Soul Music Artist Booker T Jones Performing at Kalamazoo State Theatre
Soul music is exactly what it sounds like, music that speaks, touches, and fills your soul with its healing powers. Soul music waves travel through your cochlea, into your eardrum, and get translated into words and sounds your brain can understand giving you a euphoric feeling.
The soul music scene within Kalamazoo and really Southwest Michigan as a whole is very limited, there are very few artists coming from the area and we don't hear tons of it played on the radios, in businesses, or even get many soul artists to visit and perform. Some people in Kalamazoo are looking to change that starting this summer.
The Black Arts and Cultural Center, The Kalamazoo Public Library, and The Gilmore Museum are teaming up to bring soul music to Kalamazoo. They are banding together to bring successful and notable soul music artist Booker T Jones to perform in downtown Kalamazoo.
On July 8th Jones will take the stage at the Kalamazoo State Theatre with the doors opening at 7 pm. The event is completely free and is based on a first come first served basis. They will not be giving out any extra tickets once they reach capacity. You can register to receive free tickets at event brite.
Jones and a group of his boys by the names of Steve Cropper, Lewie Steinberg, and Al Jackson Jr. created the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. the group would grow to include Donald “Duck” Dunn, Bobby Manuel, Carson Whitsett, Willie Hall, Steve Jordan, and Steve Potts.
Green Onions, was released in 1962 and was their first album which was then followed up by Soul Dressing (1965), Melting Pot (1971), and Universal Language (1977). Their last album That’s the Way It Should Be, was released in 1994.
The show is titled 60 Years of green onions and will be an encapsulation of his career while also celebrating the longstanding work that both the Gilmore Car Museum and the Kalamazoo Public Library have done for years as pillars of the community. The Black Arts and Cultural Center is taking the spearhead and using the concert as a way to celebrate its annual Black Arts Festival.