Stax Records

Stax Records is a company of recording and distribution of discs.

Created under the name of Satellite Records with Memphis in 1957 by Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton (brother and sister), it became one of the production companies most important of the music Soul (the Motown will be its principal competitor), before ceasing its activity in 1975.

History

Estelle Axton (born Stewart in 1918) and her brother Jim Stewart créérent in Memphis in 1958, with the assistance of the Chips sound engineer Moman, a studio of recording as well as a store of disc called Satellite. White both, they discover then the Rhythm and blues. The first tests are hardly conclusive, until 1960 when they record a disc of Rufus Thomas in duet with his daughter Carla. This one is sold well locally and is taken in national license by the firm Atlantic Records. The second tube will be the song Gee Whiz of Carla in solo in 1961. This same year, it obtain also an enormous success with Last Night of the Mar-Keys, the group of Packy Axton, wire of Estelle. The “satellite” name being already taken by a mark of the west coast, Stewart renames then the label “Stax Records” (of St ewart and Ax your). The piece Green Onions of Booker T. & The MG' S will contribute a little more to define its Stax. Throughout the Years 1960, these two groups will accompany in studio all the singers by the mark.

The music of Stax, in opposition to that of Chicago or Strait, is generally indicated under the name of “Southern Soul” or of “deep drunk” (in reference to the deep South, major South). Less edulcorated than that of Tamla Motown, it is the résulat new association in the south of the United States de Noirs and White. The drunk person of Memphis is resulting from the Blues and Gospel, but is also influenced by the Country music. The titles presques all are written by the same composer-songwriters, who are also for certain the musicians and the singers of the firm: David Porter, Isaac Beam, Steve Cropper, etc

The largest interpreter of Stax was Otis Redding. Its tubes, with those of Sam & Dave or Eddie Floyd, made the great hours of the glory of the label. The death of this one in 1967, then the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis in 1968, marked the beginning of the decline for the company. The relationship between white and black musicians became more tended. The repurchase of Atlantic, historical partner of Stax, by the Warner giant, accelerated a little more the fall. The arrival of Gift Davis, producer come from to Motown, withdrew a share of its identity to the sound of the mark.

Successes of Isaac Hayes however give again a little its glare of antan at the house. The apogee of this period is marked by the giant concert given in 1972 to Los Angeles with all the stars signed at Stax. A film and two discs will immortaliseront this qualified event of “Black Woodstock”. But this break is of short duration and Stax must finally file for bankruptcy its in 1975. Jim Stewart, good producing but rather bad in businesses, almost very lost.

The sound of Memphis will have had a great influence on artists such as Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, Wilson Pickett or Arthur Conley; the success of the film The Blues Brothers , which takes again some of the tubes of the mark like Soul Man or Green Onions , shows at which point these melodies are indémodables; and Otis Redding is still regarded today as one of all the best singers of the history of the drunk person music.

Principal Signatures

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External bond

Official site (in English)

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