Stax co-founder dies

[Chrome]

I love the Stax sound ... the very first boxed set I ever got was that huge singles set from them.

Estelle Axton, co-founded Stax, dies

Label one of the great homes of soul music

Wednesday, February 25, 2004 Posted: 2:52 PM EST (1952 GMT)

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- Estelle Axton, co-founder of the famed Stax Records Co., which generated hits from acts including Sam and Dave, Otis Redding Jr. and The Staple Singers, has died. She was 85.

Axton died of natural causes Tuesday at the hospice at Saint Francis Hospital, said her son-in-law, Fred Fredrick.

The musicians on the soul record label called Axton "Lady A," and others who knew her described her as a calming, nurturing presence in the Memphis neighborhood.

"Were it not for her, there's no way Stax could have become what it became," said David Porter. Porter and Isaac Hayes co-wrote numerous Stax hits, including Sam and Dave's "Soul Man" and "Hold On, I'm Coming."

Hayes said Axton was responsible for the racial harmony at Stax.

"You didn't feel any backoff from her, no differentiation that you were black and she was white," Hayes said. "Being in a town where that attitude was plentiful, she just made you feel secure. ... She was like a mother to us all."

Between 1960 and 1975, Stax's roster also included Booker T. and the MGs, Rufus Thomas, Albert King, Johnnie Taylor, The Mar-Keys and the Bar-Kays.

Axton and other family members went on to establish the Fretone label which produced Rick Dees' 1977 hit "Disco Duck."

Porter said Axton encouraged him and others in the Stax neighborhood after she mortgaged her home to help start the record company with her brother, Jim Stewart.

Stax began as Satellite Records in 1957 but was forced to change the name because a California company already was using it.

The siblings combined their last names -- the "St" from Stewart and the "Ax" from Axton -- to come up with Stax, which became a rival to Detroit's giant Motown sound in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Axton's daughter Doris Fredrick worked in the Stax record shop said her mother's experience as a teacher gave her a special nurturing ability.

"She worked 12 hours a day. She had time for anybody that came through the door," Doris Fredrick said. "I'd say, 'I'm sorry she's booked today.' And she'd come out and say, 'Oh no, I have time for them. I'm never too busy' if it was the neighborhood kids or someone who wanted to play a song for her."

[J.A.W.]

Great pioneer, great label, and another sad loss.

[danasgoodstuff]

A sad day indeed, but at least she lived to see the vindication of having their studio on McLenore recreated from the ground up for the Soulsville museum.

I think I'll go home after work today, get out the new fake book and try to learn Soul Finger & Soul Limbo.

[Pete C]

The obit didn't mention how she/Stax was screwed by Atlantic.

[mailman]

It's a sad day indeed. Time to get out that box and listen to some great sounds from a time when music could indeed be popular and great.

[JSngry]

The obit didn't mention how she/Stax was screwed by Atlantic.

To come back with a vengeance only to be screwed again, this time fatally, by Union Planters Bank.

Stax was the real deal. God bless'em.

[Chuck Nessa]

Stax was the real deal. God bless'em.

YES!

[PHILLYQ]

Does anybody know the story of how she got screwed by Atlantic & the bank, or lead me to a website that explains it? I know a lot of people got royally screwed in those days especially the honest ones.

[Pete C]

The Atlantic story I've read in several books on soul music & the Memphis music scene. Apparently, the Stax people thought they had a purely distribution deal with Atlantic, but buried somewhere in the contract (and apparently Jerry Wexler may be one of the guilty parties) was a clause that gave Atlantic ownership of the masters. I don't know the technicalities, but I think this came to a head when Warner bought Atlantic, and Atlantic ended up owning all the pre-1968 Stax masters, which is why all those Otis Redding albums are on Atlantic.

I'm pretty sure it's all covered in Peter Guralnick's excellent Sweet Soul Music.

[JSngry]

This is the book you'll want to read, by Rob Bowman:

An amazing book, in its own way.

[Stefan Wood]

JSngry, that is a teriffic book. He also did all the liner notes to the box sets. For some reason I find it funny that popular cultural history books like this are better researched and written than a lot of other kinds of books.