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Jeff Liles at his Oak Cliff home, Thursday, March 24, 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Guy Reynolds\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Countless concert promoters boost musicians\u2019 careers. Far fewer wind up immortalized by one.<\/p>\n
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But that\u2019s what happened to Jeff Liles<\/a>, whose likeness is now cast in bronze, thanks to Edie Brickell<\/a>, his longtime friend. The Oak Cliff-born singer commissioned a bust of a serious-looking Liles, resplendent in trademark dreadlocks, that was installed recently next to the Kessler Theater<\/a>, the O.C. music hall where he\u2019s artistic director.<\/p>\n \u201cHonoring Jeff Liles and his heart full of dreams for the Dallas music scene,\u201d reads the plaque in front of the head-and-shoulders sculpture. Liles was one of the scruffy impresarios who gave Brickell & New Bohemians<\/a> their early Dallas gigs in the mid-\u201980s, booking them into the Theatre Gallery, Prophet Bar and Club Dada.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cJeff was a kid when we were kids playing in Deep Ellum. He treated us all as well as any nationally known touring band,\u201d Brickell said Wednesday from Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, where she was about to perform with her husband, Paul Simon<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd all through the years, he’s invited us to return and play at the Kessler. His belief in all of us has been an enduring gift.\u201d<\/p>\n The bust of Jeff Liles outside the Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff.<\/p>\n Heather Ezell<\/p>\n Liles initially thought Brickell was kidding when she mentioned creating a bust of him a few months ago. Now that it\u2019s done, he calls it \u201can incredible honor.\u201d<\/p>\n But he also admits the whole thing is a bit surreal. \u201cI hope people don\u2019t think that I passed away or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cOn a personal level, Edie has always been like my guardian angel,\u201d Liles said. \u201cI won\u2019t get into specifics, but she has either directly or indirectly saved my life more than once. She really has a sixth sense when it comes to that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Artist Louie Zakarian, longtime head of the\u00a0SNL makeup department, sculpted Liles\u2019 likeness, which was cast in bronze by Pyrology Foundry in Bastrop. Kessler Theater owner Edwin Cabaniss<\/a> donated the courtyard space, while Heather Ezell, Brickell\u2019s friend, designed a fountain next to the bust.<\/p>\n \u201cSince everybody loves a fountain, I wanted to make a fountain with a sculpture of Jeff,\u201d Brickell said. \u201cAlso it makes the birds happy, so you’ll always hear singing around him.\u201d<\/p>\n The plaque in front of the bust of Jeff\u00a0Liles outside the Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff.<\/p>\n Heather Ezell<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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