MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2021 Regular Session
To: Rules
By: Senator(s) Horhn, Blount, Michel, Norwood, Frazier, Chassaniol, Fillingane, Jackson (32nd)
A RESOLUTION EXTENDING THE RECOGNITION OF THE MISSISSIPPI SENATE TO MUSICIAN'S MUSICIAN RAPHAEL SEMMES AS THE RECIPIENT OF THE 2021 GOVERNOR'S ARTS AWARD AS MISSISSIPPI CULTURAL AMBASSADOR.
WHEREAS, the Governor's Arts Awards Program has announced its 2021 recipients, which includes Raphael Semmes as Mississippi Cultural Ambassador; and
WHEREAS, established in 1988, Governor's Arts Awards are given to individuals and organizations to recognize outstanding work in the artistic disciplines, as well as arts-based community development and arts patronage in Mississippi. The awards are presented in partnership with the Governor's Office and signify the important relationship between government and the arts; and
WHEREAS, Raphael Semmes is a musician's musician. He first picked up a guitar as a boy in Grenada, raised by parents who nurtured his love for all music by exposing him to rock and roll, country, blues and jazz; and
WHEREAS, as a college student in the 1970s, he was tapped to play with the faculty Jazz Quartet at the University of Mississippi. There he earned the nickname "Radar" due to his natural talent for finding the right notes and knowing what to play without reading a musical score; and
WHEREAS, after short stints as a working musician in Los Angeles and Memphis, Semmes came home and dove head first into playing music and promoting Mississippi's culture at home and abroad; and
WHEREAS, in the early 1980s, Raphael Semmes helped cultivate a live local music scene in Jackson as bass player with Sassy Jones and These Days with Jewell Bass and Nice Try; and
WHEREAS, many popular musical artists have called on Semmes to play with them, including Mississippi Jazz and Blues legends Mose Allison and John Lee Hooker. He toured internationally with Katie Webster, Vasti Jackson and Dorothy Moore. He was a member of the first band to play behind the Iron Curtain in the 1980s with Joe Frank Carollo and George Sandifer. The second group to do this was Joan Jett; and
WHEREAS, Semmes has represented the best that Mississippi music has to offer by organizing talent for Governors' inaugurations, writing and performing an original song for a state tourism campaign, producing music festivals, and performing his "Mississippi Live" show; and
WHEREAS, today, Raphael Semmes continues to produce and perform in the Township Jazz Festival, which he cofounded. He plays live jazz regularly at Table 100 and Hal and Mal's in addition to hosting the Fusion Coffeehouse Jazz Series. He is the long-time leader of the Governor's Arts Awards Combo; and
WHEREAS, it is with great pride that we pay tribute and express appreciation for the talent of a world-class musician who has made Mississippi a better place and exemplifies the musical traditions of our great state:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, That we do hereby extend the recognition of the Mississippi Senate to Raphael Semmes, the recipient of the 2021 Governor's Arts Award as Mississippi Cultural Ambassador, and extend our congratulations to this mighty musician on this auspicious occasion.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be presented to Raphael Semmes as part of the Governor's Arts Awards presentation, and made available to the Capitol Press Corps.