and blues music.

-Yes.

What else can the community do to show their support other than just coming out to these venues?

-That's a great question.

You can become a member of the Jazz Foun..

There are different levels of membership.

Basic membership starts at $50.

There are other levels of membership where you can get a discount on tickets.

There's another level where you can come backstage and hang out with the musicians and all that good stuff.

-All this information is on your website?

-It's jazzfoundationwesttennessee.org.

-Great.

Okay.

All right.

We've got to make sure that we get that word out.

-Please do.

-Social media platforms?

-Oh, yes.

-The Big Three?

-All that.

Yes.

-Instagram, Facebook, X?

-Yes.

-Okay.

How do you make sure that you honor the integrity of the music itself?

It's great to have new arrangements, but you want to hold true to what that music meant to the original artist.

Do you have those conversations?

-We do.

If you come to the concert, if you're expecting the Kenny G variety of music or the smooth jazz, you're going to be disappointed.

We like the hard stuff.

We like the bebop, the straight ahead, the hard bop.

What that means is that all the instruments are acoustic in nature.

You'll see a stand-up bass, the drummer, of course, an acoustic pianist, a saxophonist, trumpet player.

That's the music that we try to honor.

He mentioned Dizzy Gillespie and Paul Desmond and John Coltrane, Billy Holiday, -Right.

The very first concert that was held back in February.

That was a mixture of jazz that was the traditional jazz, the old jazz, then that was like the atonal jazz.

The modern version of the jazz and everything.

They complemented each other greatly because the people that came-- The experimental jazz, I call it, played first and everything.

-Yes.

-They didn't lose anybody.

Now when the traditional jazz came, everybody felt like if Better West Center, they was in the church with the spiritual feeling that the music has.

-That's true.

-It is quite open.

-Would you say that you have more of a demand for the traditional jazz?

Because I've been to one of the concerts before and it was just that, a mixture of the two.

I believe you also had dancers or some dance.

-Not yet.

Not yet.

Hey, you're giving us an idea.

-Giving you an idea.

Okay, I'm sure there's someone that could do some interpretive dance to add another layer of another audience.

-All right, we might put them on the board.

-No, no.

No, we're good.

We're good.

I'll just buy more tickets.

-All right.

The word no don't exist around us.

-The word no doesn't-- Which leads me into-- Tell me some of the challenges that you faced.

Putting the foundation together.

What is it that your greatest needs are right now?

Is there anything that the community can do to help you maintain your mission, fulfill the commitments that you already have with your students, and some of the other visions that you may have going forward?

-Let me start.

I think that for an organization that's only been off the ground for about a year, things are going very well.

from the first show that we had, the reception was tremendous.

We're going to keep building upon that momentum.

I think one of our biggest challenges is venues.

The NED is a terrific spot for live music.

Other than that, there's not many venues here that can sustain, 100, 200, 300 people.

Now, there's the Civic Center or the Carl Perkins Civic Center, but right now, that would be more for the festival-type event.

For general concerts, venues may be our biggest challenge right now.

-Okay.

-We love the NED.

-You love the NED?

-Oh, yes.

-Let's have a conversation with the city of Jackson about, opening up another venue specifically for this market, -considering that it is actually taking-- -It's growing.

-It is growing.

Great.

Okay.

Can you describe a little bit about what your long-term visions are for the foundations, maybe 10 years down the road?

Maybe you'll own your own building, hire your own musicians to have classes.

I don't know.

I'm just putting some ideas out there.

-I know, for me, personally, the thing that I would like to see long-run is when there is something in place where we can educate the younger musicians.

Because in order to survive, you have to share what you have with the young and enable them to share that.

I look forward to the time when we are better equipped from an educational standpoint.

-Yes.

-I've had some musicians reach out, and that's what they want to do.

They want to do some teaching.

Give us a little time.

-I believe you.

I envision you having a series of concerts that you will contact the school system to offer assemblies within the school and introduce kids to the concert.

-Right now, for students, ticket prices are half-price.

We're encouraging students to get involved.

-Great, Okay.

What if a student wanted to audition?

Are you at a place now where students can audition?

It doesn't have to be a student.

It could be anyone to get on your calendar an artist who you may fall under the radar who wants to perform at one of your venues.

-We're willing to talk to anyone.

Remember, when we're asking people to pay money to come to a concert, you got to be ready.

you got to be ready to go.

-Correct.

Musicians will probably welcome the experience of getting to a level where they are worthy of someone paying money to listen to them perform.

-Yes.

First, they have to see someone who's doing that.

Quite often, as a musician, you don't know where you stand until another musician.

I'm saying that to say the people that they see at the concerts and everything, then they will know when they are ready.

-These are seasoned musicians.

-These are professionals in every sense of the word.

-Great.

You have no shortage of them that are waiting.

-I got guys calling me from New York and Chicago.

The word is out there that we're here.

-Great.

Once again, how can individuals become participants or actively support the foundation?

Not get on your board, because your board's probably full.

-Yes, we're good.

We're good.

-To be able to get the word out, because we want people to know that you've made some significant strides over the past 12 months, and you've got a plan for going forward.

How can we share that information with our viewers?

-I think the website is the best way, thejazzfoundationofwesterntennes see.org.

Our phone number is 731-803-5818.

You can call and talk to me.

If you've got some ideas that you think will push us forward, we're open to it.

-Okay.

Again, the next event is?

-Martin Luther King Jr.

Weekend.

Also at the NED.

We will have Let Freedom Swing featuring guitarist Joe Restivo.

He'll bring a quartet.

The vocalist, Patrice Williamson, will bring her quartet as well.

That's going to be terrific.

All these shows are terrific.

-Great.

Is there anything else you want the viewers to know abou.. -The thing that you said, what can be done?

I would like for everybody to come out to the concerts.

For every individual to come out to the concert, that helps the foundation.

-We will certainly do our best to try to make that happen.

-You will get some personal growth by listening to great jazz.

-Great.

Unfortunately, we are out of time on this edition of Tennessee is Talking.

We want to thank James E. Cherry and Howard Ramsby for stopping by and telling us about the Jazz Foundation of West Tennessee.

If you want to re-watch this program or share it with a friend, remember it can be streamed anytime on the PBS app, along with all local Channel 11 programs.

You can also watch it on the West Tennessee PBS YouTube channel and on westtnpbs.org.

Keep the conversation going by following West Tennessee PBS on social media.

Until next time, Keep on Talking, Tennessee.

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