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" Jim Spake among city's busiest musicians "
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Heater Gates
Jim Spake paces his living room while holding Eli, his 5-month-old son, in a green cloth carrier for infants that looks, oddly enough, like a backpack for one's frontside. A Charlie Woods CD hums in the background. Spake muses about his years as a "regular musician," a guy who loves to play the saxophone and wouldn't mind making some money in the process. "It pays the bills, keeps me busy" the 40-year-old Spake says of his more than two decades in the music business. Others who know him, however, say he's one of the hardest-working musicians in Memphis, with gigs including the Peabody Hotel's Sunday brunch, working as an "adjunct faculty member" of the University of Memphis' music department, and playing alongside such greats as Woods, Jerry Lee Lewis and Bruce Willis, among others, in live and recorded sessions. Other local names roll off his tongue as cavalierly as one would talk about a relative. Indeed, Spake has found a family of musicians in Memphis. "I've been smiled upon certainly. Maybe it's been a willingness to work cheap," he says, with a "wink" in his voice. He refers to Charlie and Diane Woods like old friends. And Rufus Thomas appears in a handful of Eli's baby pictures. "Rufus has been very good to me," Spake says. Since 1993, Spake has performed with Thomas at the Porretta Soul Festival, held in the Northern Italian town of Porretta. According to those who have attended, festival-goers bask in the "Memphis Sound," not only during the summer festival, but year-round. (In fact, one of Thomas' first Porretta appearances made such an impression on residents that they named the area Rufus Thomas Park.) Spake is one of eight musicians in the Memphis All-Star Rhythm and Blues Band, as they are known at the Porretta festival. In addition to Thomas, the group has backed such artists as Chicago soul man Otis Clay and the "Soul Queen of New Orleans," Irma Thomas. Clearly, Spake thrives by working with others. He's never looked for his own gig, nor has he worried about ever being a marquee name. "I could never have made it in Nashville," Spake says, "where you're trying to push yourself, giving out your card." Rather, he adds jokingly, he's a good-sized fish, albeit in a "little pond" like Memphis. A longtime Memphian, Spake has been linked actively to music since attending Hillcrest High School in Whitehaven. While there, he studied under band director Jim Terry, who, according to Spake, is a "bad-ass woodwind killer," now living and working as a musician in Germany. Spake learned to play the flute and clarinet, in addition to the sax, and took private lessons from Terry as well. "If I was being an idiot, he'd tell me," Spake says of his early teacher. In addition to playing several instruments, Spake performed in various bands and musical groups, including the Hillcrest Norseman (a strong complement to the school's football team, the Vikings). After Hillcrest, Spake ventured north, to Boston's Berklee College of Music, where he studied with sax legends David Liebman, Bill Pierce and Steve Grossman. Within a year, however, Memphis beckoned him back. "I wanted to be back home, just playing," he says. For awhile, he had "tuxedo" jobs with groups like the Tony Barasso band. Along the way, though, he met some people who eventually "got him on the road with Jerry Lee Lewis." "I didn't know who he was. I thought, he's like evil or something," Spake says. Nevertheless, Spake, then in his late teens, went out to Las Vegas with Lewis and his entourage. "It was kind of a rough time for him," Spake says of Lewis. After the first show, Lewis' performance was so dismal that another band was called in as a replacement. For Spake, it was back to the tuxedo jobs. In the 1980s, he became more active in the local recording scene, doing jingle sessions and other commercial work, and various album projects. He received a string of accolades in the late '80s and early '90s when he was chosen for the Premier Woodwind Player Award by the Memphis Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Today, Spake continues to be in demand for contract orchestral work, backing up touring artists such as Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Charlie Rich and Johnny Mathis. Most recently, he's joined the horn section of the Accelerators, a Los Angeles-based backup band for Bruce Willis, who entertains on stage at Planet Hollywood restaurant openings. So far, Spake has played about 15 grand openings. Willis, who's a Planet Hollywood shareholder along with fellow actors Arnold Schwar-zenegger and Whoopie Goldberg, isn't a bad harp player, Spake says. "And I'm not just saying that. I don't think he'd consider himself to be one of the best, but he enjoys himself when he's on stage." Spake also hosts the "Thursdy House Party," beginning at 2 each Thursday afternoon, on WEVL FM- 90. It's the recording sessions, however, that perk Spake's interest. The chance to backup the likes of Toots Hibbert, Arthur Alexander and Screamin' Jay Hawkins on an immortal music medium like the CD fascinates Spake. As several CDs run on his own player, he seems almost reverent when he talks about his predecessors. "Fred Ford, he's the grandfather of sax players in Memphis," Spake says. "For awhile, I overlooked him. I thought he was some old guy. But I listened to him 15 years ago and thought, 'Wow!'" Spake ponders for a moment, then adds, "I've got to get a lesson from him." No matter how long he's around, Spake will be a self-professed student of his art. "I'm in awe of what's come before me," he says. "Even though I'm part of the pie, I feel like a have a place after these guys."
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