E-Mail This Article to a Friend Mystery train NEC rides a theme out of Memphis BY TED DROZDOWSKI

Two weeks ago, New England Conservatory faculty member Scott Sandvik took his first trip to Memphis. To get into the spirit, he visited the Stax museum, the Rock ’n’ Soul Museum, pastor Al Green’s church, Sun Records, and the city’s last rough-and-tumble juke joint, Wild Bill’s. "But," he points out, "I’ve been to Memphis many times in my mind. It’s one of the most important centers of popular culture in the 20th century."

Memphis is a Pavlovian bell for hardcore music fans. Mention the name of the city perched on the Mississippi River’s bluffs and visions of old-time blues and soul-music drama flash in their heads, and meat eaters start salivating about plates of dry-rubbed ribs and pulled-pork sandwiches. It’s safe to say the New England Conservatory fits nowhere in such a mental landscape. But this Monday and Tuesday, Sandvik aims to move the school’s sonic geography a little farther south.

Sandvik is the architect of a "Homage to Memphis" that will explore the sounds of the city’s early urban-blues and ’60s/’70s soul scenes in an unusual context: as reflected through the free-form practice of the Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation Department. Sandvik, who is a guitarist, and other instructors including the department’s head, the respected jazz pianist Ran Blake, will be joined by Boston-based players Dennis Brennan, Duke Levine, and Kevin Barry, plus author Peter Guralnick and a coterie of students, for a program of performance and a discussion, both of them free to the public.

The homage kicks off on Monday with music at NEC’s Jordan Hall. Singer-songwriter Brennan will highlight the Memphis vocal tradition accompanied by guitarists Barry and Levine, the latter an NEC alum. Alto-saxist James Merenda, who leads the group the Masked Marvels, will play a solo rendition of Al Green’s "Let’s Stay Together." The NEC ensembles will concentrate on Memphis-bred instrumentals. Trombonist Joel Yennior, who teaches at the NEC’s prep school, will lead a group in the tunes of the Mar-Keys, the Bar-Kays, and Booker T. and the MG’s. Alto-saxist (and dean of faculty) Allan Chase will lead a tribute to the great Memphis trumpet player Booker Little, whose premature death ended what might have unfolded as one of jazz’s brightest careers. Sandvik and his students will perform 1920s string-band music by the Memphis Jug Band and Gus Cannon. And Blake will play his "Flashback ’67/’68," an impressionistic piece inspired by the end of the civil-rights struggle, Vietnam, and other aspects of that period in American culture. Guralnick, author of Sweet Soul Music and a definitive two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, will introduce the program, then return the next day at 4 p.m. to lead a question-and-answer session on Memphis music.

Of course, since the Contemporary Improvisation Department is running the show, don’t expect textbook versions of these tunes. "We’ll play things by ear," says Sandvik, "but we start by getting the students close to the original music, and once they’ve established the theme, they can go somewhere else." He jokes that it’s the first time a jug will be played in the Conservatory’s 100-year-old Jordan Hall, which is ordinarily home to jazz and classical performances. "It was quite a search to find a good resonant jug. I found a good one in an antiques store in Waltham. Every time I blew into one, I got dust in my face."

The NEC Contemporary Improvisation Department’s "Homage to Memphis" will offer a performance this Monday, February 23, at 8 p.m. in Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street in Boston. On February 24, Peter Guralnick leads a Q&A session in NEC’s Room 118 at 241 St. Botolph Street in Boston. Visit www.newenglandconservatory.edu/calendar or call (617) 585-1122.