MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Wearing a blue suit, black hat and multi-coloured socks, master keyboardist Booker T. Jones leaned away from the Hammond B3 organ, tilted his head back and worked the keys and foot pedals as he played the funky and familiar hit “Green Onions” for a head-bobbing, toe-tapping crowd at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.
The intimate performance by Jones and a tight backup band Wednesday was part of an event at the Memphis, Tennessee, museum that previewed its yearlong 20th anniversary celebration planned for 2023.
Built on the site of the former Stax Records, the museum celebrates the influential soul music born from the studio where Otis Redding, Booker T. and the MGs, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Carla Thomas, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave and others recorded some of American popular music’s most memorable songs.
“Right here in this space, you are on hallowed ground,” said Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, which oversees the museum, according to AP.
Jones’ rousing renditions of “Hip Hugger,” “Time is Tight,” “Soul Limbo,” and the 60-year-old “Green Onions” followed a video announcing events celebrating the museum’s opening two decades ago. They include a year’s worth of free field trips for students, a concert series featuring performances by national acts, and a mobile “pop-up” vehicle that will take Stax music, merchandise and more to locations like Austin’s SXSW, Nashville’s Americana Fest and New Orleans’ Essence Festival.
A Memphis native, Jones, 77, said he feels fortunate to have been able to develop his musical talent just a few blocks from his house, at Stax. Jones said he feels “an openness” when he walks into the Stax building.
“I guess you can say that there are locations on the Earth, some more conducive to art than others,” Jones told reporters before his performance. “This is a location that is conducive to art.”
The museum is a top attraction in Memphis, where Graceland, Sun Studio, Beale Street and the Memphis Rock N’ Soul Museum also treat tourists to the music created in the Mississippi River city.
Stax fostered a raw sound born from Black church music, the blues and rock ‘n’ roll. It featured tight rhythm sections, powerful horn players, and singers who could be sexy and soulful in one tune, loud and forceful in another.
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