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Booker T. serves up soulful grooves |
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Written by DAVID DUPONT Sentinel Arts & Entertainment Editor
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Thursday, 16 August 2012 08:47 |
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| Booker T. Jones |
A young Booker T. Jones was intrigued by the sounds that wafted from behind a curtain in the Memphis record store he frequented.
That’s where the studio of what was then Satellite Records. Barely in high school, Jones already played all the saxophones and clarinet as well as piano and organ. He was already gigging, and he wanted to be on the other side of the curtain. That was his dream.
When he was about 15 years old, blues singers Rufus and Irma Thomas came to town for a studio session. The producers needed baritone sax player, and David Porter, a friend of Jones’, suggested the youngster.
He was dispatched to Booker T. Washington High School to get Jones, the school’s baritone saxophone and the band director’s car.
“It’s what I had wanted for years, but I couldn’t figure out a way to get there,” Jones said in a recent telephone interview.
Once he was there, he became a fixture, earning his keep on piano and organ.
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