Jim Stewart RIP - and others

Sorry to hear of the death, at the age of 92, of Jim Stewart, co-founder of the Stax record company. Jim was a part time country fiddle player working in a bank in Tennessee when he launched his first record label, Satellite, in Memphis in 1957. He was joined in his venture by his sister Estelle Axton and the label name later changed to STAX, with Jim's surname representing the first two letters of the name and Estelle's the second two. Early recordings were produced by Chips Moman who changed the emphasis from country and pop to R and B, resulting in a hit for Rufus Thomas and his 16 year old daughter Carla with 'Cause I Love You'. From there Stax became a racially mixed record company (at a time when the South was segregrated) and a long stream of soul hits from the likes of Otis Redding, William Bell, Isaac Hayes, Booker T and the MGs and many others made it the most important soul music label in the US with the possible exception of Motown, helped by a distribution deal with Atlantic. Success continued with the arrival of Al Bell as head of promotions but problems arose following the death of Otis, the end of the Atlantic deal and the assassination of Martin Luther King. Jim broke with Estelle but Stax continued, despite losing its back catalogue to Atlantic, with Jim in partnership with Al Bell. After the influential WattStax concert in 1972 Al Bell took control of the company but when financial problems hita few years later Jim put most of his money back into the company, eventually losing nearly everything. Afterwards Jim kept a fairly low profile but was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2002. The photo above shows four of the earlier UK Stax record releases - all of them highly influential in the history of soul music.

There have been several other notable music death in recent days. One is Christine McVie, (79) who for many years was a vocalist and keyboardist with Fleetwood Mac and who wrote several of their biggest hits including 'Don't Stop' and 'Songbird'. She began under her maiden name of Christine Perfect with R and B band Chicken Shack and had success too as a solo artist, before marrying John McVie of Fleetwood Mac and moving to the fellow Blue Horizon band in the early seventies.

The Vinyl Word raises a glass too to guitarist and singer Wilko Johnson, who was part of pub rock band Dr Feelgood and of Ian Dury's Blockheads and as a solo artist was a significant figure in the UK rock scene and helped put Canvey Island on the map music-wise. Also to Irene Cara who enjoyed enormous success in the early 80s with 'Fame' and 'Flashdance - What A Feeling'.