best overall
Story By Mike Overall, Photo By Terah Shear

When proprietor and owner Ann Williams opened The Edge Coffee House at 1900 Aggie Road in March 2001, she created a couple of “firsts” for the city. Not only could customers enjoy a full range of flavored coffee-based drinks and the attendant victuals, they could also avail themselves of a venue that, once it was remodeled and decorated, featured an ambience that was conducive to the performance of live music and other entertainment offerings.

Williams, a Jonesboro native and former corporate lawyer in New York City (her offices were in the ultimately doomed World Trade center), worked hard and diligently to create that ambience. With her flair for the decorative arts combined with her passion for good music and quality entertainment, she envisioned The Edge as a very special culinary oasis, one that would cater to a versatile clientele. She wanted her restaurant to become a haven for stimulating conversation, for small business and professional gatherings, and for a cornucopia of musical styles whose performers could flourish in an intimate setting that would complement what at the time was an offbeat establishment with a somewhat bohemian flair.

Today, The Edge is but one of numerous coffee houses that do business in the city. And several of them feature live entertainment. But Williams’ establishment has become increasingly popular with musicians of all stripes, some of whom regard it as a haven for their particular style of music because there are so few venues in Jonesboro that regularly book, for example, classical and jazz musicians, as well as the occasional Broadway review show.

On a personal note, I am grateful that The Edge and Ann have such an open-minded attitude toward music, because in a city the size of Jonesboro, and even in nearby Memphis, jazz musicians have very few venues where they feel comfortable playing what I regard as America’s Classical Music. And just for the record, the jazz quintet I have fronted for several years, Giant Steps (featuring Craig Baker, trumpet; Joy Sanford, piano; Tom Mason, bass; Mike Overall, drums; and vocalist Lisa Ahia), was the first band to perform at the coffee house.

Another jazz group that has played many gigs at The Edge, the Rob Alley Trio (Alley on trumpet, ASU percussion instructor Craig Collison on drums and bassist Derek Doyle), has developed a loyal following for its no-holds-barred brand of contemporary and traditional jazz.

“Creative musicians love to work in a venue that gives them the freedom to express themselves to the fullest extent of their abilities,” said leader Alley. “And The Edge is the closest thing Jonesboro has to a jazz club, where the ambience is such that the patrons feel comfortable listening to music that is not oriented to dancers. While there is definitely a place for more commercial music in the city, our group draws its creative inspiration from the empathy we develop among ourselves, in an atmosphere that gives us the freedom to play noncommercial music for an audience that appreciates a very special art form.”

Numerous instrumentalists and vocalists have enjoyed the creative experience of performing at “Ann’s place,” because Williams makes no demands on them as to what they should and should not perform on the bandstand. “Ann Williams is the perfect owner to play for,” one performer said, “because she maintains a hands-off policy where creative music is concerned. She just loves good music, no matter what the style or genre.... Not once has she ever told us to get more commercial with our music. The freedom to express oneself is of vital importance to the creative process in music, and at The Edge, the freedom we have is virtually boundless.”

The Edge has developed a solid customer base that is as varied and diversified as the music and the musicians who perform there. Many ASU students and faculty members congregate at the restaurant on a regular basis, as do local business and professional types, local and area politicians (Williams is a member of the Jonesboro City Council.), book lovers who enjoy a quiet environment conducive to reading, and computer owners who use their laptops to pursue their studies or work on business or personal projects.

“As a business owner who loves her work, I feel fortunate that The Edge has become a regular gathering place for a variety of people who, regardless of their age, their business or professional interests, or their enthusiasm for the fine arts, experience a degree of comfort and relaxation when they stop by for a meal, or just a cup of coffee,” Williams said.”

From a musical perspective, The Edge has provided its customers with several notable productions and highlights through the years.

An overflow crowd was present the night Giant Steps paved the way for jazz groups to perform.

On several occasions, Matt Carey of ASU produced “Cabaret Night” performances of Broadway music featuring vocalists and instrumentalists from Arkansas State’s music department.

One picture-perfect evening several years ago, hundreds of music lovers gathered on the front lawn to hear a concert by world-class trumpeter and ASU graduate Gary Gazaway of Pocahontas and his retinue of superb musicians. The concert was broadcast by KASU-FM, the broadcasting service of ASU.
Acoustic performers Carol Plunk, Kim Richardson and Andrews Sullivan have performed on numerous occasions. The head of ASU’s jazz studies program, trumpeter Dr. Ron Horton, and many of his students are also regulars.

On a recent evening, some original members of the Sea Monsters, a contemporary band that has since been reconfigured as the highly popular group Plain Meanness, provided a memorable evening of music.
Jazz players, bluesmen, classical musicians, folk balladeers, rockabilly artists, “fusion music” performers and such exponents of contemporary music as performers Greg Arnold, Jim Gramling, Phillip Jackson – they along with many other players and singers have gravitated to The Edge for the simple reason that Williams, her restaurant and her customers welcome them and their music with open arms and ears.

“It seems as if there’s always music in the air at The Edge,” said Williams, who was graduated from Wake Forest University and who later received her law degree at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. “And when you take a look around and see what’s hanging on our walls, it’s also immediately obvious that we are open and receptive to painters and other visual artists who want the public to see their works.”

One sad and tragic note must be mentioned. On one wall hangs a photograph of the late Xander Smith, a young and superbly talented musician who several years ago was killed in a tragic automobile crash on the Memphis-Arkansas bridge. The memorial to Smith is fitting and proper, Williams said, because he was an Edge fixture, and a beloved one, whose blossoming career as a uniquely talented musician was cut short and silenced forever in a split-second moment of tragedy.

“Xander’s spirit and his music still live here at The Edge,” Williams said. “He was a wonderful young man whose memory I and others who knew him will cherish for the rest of our days. When musicians are performing in here, his photograph and the memories it evokes remind us of his wonderful talent and the grace of spirit he possessed until the day he was taken from us.”

One final note: On two recent occasions, a choral group and their leader from the small-but-progressive Magnolia Road Baptist Church (whose pastor is Williams’ father, Emil Williams) gathered around the piano to rehearse their music for the ensuing Sunday service. No offense was taken by those customers who were present, the ones for whom The Edge is an epicenter of sorts for alternative music whose normal realm is the secular.

Not even old church hymns are off-limits in a coffee house where, years ago, the seeds of a fertile creative environment were planted with loving care and attention.