Richard Cushing spends his days at the Laboratory of the Center for Health Sciences at the University of Tennessee, helping to unravel the mysteries of Alzheimer’s disease. But at night and the weekend, he heads the popular group of Memphis Freeworld, playing on Beale Street and in other sites at least five times a week.
“Studying biology during the day and playing music at night is something that I did almost as long as I can remember,” says Cushing.
The contrast between science and music may seem austere, but to run, these are the two faces of the same medal, both motivated by curiosity, discipline and the pursuit of something greater than oneself. With his deep passion for the two areas, Cushing played a role in promoting illness understanding while developing a locally renowned group which recently released its eighth album acclaimed by criticism.
Cushing started working as a research assistant at the UT Health Science Center in 1989, studying diseases, notably Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Autism under Daniel Goldowitz, PHD, former professor of anatomy and neurobiology. After Dr. Goldowitz has left university, Cushing worked in different laboratories for a few years before moving on to business laboratory work. He spent nine years there, but said he never felt comfortable in this context after working in a university for more than two decades.
“Here, at Ut Health Science Center, I am not the smartest guy in the building, which means that I learn a lot,” he said. “In corporate work, I was the most experienced guy there. I was a coach and teacher, so I was able to transmit a lot of my knowledge to people, but you don’t always learn something when you teach. “”
With the help of Robert Williams, PHD, president of Department of Genetics, Genomics and ITCushing returned to the UT Health Science Center in 2023 and joined the laboratory of assistant professor David Ashbrook, Phd. The main objective of the laboratory is Alzheimer’s disease, and Cushing performs a variety of laboratory and research procedures using molecular biology techniques. Work is not only a professional prosecution, but a way to understand and potentially confront a disease that Cushing has seen dear beings on both sides of his family.
“All my father’s brothers and sisters had Alzheimer’s disease, and my mother is currently in a healthcare facility in Alzheimer’s memory,” he said. “So research is for the general public and all the people who have this insidious disease, but it is also for me at this stage, because I know that there is a genetic component.”
While Cushing has had a successful career in the laboratory, music has always been a constant presence. He has played in groups since he was at the University of the University of Tennessee in Martin. He founded Freeworld In 1987, and with the legendary saxophonist Herman Green, PhD, he made the group an essential on the music scene of Memphis.
“Herman put our group on Beale Street. He took us under his wing and taught us not only to make music, but to connect music to an audience, to deal with clubs and to be paid, ”explains Cushing. “He was my mentor, and when my father died, he became my substitution father.”
For over 37 years, Freeworld has entertained Memphians and tourists with their music defying the genre. During a freeworld set, the public can hear several musical styles – rock, soul, blues, funk, jazz, gospel, reggae, and even more – with a wide range of influences such as Booker T. & The Mg’s, Steely Dan, Chicago, John Coltrane and Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Grade Dead and Bob Marley.
“We were described as the best of Memphis, New Orleans, San Francisco and Jamaica, all wrapped together,” explains Cushing. “We have never particularly taken care to try to make us socks in a kind of particular music. We play Freeworld Music.
The group of nine pieces is made up of a diversified group of musicians and includes a section of Cor and a rhythmic section with Cushing on the bass guitar. More than 100 musicians have traveled the group, leaving Cushing as the only original member remaining. However, he says that the group has retained its identity during the decades. “Even after all these years, he feels and sounds roughly the same as when the group started,” he said.
Freeworld released his eighth album “More Love” in November. As in the group’s other discs, words share positive and edifying messages in the hope of giving the listener a feeling of happiness and the desire to create love and respect for others. The album received positive criticisms nationally and international, and it reached n ° 1 on the Roots Music Report R&B album chart.
The group’s status as a Beale Street base was officially recognized in 2012 when Freeworld received a coveted brass note on the fame of Beale Street brass notes. Beyond its local success, Cushing says that the protruding facts of the group’s 37 years include the game at festivals across the United States and the tour in Europe twice. In addition, the group of the group for the song “D-UP (here to diversity)” was honored at the film festivals of the world
Despite the requirements of his research and musical careers, Cushing remains deeply attached to everyone. He likes that the differences between the two disciplines allow him to use the two sides of his brain – the left side for logic and analysis, and the right side for the creative and the emotional. He notes that many scientists often have a creative outlet – by Albert Einstein, who played the violin, to Brian May, who obtained a doctorate in astrophysics while playing the guitar for Queen. In addition, Cushing says that the skills acquired in one of his passions often help him to improve in certain aspects of the other.
“I have very well developed a fine motor skills in my hands and very strong forearms,” he says. “In addition, I have to pay particular attention to the details of music in general and the low guitar in particular, and these attributes help me a lot in the laboratory while I use pipetters, the implementation of experiences and help with other laboratory tasks on a daily basis.”
Juggling with his research career with an active musical life – at the top of maintaining a happy marriage and raising two now cultivated sons – kept occupied Cushing, but he found a rhythm that works. As for his future, he hopes that few will change in the coming years. “I’m not trying to retire so early, and I don’t want the concerts to disappear anytime soon,” he said. “I managed to work in a comfortable situation, it’s good and that works. Let us continue to roll.
Without a plan to slow down, Cushing will continue to move between the worlds of science and music, where he can count on his curiosity and his creativity to make him move forward. “I always feel, especially when I’m on stage, as if I was 24 years old,” he says. “There is still magic, wonder, the joy of it. And when I came back here two years ago, it was the same thing – magic, joy, exuberance, the boiling to be back home at the UT Health Science Center, where I started my career in 1989. “