Rufus performs an average of 30 shows and 90 sets each year and continues to write and record original songs for his milestone project and fantasy, “100 Songs in 100 Days,” a multi-media global education, art, and literature tour to record 100 originals over 100 days in Rufus’ favorite famous sound recording studios with celebrity and local musicians and with fans inside the studios with real-time access to the songwriting, music recording, and production and mastering process. Since 1994, when he put a “period” on his first song, Rufus has written and recorded or uploaded from cassettes nearly 70 original songs on his way to 100 on Apple’s GarageBand for Mac. Rufus has a vision that includes working with Vaneese Thomas and Marc Willis and people such as Rob Mathes, James Taylor, Sting, David Porter, Al Green, Booker T., Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, Gladys Knight, Bonnie Raitt, Janet Jackson, Diana Ross, Carole King, Mary J. Blige, Nicole Henry, Nile Rodgers, Pete Malinverni, Miley Cyrus, David Grohl, and Ekpe and their friends to record 4 songs in 5 hours similar to Chet Atkins in legendary studios around the world, including RCA Studio B, Abbey Road Studio One, Stax, Sun, Motown, Capitol, Electric Lady, Power Station, Muscle Shoals, Columbia, Dungeon, Trident, Headley, Black Ark, and Music Lair. Rufus will work and document in an “audiophile manner” just as Rob Mathes describes in his liner notes for his album Flesh and Spirit with “musicians playing together at the same time” to capture a true sound that is immediate, inspiring, “real and unique.” Rufus shares his autobiographical stories and songs based on historical events through a repertoire of originals, blues, soul and folk songs in a way that resonates with people in Memphis, New England, New York/New Jersey, Chicago, Massachusetts and beyond.
“After making Sound City, I realized that the pairing of music and documentary works well because the stories give substance and depth to the song, which makes for a stronger emotional connection. So I thought, ‘I want to do this again, but instead of just walking into a studio and telling its story, I want to travel across America and tell its story.’” - Dave Grohl
On February 27, 2019, while attending Jazz Pianist and SUNY Program Head of Jazz Studies Pete Malinverni’s “Lift Ev’ry Voice” celebration concert of Black History at Purchase College, Vaneese Thomas asked me after the event, “Do you know Rob Mathes?” I had no response. “You should check him out,” she continued without missing a beat. The next day a did some research and listened to Rob Mathes online and read his liner notes posted on his website. And this is what I discovered:
“I told Joe I wanted to make a record with the same sonic quality of Evening Train and other things I've done that are documented in an audiophile manner, yet a record recorded with all the musicians playing together at the same time and where I am singing the final vocal while we do it. My goal was to never overdub even a single vocal line later with the exception of some background vocals. The reason many of the great old records, from Sinatra to the early Beatles stuff and ALL the truly iconic blues recordings, sound so immediate is because the musicians respond to each other and play off each other, each one inspiring and cajoling the other onto something better than the sum of their parts. By tuning every vocal note and moving snare drum and bass drum hits so that they are exactly on the beat, you get music made on a grid. After a while some of this music dates badly because it is easy to make something perfect nowadays, yet not so easy to make it real and unique.” – Rob Mathes
Around the same time in early 2019, I listened to interviews of Lady Gaga and Spike Lee on Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, respectively, and read a Mark Ronson quote in The Wall Street Journal Magazine:
“If you work hard and you don’t give up, you can do anything.” - Lady Gaga
“Very early on in film school, because my professors would mess with me, I never wanted to have people validate my work. Whether it be my professors, critics, the Oscars. You know, I know what I want to do. I just wanted to have within my life to build up a body of work. And now I’m going into my fourth decade. I said in film school at NYU grad film school, “I’m not gonna let anybody give them the power to validate my work." Yeah, wasn’t having it…but, but oh, it feels good. It feels good. It feels good.” - Spike Lee
“Just keep creating — eventually you’ll find your voice.” - Mark Ronson
The Making of a Rufus Jones Original Song: “BEAUTIFUL BY THE YEAR”
BEAUTIFUL BY THE YEAR is a Rufus Jones Commission on behalf of the James Weldon Johnson Foundation
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