By Steve Gorman
(Reuters) – Jim Stewart, the country violinist whose soul-R&B powerhouse Stax Records launched music stars like Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and Sam & Dave, has died aged 92 in Memphis, Tennessee, where he founded the label in the 1960s. 1950’s in a garage.
Stewart, widely credited as a pioneer for his role in helping to integrate American pop music at a time of strict racial segregation, died Monday at a Memphis hospital.
His death was confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday by Tim Sampson, a spokesman for the Memphis-based Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Sampson said the Stewart family has not released the cause of death.
Between 1959 and 1975, the label released 800 singles and 300 albums, including Hayes’ soundtrack for the 1971 film Shaft, which won him an Academy Award.
The roster of talent included Staples Singers, The Emotions, The Soul Children and Booker T. & the MG’s, which served as the band for Redding, Sam & Dave and dozens of other Stax artists.
The Stax label has amassed a total of eight Grammy Awards, produced three No. 1 hits, a dozen top 10 hits, and 167 top 100 singles. Stewart himself was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, the label lived up to its nickname of “Soulsville, USA”, offering a more fearless alternative to the Motown Records hit machine.
The assets of the label, which went bankrupt in 1975, and master recordings were sold to Fantasy Records, owned by film mogul Saul Zaentz, at auction for $1.3 million, and the original studio was destroyed in 1989 by a church that purchased the property for $10.
Los Angeles-based Concord Music Group acquired Stax as part of its 2004 purchase of Fantasy and announced two years later that it was reviving the long-dormant soul label, launching efforts to attract artists and rebuild its back catalogue.
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