‘King of Soul Music Festival’ celebrating Otis Redding’s legacy slated for today, Saturday

Otis Redding would have been 82 this weekend and the occasion is being marked by the Otis Redding Foundation with its second annual “King of Soul Music Festival” today and Saturday.

Macon has declared the week Otis Redding Week and across Georgia, Saturday – his actual birthday – is Otis Redding Day.

Celebrations start this evening at 7 at the Macon City Auditorium when “An Evening of Respect” brings world-renowned artists to town to pay homage to Redding, and the foundation honors a handful of folks who’ve shown they share Redding and the foundation’s goal of making a difference in the world of entertainment and the lives of young people largely through education and opportunity.

Saturday, it’s the “Big ‘O’ Homecoming Show” at The Capitol Theatre, an evening to enjoy the music of Kendra Morris, Alanna Royale, Jackson Griffith and surprise guests while getting the chance to dance and make it a real birthday party. The idea of a homecoming show is a throwback to a tradition Redding began a few years prior to his death of putting on shows and featuring area performers when in town.

“We’ve had ‘An Evening of Respect’ since around 2007 but it’s just since last year we added the ‘Big “O” Homecoming Show” and made a weekend of it,” said Karla Redding-Andrews, Redding’s daughter and the foundation’s vice president and executive director. “Everyone had such a good time last year we decide to make it a regular thing.”

The two evenings provide outstanding entertainment and an opportunity to celebrate Redding as well as raise funds for the foundation and its mission to empower, enrich and motivate all young people through programs involving music and arts education, again harkening back to Redding’s own efforts and carried forward by his widow, Zelma Redding, first individually then by forming the foundation.

To that end, the foundation is currently building a facility in downtown Macon, the Otis Redding Center for the Arts, to greatly increase space for participants in foundation activities such as music lessons, workshops, camps, performance opportunities and other activities.

Andrews-Redding said hopes are it will be complete and ready to open as part of next year’s festival.

Honorees this year begin with prolific hip-hop artist, producer, songwriter and label executive Jermaine Dupri who will receive the Otis & Zelma Redding Award of Respect.

Internationally renowned symphony conductor Roderick Cox will get the Otis Redding Foundation DREAM Award. A Macon native, Cox was helped in the early stages of his life and career by the Reddings who provided him instruments and educational funding.

Benjy Griffith of the Griffith Foundation will receive the inaugural Otis Redding III Award of Philanthropy, given in the name of Redding’s son who died in April and was himself dedicated to serving causes like Meals on Wheels.

“Benjy has served our community so well through his giving and stepped up by giving the second $1 million donation for the new center aimed at scholarships for kids and the Zelma Redding amphitheater. The initial $1 million was given by Zelma, my mother. He and my mother have a special bond and he even worked for her as sort of an errand boy while he was a student at Mercer University. It’s an honor for us to honor him.”

The evening will be highlighted by the stellar lineup of Orchestra Noir, Rebel Rae, Jac Ross, Anderson East and the legendary Taj Mahal whose soulful blues roots have grown to include collaborations and genre explorations that show the many and varied contributions African-based people have made to music.

His latest album is called “Savoy,” with renditions of classic jazz tunes, favorites of his parents’ generation. Mahal’s jazz singing chops are surprising and as good as anything he’s done.

“Taj is a great friend of our family and was a great friend of my dad, even opening for him on tour,” Redding-Andrews said. “He means a lot to us and he and Otis III played a lot of music together. It’s a pleasure to have him with us again this year.”

Mahal released his first albums in the late 1960s with his towering figure on the cover of “Giant Step” prefiguring the shadow of influence he would cast on multitudes of listeners and artists through decades to come.

That includes another Macon connection since a near-copying of Mahal’s version of “Statesboro Blues” provided the Allman Brothers Band with one of their signature songs and it was hearing the groundbreaking slide guitar work of Mahal’s sideman, Jesse Ed Davis, a Native American of Muscogee, Comanche and Seminole ancestry, that sent Duane Allman scurrying to learn to play slide, copying many of Davis’ licks.

Tickets for both events and more information about the Otis Redding Foundation, its work and the new center are at www.otisreddingfoundation.org. Tickets for each evening will also be available at the door.

From her perspective as event organizer and friend of many of the weekend’s performers, Redding-Andrews probably summed up her dad’s celebration weekend best. “It’s going to be amazing,” she said.

While you’re out and about this weekend downtown or heading to “King of Soul Music Festival” events, you’ll likely see a handful of muralists at work. They’re part of the weekend’s inaugural Macon Mural Festival which is bringing a half dozen artists to town to show off their creativity at cooperating sites and businesses.

If you want to make the most of it today and Saturday, you’ll find Will Barker of Denver working at the Skate Park at Carolyn Crayton Park; Christian Stanley of Winter Springs, Fla., at Fall Line Brewery; Allison Dunavant of Johns Island, South Carolina, and Christine Crawford of Columbia, South Carolina, at Oliver’s Corner Bistro; Carlos Jefferson of McDonough,, at Synovus Bank; and Nicole Merizalde of Lawrenceville, at Triangle Arts.

Saturday from 6:30-8 p.m. there’s a meet-the-artists “Mural Festival Celebration” at Triangle Arts. It’s free, open to the public and, for Macon Arts Alliance members and event sponsors, there’s a special VIP area.

Information is at www.maconartsalliance.org/macon-mural-festival.

And a final mark-your-calendar note: next weekend is the annual Indigenous Celebration at Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park and also the Fire Starters Festival downtown featuring an Indigenous film festival and art show plus a benefit concert by the Indigo Girls. You can expect more on each here next week but can go to www.ocmulgeepark.org/events now for information and ticketing links.

Contact Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.