Thursdays – Pillars of Soul

2/12, Ira Miller will begin a new mini-series called the Pillars of Soul.  The first session, called The Roots of Soul: From Gospel and Blues to Rhythm and Blues, will take a look at the musical, cultural, and social foundations that shaped Soul Music, including the Great Migration, the Black church, early R&B, and the first artists who bridged sacred and secular sound.  For the each of the remaining sessions in the series, Ira will be comparing and contrasting pairs of studios/labels, such as Motown and Stax records, Philadelphia and Muscle Shoals, and Chicago Soul and Atlantic Records.

2/26, Ira Miller continues the series Pillars of Soul with a session called Motown and Stax:Two Poles of the Soul Spectrum.  This presentation will be a study of how Detroit’s polished Motown sound and Memphis’s raw Stax sound defined tgwo contrasting visions of soul, shaped by their founders, house bands, and iconic artists.