At the age of 92 years old, a co-founder of Stax Records, Jim Stewart, passed away on Monday. The news was confirmed via the Stax Museum of America Soul Music statement that reads, “Mr. Stewart died peacefully surrounded by his family, and will be missed by millions of music fans around the world as one of the great pioneers of soul music and an architect of the Memphis Sound.”
Jim Stewart was born and raised in Middleton, Tenn., Stewart originally moved to Memphis right after graduating high school in 1948 and had plans to attend Memphis State University. he was eventually drafted into the army, and served two years before he returned to Memphis in 1953. He worked at a bank and played the fiddle in a local group called the Canyon Cowboys. Stewart founded his first label in 1957, called Satellite Records. His sister, Estelle Axton, mortgaged her home in order to help him purchase recording equipment and Stewart focused on Country and Rockabilly records while operating out of a former movie theater that charged him $150 a month.
Then in 1960, Stewart worked with Memphis DJ Rufus Thomas, who recorded a song titled “Cause I Love You” with his 16 year old daughter Carla. The song ended up being a regional hit and Stewart quickly turned towards R&B music which wasn’t his specialty. He later described the transition as, “It was like a blind man who could suddenly see.”
While using the first two letters of their surnames, Stewart and Axton changed the label’s name to Stax and helped launched the careers of dozens of successful R&B artists, such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Booker T. and the M.G.’s the Staple Singers, Albert King and Isaac Hayes. Stax ended up going bankrupt in 1976 (though it would eventually recover), and Stewart was pretty low profile. In 2002, his granddaughter accepted the award when he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
David Porter a songwriter for Stax stated, “What he and his sister meant to American and Soul music that would be recorded is undeniable, Soul Man, Jim Stewart was a conduit for the music and culture that affected music all over the world.” He also added on his Facebook page, “Wow! No way a poor kid from a housing project’s picture in Memphis would be on a bus rolling through Memphis if it were not for this man, Jim Stewart the ST of the word Stax. I love and acknowledge him and his memory. RIP my dear benefactor to American Soul music.”
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