When Booker T. Jones makes his way to Memphis this month, a lifetime of music and memories will come with him.
The Stax Records legend, cog of the label's house band Booker T. & The M.G.'s, and Rock 'n' Roll and Memphis Music Hall of Famer is set to return to the Bluff City for a special concert at the Overton Park Shell, part of the festivities marking the 90th anniversary of the iconic Midtown venue
.Jones — who will play a ticketed show on Sept. 10 as part of the Shell Yeah! benefit series — can instantly recall the many great shows he saw and played at the famed bandshell over the years.
“They’re all right there in my memory, starting as a boy, a small boy, and then as a young musician,” says Jones. “I can remember being on stage, in one of
the early Memphis bands that I played with, Johnny London or Tuff Green and those people who played at the Shell. I can remember the people walking the lanes in the park, and the stage and the way it was facing. I can go right back there in my mind.”
After a two-decade break — during which he focused on producing other artists — Jones returned to his solo career in 2009. He’s since released a pair of LPs for hip Los Angeles-based indie label Anti-, including 2009's Grammy-winning "Potato Hole" and 2011's Grammy-nominated "The Road From Memphis." In 2013, Jones returned to the Stax label and released "Sound the Alarm."
In 2019, Jones published his autobiography, “Time Is Tight,” and launched his own label, Edith Street Records — named after the South Memphis avenue he grew up on — with a companion LP to his memoir, called "Note by Note." The 11-track disc found him reworking important songs from throughout his career and recording new ones with a group of younger artists, from The National's Matt Berninger to Vintage Trouble's Ty Taylor.
These days Jones’ concert setlists — including his upcoming Shell date — explore the vast scope of his musical career and achievements.
“Well, the show that we do varies. It varies more so than I'd like to, because it makes me have to remember more things,” he says, laughing. “But when we go back to certain cities we don't want to play all the same songs as before. A few things we’ll always play, like ‘Green Onions’ and ‘Time is Tight.' I’m singing on the show now, and I've worked with just so many people as a producer, who have done so much beautiful music, I like to touch on that body of work as well. So it just goes on and on in terms of the music we play in the show.”
Though Jones has spent most of the last six decades living in California, he says returning home to Memphis remains a special experience — one that finds him reconnecting instantly with his roots at Stax and elsewhere.
“It wasn't just Stax — from Willie Mitchell to Joe Dukes to Elvis, there's just so many to name. We were so lucky, all of us, to have come into the world and that environment in Memphis where there was so much musical opportunity. And there were so many good, willing, free teachers. I got a solid start from my mother being a musician and a teacher. And that was a benefit to me and it went on from there.”
Jones notes that the process of learning continues. “I haven't stopped studying or trying to figure out different ways of making music,” he says. “I still have my fantasies of pieces that I want to create and I'm trying to always work towards that vision in my head. That never goes away.”
Bob Mehr is the music writer at The Commercial Appeal. Contact him at bob.mehr@commercialappeal.com.
Booker T. Jones in Memphis
7 p.m. Sept. 10 at Overton Park Shell
Tickets: $25 for general admission, $50 for VIP
For tickets or more information, go to Overtonparkshell.org.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Booker T. Jones comes home to Memphis for Overton Park Shell concert
