Stax Records

Stax Records was a Memphis, Tennessee based record label that was located there from 1959 to 1976. It is known as a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, and as a frequent recorder of early funk and 1960s Chicago blues. Stax is also well known for having some of the first popular ethnically-integrated bands. The name "Stax" is a portmanteau of the names of the two original owners of the company: Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton.

Early history

Satellite Records (renamed to 'Stax' in 1961) was founded in 1957 by Jim Stewart,[1] initally operating in a north Memphis garage. His sister Estelle Axton began her financial interest in the company in 1958 and briefly operated in Brunswick, Tennessee before moving into the former Capitol Theatre at 926 East McLemore Avenue in Memphis. After initially issuing country music records, the company switched to more lucrative rhythm and blues music.

The Atlantic years

The first successful artists recorded by Satellite were vocalists Rufus and Carla Thomas, a father-daughter duo whose work attracted Atlantic Records, with whom Stewart made a distribution deal giving Atlantic first choice on releasing Satellite recordings. Another of the early bands signed to the company was a Memphis group, The Mar-Keys, formerly known as The Royal Spades. The Mar-Keys' 1961 single "Last Night" was the first to be nationally distributed on the Satellite label. Previous Atlantic issues of Satellite material were issued nationally on the Atlantic or Atco labels. As "Last Night" was rising up the music charts, Stewart and Axton learned of another Satellite Records in operation in California. That's when the name of the company was changed to Stax. Shortly thereafter, pianist Booker T Jones joined the label and, along with members of The Mar-Keys, began performing as Booker T. and the Memphis Group; this band's sound exemplified the style that Stax was looking for. In 1962, Stax created a subsidiary label, Volt Records, used for rhythm and blues music. The first artist released by Volt was Otis Redding, their most successful artist. Another hit-making act was Sam and Dave, sent to Stax by Atlantic.

Atlantic co-owner Jerry Wexler was fascinated by the unique sound being produced at Stax, and he was startled to learn that the label's signature style was literally an accident; the Stax recording studio in the converted movie theater still had the sloped floor where the seats had once been. Because the room was imbalanced, it created an acoustic anomaly that translated into the recordings, often giving them a big, deep yet raw sound. When Stewart told Wexler about technical problems at the studio, Wexler dispatched Atlantic producer/engineer Tom Dowd to Stax to investigate. Dowd discovered on his first visit to the studio that no one at Stax had the technical knowhow to fix their one and only recorder, a mono Ampex model 350, which had broken. Dowd managed to repair it easily enough, and he tutored Stewart and his staff in how to properly use and maintain their equipment. Dowd upgraded the studio to stereo recording capability. By 1965, Stax had signed a formal national distribution deal with Atlantic Records which included a clause, not noticed until later, which gave Atlantic ownership of masters they received.

Wexler frequently brought some Atlantic artists to Memphis for recording sessions at Stax. In the BBC documentary Soul Deep he reported putting Wilson Pickett and Booker T. and the MGs' guitarist Steve Cropper in a motel room "with a bottle of Jack"; the night's work produced the soul standard "In the Midnight Hour". Pickett's hits were Stax songs in all-but-name, as they were released by Atlantic. However, a duo on the Atlantic roster, Sam and Dave, were "leased" to Stax, which oversaw their music and put it out on the Stax label.

In that era, many radio stations, anxious to avoid even the hint of the impression of payola, often followed a policy of refusing to play more than one or two new songs from any single record label at one time, so as to not appear to be offering favoritism to any particular label. To circumvent this, Stax...like many other companies...created a number of subsidiary labels. The best known of these was Volt, but others included Enterprise, Chalice, Hip and Safice.

Unlike Motown, which frequently packaged its artists on review tours, Stax only infrequently sought to promote its acts through label-sponsored live concerts. The first of these was in the summer of 1965; curiously, it wasn't in Memphis, but rather in Los Angeles. The show was a success, but the day afterward saw the sparking of the Watts riots, and several Stax artists were trapped in Watts during the violence. Stax also sponsored a Christmas concert in Memphis for several years, the most notorious being the event in 1968, when special guest Janis Joplin performed drunk and was booed off of the stage. But the high watermark of the Stax package shows was also the most ambitious: A tour of England and France in 1967. American Soul music was extremely popular in Western Europe, and the tour was a sold out success. Stax released several live albums from the tour, including the best-selling Otis Live In Europe.

The break from Atlantic Records

In 1967, Atlantic Records was sold to Warner Bros.-Seven Arts which activated a clause in the Stax/Atlantic distribution contract calling for renegotiation of the distribution deal. At this point, it was pointed out to Stewart that he had signed away the original master recordings for all of Stax's Atlantic-distributed hits (he was evidently unaware of this "fine print" in the contract). The new Warner bosses would not cut any slack about Atlantic's rights to Stax recordings. Contract renegotiations fell through with Atlantic in 1968; Stewart sold the label to Gulf and Western in March of that year. Estelle Axton left Stax after the sale. Her final task before leaving Stax was to inform Wexler that Stax was leaving Atlantic Records. The company would have to move forward without the most desirable portion of its back catalogue (in later years the company, under direction of parent company Fantasy Records, would issue alternate takes of some of these hits). After the distribution pact expired in May, Atlantic briefly marketed Stax/Volt recordings made after the split using different label designs using the alternate logos used on album covers[2] then reissued Stax label recordings on the Atlantic label and Volt label material on the Atco label. Post-split Stax/Volt releases used new label designs, new logos (including the finger snapping logo shown above) and new catalogue numbering systems to avoid confusion among the record distributors.

Stax as an independent label

Although Stax had also lost their most valuable artists — Sam and Dave, who were signed to Atlantic, and Otis Redding, who had died shortly before the move between companies — they recovered quickly. Producer and songwriter Isaac Hayes, who had been pivotal in producing Sam and Dave, stepped into the spotlight with Hot Buttered Soul: the album went triple-platinum in 1969. The label also enjoyed great success when it had the Staples Singers shift from Gospel music to R&B pop. Even Rufus Thomas, one of the first artists signed to the label, enjoyed a popular resurgence with a string of hits. However, Stax's record sales were down overall under Gulf and Western's poor management. In 1970, Stewart and Al Bell, Stax's sales director, purchased the label back. Stax subsisted on its own for a short period until 1972, when negotiations with Columbia Records began. Stewart has stated that he couldn't bear to see the company die and so started to channel his personal funds into keeping it afloat.

As co-owner, Bell undertook an ambitious program to not only make Stax a major recording company, but also a prominent player in the Afro-American community. He began signing many more artists to the label, and for the first time, many of the label's acts began recording outside of the Stax studio, such as at Muscle Shoals, frequently working with outside producers, signaling an end of the signature Stax sound. (One artist which Bell had the opportunity to sign, but inexplicably didn't, was Al Green.) He even created a comedy subsidiary label, Partee Records, which released albums from the likes of Richard Pryor and Moms Mabley, as well as made a bid for the white pop market by signing Big Star. Bell also became heavily involved with various black causes, and was a close friend of the Reverend Jesse Jackson and a financial supporter of his Operation PUSH.

In 1972, Al Bell and Stax recording artists staged a concert, Wattstax, which drew over 100,000 predominantly African-American Los Angelenos. The event, known as the "Black Woodstock," was MC'ed by Reverend Jesse Jackson and filmed by director Mel Stuart (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory). The festival featured performances by Stax recording artists and humor from a then little-known Richard Pryor.

Bankruptcy

Meanwhile, the future of Stax was not so hopeful. A distribution deal was struck with Columbia/CBS, where label President Clive Davis saw Stax as a means for CBS to fully break into the African-American market and to successfully compete with Motown. However, Davis was shortly thereafter fired by the company, costing Stax its benefactor. And without Davis at the helm to make good on its promises, CBS very quickly lost interest in Stax, whose profits were cut severely, particularly since the CBS distribution agents were bypassing the traditional small "Mom 'n Pop" record sellers in the black community which had been the backbone of Stax's distribution, and they weren't pushing the Stax product to the larger retailers for fear of undercutting sales for CBS artists. As reports came in to Stax of stores in cities like Chicago and Detroit being unable to get new Stax records, it became painfully clear that the CBS deal was a tremendous mistake, and that the company was unable to continue this way for long. Unfortunately, although CBS was uninterested in fully promoting Stax, it refused to release the label from its contract, for fear that Stax would land a more productive deal with another company and then be in direct competition with CBS.

The last big chart hit for Stax was "Woman to Woman" from Shirley Brown in 1974. Its success help delay the crunch for several months but, in 1976, Stax finally went bankrupt.

Al Bell attempted to stave off bankruptcy with bank loans, while Jim Stewart mortgaged his Memphis mansion to provide the label with short-term working capital. However, bank officers soon got cold feet, and foreclosed on the loans, costing Stewart his home and much of the fortune he had earned.

Stax revival

Fantasy Records bought the non-Atlantic Stax recordings and continued to repackage and rerelease the Stax catalogue on the Stax label. Atlantic still has the rights to the Atlantic-era Stax recordings released up to May 1968, most of which have been reissued by co-owned Rhino Records or licensed to Collectables Records. Fantasy released a box set titled The Stax Story, which includes Atlantic-era material which was included by arrangement with Atlantic. Fantasy does have the rights to Atlantic-era Stax recordings which were not released by Atlantic Records. Stax, along with the rest of the Fantasy label group, is now owned by the Concord Music Group.

In 2003, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music opened in the reconstructed Stax Recording Studios.

On the BBC radio station 1Xtra, Angie Stone, in an interview with Ronnie Herel, announced that Concord are restarting Stax and that she is currently recording an album to release on the label sometime in 2007.

The September 23, 2006 issue of Rolling Stone reported that Memphis native Justin Timberlake is attempting to revive the label and sign Matt Morris.

On December 18, 2006, Concord Music Group announced the reactivation of the Stax label. The formal relaunch came with the release on March 13, 2007 of Stax 50: A 50th Anniversary Celebration, a 2-CD box set containing 50 of the best tracks from the entire history of Stax Records.[3] The first acts signed to the new Stax include Isaac Hayes and Angie Stone.[4] The first Concord distributed Stax album of all new material is a various artists CD which was released on March 27, 2007 and titled Interpretations: Celebrating The Music Of Earth, Wind & Fire.[5]

In the UK, Keith Strachan has written and directed a new musical called Sweet Soul Music that celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first ever Stax/Atlantic tour. It tours nationwide from February 2007 and features tributes to all the major Stax artists.

See also

• List of record labels
• Stax Museum

Notes

This article or section is missing citations and/or footnotes. This article or section contains insufficiently sourced phrases. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. You may improve the article or discuss this issue on the talk page. Help on using footnotes is available. This article has been tagged since December 2006.

Bibliography

• Rob Bowman (1997). Soulsville U.S.A: The Story of Stax Records. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-8256-7284-8. 

Sample

• Download sample of Otis Redding's "Mr. Pitiful", released in 1964 on Stax.

Wikipedia information about Stax Records This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Stax Records". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.