Jim Stewart, founder of influential southern soul label Stax Records, has died aged 92. Stax confirmed the news on social media this morning, writing that Stewart “passed away peacefully earlier today, surrounded by his family”.
As the founder of Stax, Stewart was responsible for signing and nurturing the careers of many of soul and R&B’s most influential figures, including Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Albert King and the Bar-Kays.
He began Stax as Satellite Records in 1957; originally a country fiddle player, Stewart founded Satellite as a country and rockabilly label before pivoting almost exclusively to R&B. Stewart likened his introduction to Black music as “like a blind man who suddenly gained his sight”. Based in segregation-era Tennessee, Stax was a rarity in that it had a mixed-race staff and sought to uplift its Black employees as much as its white ones.
Stax found great success through the 60s with a unique recording model that utilised an in-house band as opposed to hired-gun session musicians. Stax’s recording studio was a converted movie theatre in Memphis, a unique environment that created a distinctive, bass-heavy “Stax sound”. This, combined with major-label distribution through Atlantic Records, meant that Stax was responsible for dozens of Billboard hit singles in its first decade.
As the 60s drew to a close, Stax faced significant operational troubles. In 1967, Atlantic was acquired by Warner Bros, and Stax was not made part of the deal; regardless, Atlantic retained rights to all Stax records masters, massively devaluing Stax as a label. Still, Stewart and Stax found some success in its post-Atlantic years, signing Johnnie Taylor and the Staple Singers.
In 1976, Stax went bankrupt, and Stewart lost much of the money he had made over the previous two decades. In the ensuing years, he largely retreated from the public eye, declining to attend his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and only occasionally making public appearances, save for a 2018 event during which he was honoured at the Stax museum. He is survived by three children and two grandchildren.
