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The Stax express is packing for Italy

By Pamela Perkins
perkins@commercialappeal.com

The Stax express is packing for Italy

From "Soulsville USA" to "Soulsville Europe," 14 Memphis teenage musicians will trek about 5,000 miles this summer to uphold a legacy.

The Stax Music Academy student vocalists and instrumentalists will perform July 1 and July 2 in Porretta Terme, Italy -- also known as the European stronghold of Memphis music.

It will be part of an all-expense-paid European excursion from June 26 to July 10. They also will spend four days in London and remaining days in Italy performing, participating in a music school workshop and seeing the opera "Carmen" in Verona.

Derrin Lane, 17, a trumpet player and Soulsville USA resident, said he first thought it was "gonna cost a lot of money."

He felt much better, however, after learning FedEx would cover the trip’s $61,000 cost that includes travel, food, lodging and the opera tickets.

"I’m excited now," he said. "I’m gonna be the first person in my immediate family to go overseas. ... I’ve gotta stay focused."

He’s among four vocalists and 10 instrumentalists from Soulsville and other Memphis neighborhoods chosen for the tour for musical prowess and dedication, said academy director Ashley Davis.

"It’s not really a musical thing," said 17-year-old DeMario Foster, a drummer and student at Hamilton High School. "This is like a life experience. ... I just wanna have my music down before I get there."

In tribute to the old Stax Records label, the nonprofit Soulsville founded the academy in 2000 and opened the adjacent Stax Academy of American Soul Music in 2003 on the label’s old site at 926 E. McLemore.

The academy uses scholarships to attract low-income neighborhood children into its afterschool and summer camp programs. The vocal and instrumental performance programs require auditions.

The trip is a tribute, reminiscent of the 1967 Stax/Volt European tour that helped solidify the popularity of Memphis music overseas -- particularly in Porretta where students will perform in Rufus Thomas Park and near Via Otis Redding.

"Journalists in Europe call Porretta ’Soulsville Europe,’ " said Graziano Uliani, founder and artistic director of the Porretta Soul Festival, in a telephone interview from Porretta.

Concert organizers are billing the Stax student event as the premier performance of the 19th annual Porretta Soul Festival, which will feature former Stax artist Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns, James Govan with Don Chandler’s Boogie Blues Band and guitarist Bill Darby. The festival will honor New Orleans with the Neville Brothers and Irma Thomas.

Uliani missed the 1967 Stax/Volt European performances with Otis Redding Jr., Booker T. & the MGs, Carla Thomas and Sam and Dave. But over the past two decades, he’s brought many Memphis music legends to the festival.

"Many years after, to have the possibility to (host) the Stax academy students in my town, at Rufus Thomas Park, is really the dream of my life because I love Memphis music," he said.

-- Pamela Perkins: 529-6514

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