Monday was a great start to the academic part of the trip, with students straight away joining in with classes in recording and songwriting. The songwriters all got going on their various projects, ranging from Blues to Orchestral and made a great start. Meanwhile the recording students got to spend the afternoon at Ardent Studios, which is a really famous recording studio - ZZ Top, U2, The Raconteurs and Led Zep have all recorded there. It was amazing to be in the building, and also to get the chance for the students to learn about some advanced recording techniques in this kind of environment - the studio back at Emmanuel isn't going to see quite the same anymore I fear...
At the end of the afternoon, we headed to the Recording Academy which is the home of the Grammy Awards - they had laid on a reception for us with the Executive Director, who talked us through the role of the Awards and the aims of the Academy - it was amazing to be with someone who knew literally everybody in the world music industry and had some amazing insights into Memphis, having grown up here through the Civil Rights struggle etc. They were incredibly hospitable and inspiring. Having eaten with them there, we resisted the temptation to go out for yet more fried food, and instead returned to the hotel, went out to Starbucks for some hot chocolates and some really good time debriefing the day. For all the students they had made a good start on their projects and are beginning to really get a sense of the significance of this place in Music History.
Tuesday provided much greater creative space for the students to really get their teeth into their A level projects, in a variety of ways - some excellent song writing going on - the highlight for me unquestionably Jacob's work - really soulful, really raw emotionally, and incredibly mature song-writing for his age. It's also extremely exciting that he is going to get to record the song in the church where Johnny Cash performed his first public gig...other great work coming in Beth's 5-part harmony work, Alice's experimentations with a totally new way of looking at harmony and chord construction, and Damien's MLK-inspired Mountain Top Blues, which was just the most fun recording any of us have had for a long time - as he put it, good chicken.
Recording students also got started on their projects in the studio and made some really good progress towards their aims of completing 6 songs by the end of the week. They've been working with the Artist-in-Residence here at the college, who've been fantastically helpful and professional.
The afternoon saw us take part in the college's weekly Performance Seminar - this is where all their students perform in front of around 100 of their peers. I was thrilled to see that Alice and Damien both got up to perform, and were by some distance the most convincing and effective performers in the room. Given that they're performing with students a couple of years older than them, there was an enormous ovation from the crowd and a great sense of pride for us both as staff and student team. After a long day at the college, we headed out to the OutBack Grill, where we all enjoyed some of the finest burgers on the planet, and wended our way home very full!
It's now Wednesday morning, and we are about to leave for Ardent Studios, to meet its president, then to Stax, and the possibility I believe of some kind of news coverage on an American TV station today...more to come...
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