Two new articles on JBJ
Jake Rabinbach was wasting away in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood when he decided to come to Memphis and start an R&B band.
The son of a Princeton history prof who raised him right on Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf records, Rabinbach had long had designs on a music career but wasn’t sure how to make it happen. He spent two years at Wesleyan University in Connecticut but split for New York, in part, because he thought it would help him further his music goals. Instead, he watched former Wesleyan classmates and friends Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden (son of Flyer editor Bruce VanWyngarden) strike it big when they took their college band — MGMT — global.
“I loved it there but wanted to move on,” Rabinbach says of Wesleyan. “I was young and had a lot of ideas about being successful in the music field, and it seemed to me that Wesleyan wasn’t the route to do that.”
Rabinbach will try to follow in the footsteps of his more famous classmates this month when his little Memphis R&B band, Jump Back Jake, releases its debut album, Brooklyn Hustle / Memphis Muscle for Ardent Music. (continue reading…)
Back to the future for Jump Back Jake
By Bob Mehr, GoMemphis.com
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Earlier this year, the U.K.’s Big Beat Records released Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story, a two-CD compilation that’s been one of 2008’s most widely hailed reissues.
The disc documents the music spawned by the famed Memphis studio, Ardent, and its offshoot label, highlighting the company’s glory days in the late-’60s and early-’70s.
Now, Ardent is looking to recapture some of that magic. After a long hiatus, the company is getting back into the pop music business with a new imprint called Ardent Music, and its inaugural release, Brooklyn Hustle / Memphis Muscle, the debut album by local rock-soul combo Jump Back Jake. The band will celebrate the release of the disc with a show at the Hi-Tone Café tonight. (continue reading…)
