John Beifuss, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Published 8:00 a.m. CT Nov. 6, 2019 | Updated 10:43 a.m. CT Nov. 6, 2019
"The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England, in 1963."
That's the first sentence of the "Mellotron" entry on Wikipedia. Perhaps it doesn't help you.
Perhaps it might be more helpful to tell you the Mellotron is the instrument that provides the odd, ethereal, somewhat eerie, somewhat melancholy, somewhat orchestral and entirely otherworldly sound that is a signature of such mind-expanding and mood-altering 1960s recordings as the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever," the Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin," and King Crimson's "In the Court of the Crimson King."
Just as users don't need to be conversant with cellular technology to deploy their portable phones, audiences don't necessarily have to understand how a Mellotron works to appreciate its sound. That became apparent when Memphis music fans turned out by the hundreds for a series of Mellotron concerts hosted by Crosstown Arts and organized by longtime Mellotron collector Winston Eggleston and musician Robby Grant.
The first was "Duets for Mellotron," which took place in April, 2016, in the cozy Crosstown Arts space on North Cleveland. The event showcased performances and compositions by Grant and Jonathan Kirkscey, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra cellist who composed the score to the hit Mr. Rogers documentary, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"
That concert and the LP it produced were successful enough to spawn a sequel, leading to a more elaborate event last year in the East Atrium area of Crosstown Concourse. For that four-Mellotron show, Grant and Kirkscey were joined by Pat Sansone, from the band Wilco, and John Medeski, of the avant-jazz combo Medeski Martin & Wood. Eggleston and John Markham created visual and video projections to accompany the mysterious music, and the event was recorded and filmed.
The LP, a limited-edition record pressed on pink vinyl, was released this summer by Spaceflight Records. The concert documentary film — simply titled "Mellotron Variations" — has its premiere at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Crosstown Theater at Crosstown Concourse.
The movie was directed by Justin Elliott Thompson, director of film and video production for Crosstown Arts, who regularly captures the performances, talks and art shows presented by Crosstown. In fact, Thompson said, he has archived more than 600 videos since he began working for Crosstown Arts in 2011, six years before the grand opening of the Crosstown Concourse complex. Much of this material is made available via Vimeo, but Thompson said the Mellotron project was so well-received that it begged to be sculpted into feature concert-documentary form.
Thompson, 45, said the film — which lasts just under an hour — will include not only concert footage but rehearsal footage, interviews and other bits, some of which will help viewers understand how a Mellotron creates unique sounds with a keyboard mechanism that manipulates tape recordings of instruments (typically, cellos, violins and flutes) and voices. (Among the participants in the concert were Memphis teenagers Nicholas Allen and Jayla Kimbro, whose recorded voices became part of Medeski's music.) "It's basically a precursor to sampling," explained Grant, 46.
The concert itself was captured on three cameras, wielded by Thompson and Memphis filmmakers Kevin Brooks and Edward Valibus Phillips. Daniel Lynn created a surround-sound audio mix.
Because Mellotrons, which resemble organs, are so large and unwieldy, Mellotron concerts are not easy to organize. Nevertheless, this Memphis-made Mellotron revival has taken on a life of its own, leading to high-profile publicity — the National Public Radio program "All Things Considered" pondered "Mellotron Variations" this week — and performances in other cities. (The "Mellotron Variations" ensemble next performs Dec. 7 in OZ Arts in Nashville.)
"I approached the whole thing as just another way to write songs and create music," Grant said. "The Mellotron palette is pretty wide. It has a lot of options. Sometimes it's a little warbly and sometimes it's slightly out of tune, but it always sounds interesting."
'Mellotron Variations'
Concert documentary premiere, followed by question-and-answer session with the musicians and filmmakers. Plus, a new music video from the concert, "Into the Sunrise," by Benjamin Rednour.
7:30 p.m. Friday, Crosstown Theater, Crosstown Concourse.
Admission: free.
Visit crosstownarts.org or mellotronvariations.com.