Memphis 68 by Stuart Cosgrove

Author:Stuart Cosgrove
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Birlinn Limited

In the courtyard of the Sorbonne in Paris, 30 May 1968, where students and teachers have been in occupation since 13 May.

BOOKER T. JONES AND

THE PARIS RIOTS

30 May

It was by a series of bizarre coincidences that Maoist revolutionary students came to influence the life of Booker T. Jones. When the phone rang at the Stax offices, no one had ever heard of Jules Dassin, but the phone call triggered an assignment that would take Jones to the heart of Europe, into a cauldron of intense political upheaval, and lure Stax into the high-wire world of commercial cinema. Nothing Jones had witnessed in his young life in Memphis – even the riots in the aftermath of King’s killing – came close to matching what he was about to see in Paris.

Booker T. Jones was the closest Stax music had to a prodigy: the son of a high-school science teacher, through his protected childhood he mastered a wide range of instruments before embarking aged fourteen on the life of a professional musician, working in nightclub bands and sitting in on Stax sessions that at times were strictly adult-only. Like Little Stevie Wonder at Motown in Detroit, Jones was a precociously gifted kid who could take his place alongside the most seasoned of professionals. His mother worried about the cynical and hard-bitten environments he sometimes worked in but encouraged him to be the best. It was a remarkable achievement in child-rearing; Jones became one of the precious few child stars who survived the journey with his ego and emotions intact. The CBS publicist and jazz aficionado Bob Altshuler wrote fulsomely of the young Jones on the sleeve notes of the 1962 album Green Onions: ‘[His] musical talents became apparent at a very early age. By the time he entered high school, Booker was already a semi-professional, and quickly recognised as the most talented musician in his school. He was appointed director of the school band for four years, and in addition, organised the school dance orchestra which played for proms throughout the Mid South. In the classroom, he concentrated on the studies of music theory and harmony . . . Booker’s multiple activities earned him a coveted honour, that of being listed in the students’ Who’s Who of American High Schools.’

Booker T. Jones Jr, blessed with a name inherited from his father and from the great Negro educator, came to the attention of Stax’s Jim Stewart while still at Booker T. Washington High School, a place that he joked had in part been named after him. He took occasional work as a studio musician, appearing as backing instrumentalist on many sessions, hauling around a huge variety of instruments with him, knowing he could do a decent or a spectacular job, depending on what was required on the night. Jones was only in tenth grade when he first stepped into the studios of what was then Satellite Records in South Memphis. He had been hired on a one-day cash-in-hand contract to play the baritone saxophone on ‘Cause I Love You’, a song written by Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla.

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