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Musician has insight into history of Stax -- Trumpet player Jackson was part of Memphis Sound

By Pamela Perkins
perkins@commercialappeal.com

Musician has insight to history of Stax -- Trumpet player Jackson was part of Memphis sound

By Pamela Perkins perkins@commercialappeal.com Photo A West Memphis kid-turned-music legend shared memories and magic Tuesday with kids from his hometown. Memphis Horn and former Stax Records artist Wayne Jackson guided about 20 junior high students through the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, which pays tribute to the Memphis studio that made him famous.

"I wanted to let the kids in West Memphis know that if you want magic to happen in your life and you can believe in it, it can happen," Jackson said.

The tour was part of Delta Sounds and Reflections, a summer music camp sponsored by the federal GEAR UP youth development program and organized by the Crittenden Arts Council in West Memphis.

Students are exploring the Delta region's music history through field trips. They are also writing their own blues songs for a "Parent Finale" at 1 p.m. Friday at the West Memphis High School Performing Arts Center.

"I tried really hard to learn how to play the trumpet in West Memphis, and did," Jackson told the students. His mother gave him his first trumpet when he was 11.

trumpet player in the West Memphis High School band, Jackson later joined a Memphis garage band called the Mar-Keys. The band had a national hit in "Last Night," released in 1961 on the Satellite label that later became Stax. The museum opened three years ago on the site of the recording studio, which was demolished about 25 years ago.

"This is me me right there," he said pointing to an image of the band in a museum exhibit.

"You looked good!" said a girl's voice from among the students crowded around him.

Inside the museum's replica of Stax's Studio A, he pointed to a glass case with his old trumpet inside. In the original studio, he had backed Stax artists such as Otis Redding Jr.

"And you couldn't make any mistakes 'cause Otis'd whoop ya," Jackson told the students.

Javonte Harden, 14, was paying attention during the special guided tour.

"I think it's really cool to be here because I really wanted to meet Wayne Jackson," he said. "Because he's from West Memphis. ... It rocks." - Pamela Perkins: 529-6514