Before all the names, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Jean Knight, Wilson Picket, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas or Wendy Rene, and the millions of singles and albums they’ve sold, it should be about the sound walk. And about the genre-defining groove. This always very minimally distorted, somehow overpowered and nevertheless incredibly precise sound that the artists of the Stax label had.
Of course the sound was the result of the brilliant musicians in the house band. It was also a result of the space: the former Capitol Theater in South Memphis – the stage converted into a recording room, the instrumentalists in the sloping auditorium. But the sound was also the result of two very clever (possibly also latently insane) business decisions.
Jim Stewart, the label’s founder, who died on Monday, had not only established a permanent band. He also gave this band a say – with the arrangements anyway, but also before that, with the selection of the songs and the artists. Anyone who has ever had anything to do with a larger group of musicians can imagine how easily too much participation can go horribly wrong.
Stax was an “island of color blindness” – freedom amid hate
Just like the composition of the core of the house band, Booker T & The MG’s: two black musicians and two white ones. In the middle of Memphis, Tennessee, where the horrific racism and racial segregation still prevailed in the 60s. Steve Cropper, the MG’s guitarist, said in a conversation last year that Stax’s importance – not just to the music but to American culture itself – had something to do with the label space being an “island of color blindness” were. Freedom amid hate.
That, too: thanks to Stewart, who was born in Middleton, Tennessee, in 1930. In 1957 he founded Satellite Records after persuading his sister, Estelle Axton, to mortgage their house. The later name “Stax” was made up of their surnames.
The original Stax building was demolished. But there is a replica that contains, among other things, a museum.
(Photo: imago images/ZUMA Wire)
The label, which was supposed to shape soul and funk, like only its big competitors at Motown, initially specialized in country and rockabilly (Stewart was a fiddle player himself), but quickly became a focal point for the black community. Also because of another clever business idea: An affiliated record shop not only brought the bridging capital until the hits came, “In The Midnight Hour”, “Knock On Wood”, “Green Onions” and of course “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”. It also functioned as an early form of market research: who is buying what?
One of Stewart’s worse business decisions then was to sign a deal with Atlantic Records, which he allegedly didn’t read, relying on collusion. As a result, Stax lost its entire catalog at the end of the 1960s. In 1976 the label went bankrupt. Stewart withdrew from the public. When he entered the 2002 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was inducted, he sent his granddaughter to receive the honors. Composer and producer David Porter, who announced Stewart’s death on Facebook, wrote: “RIP my dear benefactor to American Soul music.” The benefactor of American soul music was 92 years old.