by Tim Sampson | photos by David McClister ©STAX
John Burk, with the new Stax label at Concord, was in Memphis recording Melissa Etheridge with Boo Mitchell at Royal Studios last year. After recording that day, he went to DKDC bar in Cooper-Young where for the first time, he saw Memphis band Southern Avenue performing. He’d been looking for years for a Memphis band to sign to Stax. He found it.
A funny thing happened to musician Ori Naftaly when he arrived in the United States from his native Israel. He found Memphis, Tenn. Or, you could say, Memphis found him.
Naftaly, who’d grown up with a deep-rooted passion for American blues and funk, came to Memphis in 2013 to compete in the prestigious International Blues Challenge. That experience led to Naftaly moving permanently to Memphis and successfully touring the United States and beyond with his own eponymous band.
Although American audiences embraced his talents, Naftaly felt constrained in his own band, feeling the need to include a more expansive, collaborative musical vision. That opportunity arrived when he met Memphis native Tierinii Jackson, who’d gotten her start singing in church, before performing in a series of cover bands and theatrical projects.
According to Naftaly, “When I saw Tierinii perform, I thought, ‘This is why I came to America.’ I met her and we clicked. At our first rehearsal, she told me that her sister was a drummer, and she thought it would be great to have her in the band. We had such a good vibe, and suddenly I didn’t care so much about my solo thing.”
As one thing lead to another, with Naftaly and Jackson writing all new original music, the mega-popular band Southern Avenue was born, named after the Memphis street that stretches all the way from Colonial Road in East Memphis to the front doors of the Stax Museum, where it’s named McLemore Avenue, and where Stax Records got its start.
Southern Avenue features five young but seasoned musicians who came from diverse musical and personal backgrounds to create music that spans their wide-ranging musical interests, while showcasing the powerful chemistry that the group has honed through stage and studio experience. In addition to Naftaly and Jackson, Southern Avenue includes Jackson’s sister Tikyra Jackson; versatile, jazz-inspired bassist Daniel McKee; and the band’s newest addition, keyboardist Jeremy “Mr. 88” Powell, an early alumnus of the Stax Music Academy.
Eventually, in June 2016, the band became the first Memphis band to get signed to the newly recharged Stax Records label, operated by the Concord Music Group in Beverly Hills, California, which, since reviving the label, has signed such acts as Angie Stone, Ben Harper, Melissa Etheridge, and others.
Focus recently caught up with Naftaly to discuss the band’s newfound success as ambassadors of the Memphis sound.
Focus: What does it mean to Southern Avenue to be the first Memphis band signed to Stax Records and how did that happen?
It means so much that we find ourselves overwhelmed sometimes. We were shopping our EP with several labels, when Luther Dickinson (of the Mississippi All Stars) reached out to Concord and told them about us, but nothing really happened. About a month later, John Burk, with the new Stax label at Concord, was in Memphis recording Melissa Etheridge with Boo Mitchell at Royal Studios. They went out to have a drink at the end of a recording day. They ended up at DKDC and that’s where he saw us play for the first time. We connected and he loved the band. He was looking for a Memphis band to sign to Stax for years, he said. Our story is somehow a cliché, when you think about it. We got discovered at a bar at 1:30 a.m.!
You have a new album coming out this month, which will have been released by the time this article appears in Focus. Can you tell us a little about that?
Our debut album is a timeline of our journey in several ways. We recorded the first half at Inside Sounds in East Memphis with Kevin Houston in December 2015 with a very small budget. We recorded the songs that Tierinii and I wrote together in our first month of knowing each other. When we signed with Stax, we went to record the rest of the album at the Zebra Ranch in Mississippi. Luther Dickinson played slide on two songs and gave us some words of advice early on. We owe a lot to Luther Dickinson.
You have the first Stax Music Academy graduate in your band and he is now the first graduate to be signed to Stax Records. How did that happen?
Jeremy Powell. I saw Jeremy play a Hammond on Beale St. four years ago and was amazed by his talent. We became friends quickly and played together many times. When we signed with Stax, the girls and I knew that the band needed Jeremy to kind of glue everything together. We are blessed to have him with us.
The band is touring constantly? Are you and the other band members enjoying that and what kind of reception are you getting in other cities?
We love touring this country and the world. We love meeting new people and exploring new cities and towns. We always have fun when we tour, even when it’s challenging. We’ve driven over 40,000 miles since June. That can take a toll on you, but we love it.
What does the band have planned for the future or where would you like to be in the next few years?
We just want to keep building our legacy – brick by brick, song after song. We want to remain good friends just as we are right now. We want to be better people and better musicians as a group and individually. We love what we do and just want to be consistent; the music business can eat you alive if you don’t have enough support from those around you.
How did you and the band come up with the name Southern Avenue?
I lived off Southern in Cooper-Young for a while. At that time the girls and I realized we wanted to start a band together and we looked for band names. We hated that process, until one night we all sat on the porch. We looked at the street sign at the end of the street and said – Southern Avenue! Because it really represents our sound and our image. The trains, the belt line, Soulsville, Stax. It’s all on Southern Avenue.
JEREMY POWELL
Southern Avenue’s keyboardist, Jeremy “Mr. 88” Powell, is now the first former Stax Music Academy student signed to Stax Records.
Powell grew up in the heart of South Memphis. His mother still lives two blocks from Stax today. He was raised on gospel music in the church, where he was inspired at a very young age to love music. His first musical love has always been the Hammond B3, which is a staple of the church he grew up in. He also played drums in church. He had his first keyboard when he was just 10 years old, and it sat in the back room waiting for him to come home from school every day to play it.
Powell started playing trumpet in middle school, eventually attending the Stax Music Academy from 2002-2004. He has always put his heart into everything he does, earning the Most Improved award in the 2003-2004 Class.
“Stax taught me discipline,” Powell says. “I started playing trumpet just one year before joining the Stax Music Academy. That after school program helped me to develop my passion and ear for music. While learning theory and different compositions on the trumpet at Stax, I taught myself to do the same on the keyboard at home.” He has never had a formal piano lesson, but is considered one of the best keyboardists playing today.
Powell began playing professionally at the age of 17, eventually making it down to Beale Street. He was soon playing so much that he quit his “normal” job to play the keyboard full time. He played with all of the Beale Street greats and opened for many more, earning the nickname “Mr. 88.” He joined Southern Avenue in 2016, officially becoming a member of the Stax Records family.
