{"id":2445557,"date":"2019-06-20T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=307939"},"modified":"2019-06-20T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T22:00:00","slug":"jazz-aspen-june-experience-booker-t-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/jazz-aspen-june-experience-booker-t-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz Aspen June Experience: Booker T. Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Booker T. Jones will headline the Jazz Aspen June Experience on Friday.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Booker T. Jones was still a teenager in Memphis, Tennessee, when Stax Records opened there in the early 1960s and shaped the sound of American music as we know it.<\/p>\n

He got his foot in the door as a baritone sax player but was soon writing and recording timeless soul, blues and R&B songs on the Hammond B3 organ. Through the Stax years, with Booker T. & the MGs, the youngster recorded classics like \u201cGreen Onions\u201d and \u201cTime is Tight\u201d while also playing in the Stax house band on recording sessions with game-changing legends like Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett and Sam & Dave, and on the original \u201cBorn Under a Bad Sign\u201d with Albert King.<\/p>\n

For his return headlining performance tonight at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Experience, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is planning a \u201cStax Revue,\u201d running through those iconic songs with a full band and backup singers behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I was trying to do in 1961, 1962 was trying to learn music theory and to do something unique and something that I enjoy,\u201d Jones said before his Junefest 2016 show. \u201cThat\u2019s still what I want today. And that\u2019s still the challenge: to create original and unique sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The previous local \u201cStax Revue\u201d ran through an iconic set list. The R&B legend offered brief, deadpan introductions to songs that reminded you of the jaw-dropping breadth of his career, the songs he played on and the greats he played with \u2014 from B.B. King, Otis Redding, Albert King and so on, masterfully tearing through faithful renditions of \u201cHang \u2019Em High,\u201d \u201cTime is Tight,\u201d \u201cBorn Under a Bad Sign,\u201d and \u201cGreen Onions,\u201d picking up a guitar for \u201cKnock on Wood,\u201d \u201cTry a Little Tenderness\u201d and a roaring \u201cHold On I\u2019m Coming\u201d that filled out his set.<\/p>\n

Jones was 17 when he recorded the instrumental \u201cGreen Onions\u201d and 16 when he first played with Rufus Thomas. A precocious kid, he didn\u2019t think much about the idea that what he was up to might last for generations to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all pretty young and it was just exploration for a lot of us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were just having a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s now been playing songs like \u201cGreen Onions\u201d on his organ for more than 50 years. He still calls it his favorite song and still finds a challenge in performing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat one in particular, that was a very special 2 minutes and 30 seconds,\u201d he said. \u201cSo what I try to do is try to recreate it the way it was originally. And it sounds pretty simple, but it\u2019s not that easy. So that\u2019s the challenge for me: I try to play it like I did the first time and it\u2019s really hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 74, Jones also keeps things fresh by collaborating with a new generation of artists. In recent years he\u2019s played with R&B young guns like Gary Clark Jr. (who he met in Apple\u2019s Cupertino, California, offices) and Mayer Hawthorne (who was sent his way by Daryl Hall), both of whom he included on his 2013 album \u201cSound the Alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople tell me they were influenced by it \u2014 young artists and contemporary artists say the music influenced them,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just gratified that the music is still alive and that we can still perform it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his collaborations with the generations who followed him have spanned genres from punk (Rancid) to Southern rock (Drive-By Truckers) to hip-hop (The Roots).<\/p>\n

\u201cSound the Alarm\u201d marked Booker T.\u2019s return to Stax after a four-decade absence (he left the label after recording 1971\u2019s \u201cMelting Pot\u201d). The company had been through a lot of changes since those early years \u2014 moving from Memphis to Beverly Hills, California, and expanding widely from its humble roots \u2014 but, he said, it was good to be home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very warm and they stood up when I walked in,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a nice feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long and influential career Booker T. has behind him is difficult to fathom \u2014 he\u2019s seemingly played with every music great since the birth of Memphis soul and done everything a musician would dream of doing. Asked what kind of advice he\u2019d offer to young musicians, he noted how easily he could have missed the boat if he hadn\u2019t been ready at 16 when opportunity knocked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing is to be ready, because opportunity may come (or) it may not come, but the tragedy is if you\u2019re not ready and opportunity does come,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen opportunity came I just walked right in, but I\u2019d been practicing for years before that on saxophone and piano and organ.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically,\u201d he added with a laugh: \u201cPractice!\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Booker T. Jones will headline the Jazz Aspen June Experience on Friday.Courtesy photo Booker T. Jones was still a teenager in Memphis, Tennessee, when Stax Records opened there in the early 1960s and shaped the sound of American music as we know it. He got his foot in the door as a baritone sax player […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2445557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 01:21:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}