American record company. It was started in 1957 in Memphis as Satellite Records by Jim Stewart, Neil Herbert and Fred Byler. Herbert and Byler soon left, to be replaced by Stewart’s sister, Estelle Axton. It at first concentrated on country, pop and rockabilly music, but switched to rhythm and blues in 1960 with a recording by Rufus and Carla Thomas. This was distributed nationally by Atlantic who retained distribution rights for all future recordings until 1968. When an instrumental record by the Mar-Keys entitled Last Night became a hit, the firm was forced to change its name by a Californian company of the same name and became Stax Records (‘St’ from Stewart, ‘Ax’ from Axton).
In late 1961 a subsidiary label, Volt, was inaugurated and soon Stax developed an identifiable sound through the use of a house band consisting of Booker T. and the MGs (at times augmented by Isaac Hayes after 1963) and the Mar-Key (later the Memphis) Horns. The ‘Stax sound’ effectively became the model for southern soul music in the 1960s, when the company also achieved substantial success with releases by Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Albert King, William Bell, Eddie Floyd and Johnnie Taylor (1938–2000).
In 1968 Al Bell was given 10% of the company, which was then sold to Gulf & Western. The following year Axton was displaced and Bell and Stewart became equal partners, although Bell then assumed control over most of the company’s activities. In 1970 Bell and Stewart bought the company back and enjoyed unprecedented success with a more diversified roster of artists including Hayes, the Staple Singers, the Emotions and the Dramatics. Bell initiated subsidiary labels including Hip, Chalice, Enterprise, Gospel Truth, Partee, Respect and Truth and expanded the company’s catalogue to include pop, country, jazz, gospel, comedy and spoken word releases. He also established a film division; Stax was instrumental in pioneering the black film score and shifting the dominant item of commerce in black music from singles to albums. In 1975 Stax was forced into bankruptcy as a result of a takeover attempt by CBS Records. By the late 1990s, the influence of Stax was ubiquitous: it was the most reissued independent label of any in North America. Stax recordings are regularly sampled by rap artists and featured in commercials; movies and cover versions of songs. (R. Bowman: Soulsville U.S.A.: the Story of Stax Records, New York, 1997)
ROB BOWMAN