Wayne Jackson: A life in music

Wayne Jackson: A life in music

One half of legendary Memphis Horns remembered

West Memphis School District West Memphis music legend Wayne Jackson passed away last Tuesday at age 74 of congestive heart failure.

Jackson, a graduate of West Memphis High School, was a legendary trumpet player whose career swept across the top of the pop, rock and soul charts of the 1960s, '70s and '80s, playing on such gigantic hit records like Otis Redding's Dock of the Bay, Elvis' Suspicious Minds, Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline and Steve Winwood's Roll With It Baby, just to name a very few.

'He was a beautiful soul who touched the world with his trumpet,' said his wife of 25 years, Amy, who met Wayne in West Memphis while working as a reporter for the Evening Times.

'…I lost my husband and best friend … Wayne and I shared 25 magical and amazing years together. As we mourn his passing, we also celebrate his incredible musical legacy, which he leaves with us.'

Among the many highlights of Jackson's career included a performance at the historical Monterey Pop Festival in California in the Summer of Love, 1967. He played in Redding's band.

'We blew the Love crowd away at the Monterey Pop,' Jackson recalled recently.

'We hit the stage in our custom Mohair suits and knocked those hippies out!

What a wonderful memory.'

Jackson teamed with saxophonist Andrew Love, who died in 2014, to form the Memphis Horns, a group that musical legends clamored for in their studio sessions in the 1960s.

Jackson and Love were awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys in February of 2012.

Jackson's brass was still glowing brightly by the 1980s when he was approached by U2 frontman Bono to play on the group's album Rattle and Hum, some of which was recorded at Sun Records Recording Studio in Memphis. The sessions were included in U2's film documentary by the same title in 1988.

Jackson was raised in West Memphis, where his mother bought him his first trumpet at age 11. He played in the WMHS band, under the direction of Phil Vance, and then made his way into the pop-recording business in the early 1960s with the group the Mar-Keys, whose first hit record was Last Night.

'Wayne loved West Memphis,' Amy added. 'That's where it all started for him. In recent years Jackson teamed up with Academies of West Memphis band director Cathy Williams and her marching band for several performances at halftime of football games that brought the wow factor.

'Wayne loved giving back his talent to the students in the West Memphis band program,' Williams said.

'My friend inspired our band kids his 'where this love affair trumpet has taken him' stories. His trio of books entitled 'In My Wildest Dreams' revealed to all of us that through hard work to use the talent from God that anything is possible.'

His wife Amy, met Jackson through Evening Times reporter John Wood, on his second tour of duty with the paper. Wood was the paper's sports editor from 1977-83.

'John told me a musician friend of his was coming through West Memphis and that he'd like to introduce me to him,' Amy said.

'There was an electrical current when we shook hands. He asked me out the next night and nine months later we got married.'

Amy's mother, Eunice Tenent, was a big Redding and Aretha Franklin fan.

'She knew of Wayne's work very well,' Amy said. Jackson played on 80 certified gold records in his career. He and Amy lived in mid-town Memphis six years before moving to Nashville, where they lived

14 years. The couple moved back to the area in 2010 and lived in Memphis' Harbor Town, not 10 minutes from Jackson's West Memphis home.

Funeral services will be 11 a.m.

today at Grace St. Luke's, and the burial will be at Memphis' famed Elmwood Cemetary.

By Billy Woods