By Taylor Adams Cogan
Live music has a way of making someone fall in love with it. In the best possible way, of course, making someone yearn to feel the vibrating bass run through them and the melody that won’t let their body stop moving. Deep Ellum venues each have that pull, working together to create a neighborhood that consistently draws people back time and again.
For Jay Gavit, nothing will keep him away. Growing up in Michigan, then El Paso, he attended the University of Texas at El Paso to earn a business degree, then promptly escaped the desert for Dallas.
“I thought Dallas was exciting. I started coming to Deep Ellum, attending shows in the early ‘90s — they had the coolest concerts, the best venues, and the best bookings,” he says.
Music had started to excite him at this point in his life, and the bands he followed were making tour stops in Deep Ellum.
“It was a lot of fond memories, including Oasis, Fishbone, the Damned, U.K. Subs. Deep Ellum kind of embraced punk and alternative, and that’s definitely what drew me in initially, the live, touring bands,” he says.
Through the decades, Deep Ellum has been his second home, as it is for many who can’t keep themselves away. He lives in Garland and has what he calls “a muggle job,” but still “easily and cheerfully” makes it to the entertainment district two to three times a week.
”I feel a spirit of independent creativity in Deep Ellum, and that’s reflected in the bands and the murals, but also inside the venues, almost any night, you can see burlesque and drag, and live musical artists and performances,” he says. “I think that teaches the community.”
Jay kept showing up throughout the neighborhood, which caught the attention of Jim Rogers of the Deep Ellum Community Association. Jim kept inviting Jay to DECA meetings, nudging Jay through his excuses until he finally took up the invitation.
”I realized that a great group and volunteers really make a community,” he says of his joining the board. “I had to be part of it. I don’t ever see myself not being part of DECA now, and I hope they’ll keep me.”
He hopes to see more music, live bands, DJs, drag, and an expansion of the Deep Ellum Community Arts Fair. He also imagines a community that can be better for people to walk and bike, filled with more trees.
Whatever the future holds, he knows it will continue to be a place of giving.
“What I mean by that is, years ago, we did free COVID testing. We have the Narcan initiative. I think these steps make our community strong,” he says. “It’s always the area where the marginalized were pushed and always got along with each other.”
His work with DECA is to keep Deep Ellum diverse, sustainable, and a cultural, independent, and artistic place.
”I kind of see Deep Ellum as a sort of greenhouse. We help people thrive,” he says. “It needs constant maintenance, a greenhouse does, it needs constant care and cleaning.”
Like many others, Jay remembers Deep Ellum decades ago, when it held on to more grit. While some, he says, compare today to the 1990s, he acknowledges that times change. Buildings go up, businesses come and go. But some businesses stay, neighbors invest, some history is still standing, and, sure, a festival experience can be different year to year.
“DECA’s job is important, to keep that heartbeat of the bohemian, independent artistry flourishing,” he says.
”I really see a wonderful future for our little community. We’re not our own city. We’re a small community, and we encourage cool music and murals and art and expressions.”
