Rock and roll was like a nursery rhyme to Raphael Semmes growing up in Grenada. He was one, two, three o’clock, four o’clock rocked throughout his childhood years with the most popular music that flooded the airwaves of 1950s and ’60s radio. Semmes’ father loved jazz, and his mother was a talented singer who loved live performances, encouraging his healthy appetite for strings. Listening to blues, jazz, and later R&B was more than entertainment for Semmes.

“I was kind of hoping you would be a lawyer or something,” Semmes recalled from a conversation with his mother. “I said, ‘Mom, you took me to see Elvis when I was five. You took me to see The Beatles when I was 10, and we went because you liked them. So this right here is all your fault.’”

“This right here” happens to be bass player Raphael Semmes of Raphael Semmes Quartet, winner of the Jackson Music Awards and Jazz Group of the Year for 2023. Semmes was the Music Director of Wells Fest for more than three decades. He has performed jazz all over Jackson since the 1980s, currently including Hal & Mals once a week, hosts the Fusion Coffee House Jazz Series at Soule once a month, Sundays at Table 100, and is a guest artist with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra for Sundown at Renaissance. That’s just the recent activity.

“I’m living my best life,” said 70-year-old Semmes, co-founder of the Township Jazz Festival.

During Semmes’ college days at Ole Miss, he started booking gigs in the Delta and Memphis. Those gigs got bigger and farther away, making him a frequent performer in Los Angeles. Eventually, it became extensive travel around the country and then into Canada, Europe, and Japan.

This wasn’t the schedule of a college student, but Semmes has no regrets. He is a road scholar with a master’s in touring the world. He’s come a long way from the guitar he received from Santa Claus, which he picked the treble strings off to play along as his sister listened to Motown hits.

“I wasn’t cool like Hendrix, so I just took the right-handed guitar and started picking out those baselines. Eventually, I got a bass.”

Semmes has never missed a musical beat. He started a band as a child. Playing music from the Top 40 radio, with the oldest member being 12. He’s used those skills to build on the powerhouse music industry in Jackson, winning numerous awards and working with WellsFest Cares to fund donations to musicians in need. Mississippi is the birthplace of music, and Semmes wants everyone to remember that jazz is a big part of that.

“People always say, I just don’t know if I can get into jazz,” said Semmes. “And I tell them jazz is just blues that swings.”