Los Cabos is a Mexican Restaurant on Quince Road in the Hickory Hill neighborhood of Memphis. It’s not really a nightclub per se, but it has a history of booking good Black bands. Earlier in the year, Sidney Kirk’s band known as Everybody’s Favorite Band was playing on Tuesdays, and when my drummer friend Donnon Johnson told me he was filling in for a gig with the Black Fire Band there on a Thursday, I came out to check them out and to support.
Black bands in Memphis tend to work from the same playlist, but crowds don’t seem to mind. There is a body of songs that a certain generation of Memphians grew up on, calling it “pimpin’ music,” and this is the source of the bulk of cover songs played on restaurant and club gigs in Memphis’s Black neighborhoods. Johnnie Taylor, Frankie Beverly and Maze, Tyrone Davis, Willie Hutch, David Ruffin, Marvin Gaye and Al Green are the artists that motivate Memphis crowds. Memphis produces some of the best Black musicians in the world, but sadly it is hard to hear a lot of innovation. Memphis has a “grit and grind” image, and the musicians need to make money. The need for income has them playing what crowds want, not the obscure or original material they are undoubtedly capable of doing.
That being said, Black Fire is a decent and competent band. They kept their playlist close to what Memphians typically like, but delivered a very impressive reading of Willie Hutch’s “Love Power,” which is a classic Memphis anthem. It’s a message that Memphis singers deliver to crowds endlessly, as something the city desperately needs, and perhaps with the hope that love will conquer the hate that keeps Memphis neighborhoods so violent. We can feel the love in the venues and concerts, but sadly the message is not reaching the streets. At least not yet.