Originally, I had just planned to go downtown and see my friends Joshua McCain and the Soul Seven, who were playing at a bar called The Greyhound in the Hilton Garden Inn on Union Avenue, But it turned out that there was a lot more going on in downtown Memphis on a Wednesday night. The Downtown Memphis Association was having a block-long outdoor dinner with a table and chairs that spanned the entire city block and the tantalizing fragrance of roasting chicken, and the Memphis Grizzlies were having their season opener at the FedEx Forum. And there was the final Alley Dayz event of the year, in the block of Beale between the Orpheum and the new parking garage across the street. So long had I been away from downtown Memphis, I did not even realize that garage had been built. When last I was there, it was a surface lot.
Alley Dayz is sort of an evening street market, with local vendors selling everything from ball caps to artwork to T-shirts, homemade soaps and desserts. But there is also a stage of live music, and the evening’s main feature, after an opening by the Grizz Drumline, was trombonist/rapper Suavo J and the M-Town Band. Unlike a lot of Memphis bands, the M-Town band plays only original music. It features a female singer, and Suavo rapping and doing spoken word poetry. The material is generally uplifting and positive. I noticed my friend of many years El Hakim playing congas. Unfortunately, not long after they began their performance, my camera batteries died, forcing me to leave and run to the Dollar General store on the Main Street Mall for a new supply.