For one to truly appreciate the STAX Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis Tennessee, one
should first understand the great history behind it. Entrance to STAX Museum of American Soul Music
It was 1960 when Jim Stewart contacted his older sister Estelle Axton seeking financial assistance to help expand his fledgling recording studio Satellite Records, formed 3 years earlier.
Estelle mortgaged her home on two separate occasions to provide funding for Jim to purchase a new Ampex 350 console recorder and also to move the business from Brunswick, Tennessee to Memphis. With the move the name would change to STAX Records.
The name represented a combination of the first two letters of STewart, the owner and AXton, Estelle’s last name.
The year 1960 also ushered in the company’s first hit record, a duet single featuring Rufus and Carla Thomas called “Cause I Love You”.
The song quickly became a local hit through radio airplay and the sale of 40,000 copies sold regionally, drawing the attention of Atlantic Records co-founder Jerry Wexler.
Wexler signed a distribution deal with STAX, making it easier to for the label to distribute their records.
In August, 1962 Otis Redding walked into STAX Records. Not as a singer but as a chauffeur for Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers from Macon, Georgia.
It was only after Otis Redding stepped in to sing for a Jenkins recording session that his talent was “discovered”, subsequently turning him into the STAX label biggest recording star.
STAX had plenty of records to distribute in the early 1960s. The new studio had cut records by Carla Thomas, the Mar-Keys, Booker T. and The MGs, Rufus Thomas, William Bell and Otis Redding.
The label also released songs by Samand Dave, who were “on loan” to the studio as part of the deal signed with Atlantic Records.
Though STAX songs had become popular in Europe, many of the artists who recorded them had never been outside of Memphis, Tennessee. As a result, in 1967 Al Bell, Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas, the MGs and the Mar-Keys took off on the first STAX European Tour.
November, 1967 proved to be the beginning of the end for STAX Records. First was the death of Otis Redding in a private plane crash. Next was the assassination of Dr MartinLuther King, Jr and lastly the sale of Atlantic Records to Warner Brothers, dissolving the prior distribution contract. Warner also took possession of all rights, title, interest and distribution of all STAX recordings between 1960-1967.
In 1969 STAX records underwent a restructure and emerged with “Soul Explosion” recording and producing 30 singles and 27 albums in just an eight month period.
The next big boost for STAX was the arrival of Isaac Hayes in 1969. The record production machine was humming along with hit after hit until 1972 when their CBS distribution deal fell through, leaving them with no way to sell their records and causing them to fall into massive debt, forcing them into involuntary bankruptcy on December 19, 1975.
In 1975 STAX sold their rights to release records under the STAX label to Fantasy Records . The STAX building then sat vacant until 1981 when it was sold to a church for $10.
Then in 2004 Concord Records purchased Fantasy Records and revived the STAX label yet again.
Estelle Axton lived to see the STAX label revival as she died in 2004 at the age of 85. In 2007 she was posthumously awarded a Grammys Trustee Award, given to “individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording”.
The final chapter of the STAX Museum history occurred when a group of community leaders, philanthropists and former STAX employees formed the Soulsville Foundation with a mission to open a museum, the only museum dedicated to telling the story of soul music.
In addition to the STAX museum the Foundation also oversees The Stax Music Academy and Soulsville Charter School.
With that knowledge behind you, you are now ready to walk through
the doors of the STAX Museum.Plaque outside STAX Museum
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| Re-creation of Hoopers Chapel AME Church |
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| Isaac Hayes Cadillac |
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| Isaac Hayes Cadillac |
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| Wall of albums produced by STAX |
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| Booker T Jones Hammond M-3 organ used to record “Green Onions” |
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| Black bands of the 50's exhibit |
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| Isaac Hayes office re-creation |
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| Ike and Tina Turner display |
Admission is $13 for adults, $12 for seniors 62 and over along with active military and students with ID. Children $10 for ages 9-12 and children under 8 are FREE.
The museum is open from 10am-5pm Tuesday-Sunday. They close on Monday.
For further information contact the museum at:
926 E. McLemore Ave
Memphis, TN 38106
Phone: 901-261-6338
Toll Free: 888-942-7685
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