{"id":47564,"date":"2018-07-18T17:40:18","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T23:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=47564"},"modified":"2018-07-18T17:40:38","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T23:40:38","slug":"memphis-tennessees-mighty-souls-brass-band-set-to-take-over-the-library-sports-bar-in-oxford-mississippi-on-friday-july-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/memphis-tennessees-mighty-souls-brass-band-set-to-take-over-the-library-sports-bar-in-oxford-mississippi-on-friday-july-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Memphis, Tennessee’s Mighty Souls Brass Band Set to Take Over The Library Sports Bar in Oxford, Mississippi on Friday, July 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a dream Sean Murphy<\/strong> had fostered since high school, ever since he\u2019d first dipped an ear into the Dirty Dozen Brass Band<\/strong>\u2019s discography.\u00a0 Murphy had a vision of a brass-band outfit anchored by a tuba bass line\u2014a combo that could draw from New Orleans<\/strong> traditions, but one that mainly honored the deep, wide-ranging musical history of Memphis, Tennessee<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

And it took a couple of decades of woodshedding in a wide array of formal and improvisatory settings, but today, tuba player\/composer Murphy and a group of crack-shot co-conspirators are brewing a strong, soulful pot under the moniker Mighty Souls Brass Band<\/strong>, comprising some of the city\u2019s most sought-after musicians, putting a uniquely Memphis spin on a tradition that\u2019s as global in its scope as it is root-deep in American popular music.\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Mighty Souls Brass Band, a rotating collective of composer-players versed in a multitude of musical traditions, isn\u2019t a soul band, nor is it a funk band, a marching band, or a swing band. And yet, depending on where you catch them live, you\u2019ll hear all of those influences, as well as more from around the globe, in the group\u2019s music.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not interested in just being a bunch of Memphis musicians playing New Orleans-style brass band music,\u201d says Murphy. \u201cWe love that music, and we honor it. But we love Memphis music too, and world music, and we want to pay tribute to that history. And it\u2019s a deep one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

True enough. Check MSBB\u2019s roster, for one thing\u2014an evolving list of knockout players whose chops around Memphis are long-established. The group began to coalesce in 2012, when Murphy and Jim Spake<\/strong> came together to play a New Orleans-style funeral, accompanied by horn player\/vocalist Jeremy Shrader<\/strong> and percussionist Earl Lowe<\/strong>. Murphy, who has spent 13 years honing his chops in an improv dance and music group, found a kindred spirit in the wildly versatile Spake, whose sax playing appears on three decades\u2019 worth of albums by Alex Chilton, Al Green, the North Mississippi All-Stars, Natalie Merchant,<\/strong> and dozens more.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Murphy outlined his project\u2014a brass ensemble whose repertoire drew from American soul and funk as well as global traditions\u2014Spake jumped at the chance, as did a host of other players from Memphis\u2019 powerhouse session-musician community. On any given night the talent represented onstage at a MSBB show can run from five to fourteen members deep, showcasing some of the best and most esteemed players in the city\u2019s rich performance pool.<\/span><\/p>\n

That elasticity\u2014of personnel, and of the music\u2014allows MSBB to enjoy a lot of flexibility in its arrangements and live performances.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the great thing, one of the great things, about this group,\u201d says Jim Spake. \u201cSean\u2019s got to be there, he\u2019s our fount of craziness. But it can be a different band on any particular night. In other settings, you might think, \u2018Oh no, man, we don\u2019t have our bass player?\u2019 In this group, the feeling is more like, \u2018Hey, who\u2019s playing today\u2026? Cool\u2026\u2019\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

That portability brings us to MSBB\u2019s many diverse gigs, which can take them\u2014as the band\u2019s lively booking schedule recently did, over the course of a single day in October 2014\u2014from a morning show playing globally-derived \u201cworld brass band\u201d music for children age eight and younger, to an afternoon\u2019s polka-inflected set at an Oktoberfest party, to an evening opening for (and backing) New Orleans legend Dr. John<\/strong>. To hear Murphy talk about the heady blend of styles the MSBB works in is to hear how the band\u2019s music drinks deep from a multitude of sources. The tight, polished work of MoTown\u2019s session horns; the gritty, dirty inflections of New Orleans\u2019 funky Meters<\/strong>; the slippery R&B of Memphis\u2019 own Booker T. & The MGs<\/strong>\u2014it all finds a place in the thumping heartbeat of Mighty Souls Brass Band.<\/span><\/p>\n

For proof, check the band\u2019s debut album\u2014Lift Up!<\/em>, on Blue Barrel Records<\/strong>\u2014largely recorded live, to catch the infectious synergy of the group. You\u2019ll hear all of these influences, but you\u2019ll also hear the writing and arrangement talents of the MSBB\u2019s members, who themselves composed ten of the album\u2019s dozen tracks. This vigorously creative impulse, this desire to weave something new from the threads of various traditions, is what makes Mighty Souls Brass Band a unique act even among brass ensembles. Rooted by bandleader Murphy\u2019s sousaphone (\u201cI like to say I play the \u2018brass bass,\u2019\u201d he notes cheekily), MSBB has talent to burn, and that talent burns bright and fierce on Lift Up!<\/em> From the swaggering opener \u201cSTS\u201d to the stomping blues-holler \u201cLift Up Your Mighty Soul\u201d to the stately southern swing of the traditional \u201cI\u2019ll Fly Away,\u201d this is a band that knows where its roots lie, but also where its branches are reaching, far out into the world, a world that, as Murphy notes, seems invariably to express its deepest spiritual desires and celebrations through music.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mighty Souls Brass Band is a group attuned to that desire, that celebratory spirit. It\u2019s a music that swings, that soars, that swoons\u2014all of which is suggested by that profound, that humble, that most human of words: \u201cSoul.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

How mighty, indeed.\u00a0\"The<\/a> \u00a0\u2014by Eric Waggoner<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n