Aretha Franklin (March 25, 1942 — August 16, 2018) was an American soul singer from Memphis. She began performing gospel in her father’s Detroit church before signing with Columbia Records in 1960. During her Columbia tenure, Franklin recorded jazz, pop, and R&B albums, including Aretha (1961) and The Electrifying Aretha Franklin (1962). Singles such as […]
Otis Redding (Sept. 9, 1941 — Dec. 10, 1967) was an American soul singer who issued a string of singles on Stax-subsidiary Volt between 1962 and 1965, including “These Arms of Mine” and the original “Respect” (later made famous by Aretha Franklin). Over the ensuing two-year period, he recorded multiple albums for the label, charting […]
Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American soul and jazz singer from Memphis. After numerous sessions for noted jazz artists, she made her solo debut with the 1974 album Afro Blue, followed by a self-titled 1976 Atlantic release and the 1977–79 Elektra titles Just Family and Bad for Me. Background Bridgewater was born Denise Eileen Garrett […]
Isaac Hayes (Aug. 20, 1942 – Aug. 10, 2008) was an American R&B musician, singer, composer, producer, and actor with a 50-year career in entertainment. The lavish orchestration and elongated arrangements of his 1969 second album, Hot Buttered Soul, spearheaded the transformation of soul music into a maximalist form. Background Isaac Hayes was born Isaac […]
The Bar-Kays were an American soul-funk band from Memphis that released the album Soul Finger on Volt in 1967. Following a plane crash that claimed four of the original six members, survivors Ben Cauley and James Alexander formed a second lineup of the band. The reformed Bar-Kays released four albums on Volt, starting with Gotta […]
Ann Peebles is an American soul singer from St. Louis who released seven albums between 1969 and 1977, including the Hi Records classics Straight From the Heart and I Can’t Stand the Rain. She landed R&B hits with “Part Time Love,” “I Pity the Fool,” “Breaking Up Somebody’s Home,” “I Can’t Stand the Rain,” and […]
The Sylvers were an American soul-funk family act from Memphis, best known for the 1975/76 hits “Boogie Fever,” “Hot Line,” and “High School Dance.” As a sextet, the Sylvers cut three 1972–74 albums on Pride/MGM, then welcomed three younger siblings for the 1975/76 Capitol titles Showcase and Something Special. After 1977’s New Horizons (as a […]
Con Funk Shun was an American soul-funk band that released eleven albums between 1976 and 1986 on Mercury. Con Funk Shun formed in Vallejo, California, and initially recorded two albums’ worth of material in Memphis around 1973, which later appeared separately on Pickwick and 51 West. They signed with Mercury in 1976, beginning a decade-long […]
The Amazing Rhythm Aces were an American rustic-rock band from Memphis that released five albums between 1975 and 1979 on ABC and a sixth on Warner. They scored a country-pop crossover hit with “Third Rate Romance” from their debut album Stacked Deck, their first of four Top 30 albums on the Billboard Top Country Albums […]
Bettye Lavette is an American soul singer who emerged with the 1962 Atlantic R&B hit “My Man — He’s a Lovin’ Man.” After two further singles, she scored a second hit with the 1965 Calla single “Let Me Down Easy,” followed by six singles through 1969 on Big Wheel and Karen Records. Her 1968 First […]
Alamo was an American hard-rock band from Memphis that released a 1971 album on Atlantic. Members: Larry Raspberry (guitar), Richard Rosebrough (drums), Larry Davis [aka Larry Changes] (bass), Ken Woodley (keyboards, vocals) Background Alamo formed in Memphis, Tennessee in late 1970 when ex-Gentry guitarist Larry Raspberry teamed with bassist Larry Davis, ex-Jokers drummer Richard Rosebrough, […]
Shirley Brown (born Jan. 6, 1947) is an American soul singer based in Memphis who made five albums between 1974 and 1989 and landed R&B hits with “Woman to Woman,” “It Ain’t No Fun,” and “Blessed Is the Woman (With a Man Like Mine).” Background Shirley Brown was born on January 6, 1947, in West […]
Zuider Zee was an American pop-rock band from Memphis that released a 1975 self-titled album on Columbia. Their earlier recordings (1972–73) appeared on the 2018 disc Zeenith by archivists Light In the Attic. Members: Richard Orange (guitar, vocals), John Bonar (bass, backing vocals), Robert Hall (drums, backing vocals, 1974-76), Kim Foreman (keyboards, backing vocals) Background […]
The Breaks and Drama were sequential American rock bands led by Memphis musicians Pat Taylor and Susanne Jerome Taylor. RCA issued the self-titled Breaks album in 1983, then the couple reorganized as Drama for the 1985 album Scene from a Distance, noted for its hi-tech lead track “Paralyze.” Members: Suzanne Jerome Taylor (vocals), Pat Taylor […]
Edgewood was an American hard-rock/psych band from Memphis that released the 1972 album Ship of Labor on TMI Records. Members: David Beaver (vocals, keyboards), Pat Taylor (vocals, guitar), David Mayo (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Jim Tarbutton (guitar), Steve Spear (bass), Joel Williams (drums, percussion), Mike Bleecker (drums, percussion, 1970) Background Edgewood formed in 1970 in Memphis, […]
The Soul Children were an American vocal group that released seven albums between 1969 and 1978, with five Stax titles and two Epic albums. Isaac Hayes and David Porter wrote and produced the 1969 debut, which includes the R&B entries “Give ’Em Love,” “I’ll Understand,” “Tighten Up My Thang,” and “The Sweeter He Is.” Porter […]
Anita Ward is an American soul singer who made two 1979 albums, Songs of Love and Sweet Surrender, and scored disco hits with “Ring My Bell” and “Make Believe Lovers.” Background Anita Ward was born on December 20, 1956, in Memphis. She worked as a schoolteacher before she entered the music scene via Frederick Knight, […]
Kwick was an American soul-funk band from Memphis that released two albums on EMI America in 1980 and 1981, followed by a third on Capitol in 1983. Three-fourths of the band had been in the Stax/Volt singles act The Newcomers during the early 1970s. Members: William Summers, Bert Brown, Terry Bartlet, Vince Ricari Williams Background […]
Lalomie Washburn (Aug. 25, 1941 — Sept. 18, 2004) was an American soul-funk singer who fronted High Voltage, Love Craft, and the 1977 solo album My Music Is Hot. Background She was born Lalomie Marion Washburn on August 25, 1941, in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. Washburn opened for saxophonist Ernie Fields […]
The Temprees were an American soul group from Memphis on We Produce, a division of Stax. They released thirteen singles and the 1972–74 albums Lovemen, Love Maze, and Three. Members: Harold Scott (vocals), Deljuan Calvin (vocals, 1970-73, 1976-present) , Jasper Phillips (vocals, 1970-2001), Larry Dodson (vocals, 1970), William Norvell Johnson (vocals, 1973-76) Background The Temprees […]
Bettye Crutcher (September 16, 1939 – October 20, 2022) was an American soul singer and songwriter from Memphis that released the 1974 album Long as You Love Me on Stax/Enterprise. She hailed from the writing/production team We Three along with musicians Homer Banks and Raymond Jackson. During the late 1960s, she wrote songs recorded by […]
Ebonee Webb was an American soul-funk band from Memphis that cut five singles for Hi Records as Ebony Web. In Japan, the band made two disco albums in 1978/79 on the Seven Seas label. Back in the US, they signed with Capitol for the 1981–83 albums Ebonee Webb and Too Hot. Members: Charles Liggins, Chico, […]
D. Beaver were an American art-pop band from Memphis that released the album Combinations on RCA-subsidiary TMI Records in 1973. Members: David Beaver (vocals, keyboards), Tommy Cathey (bass, vocals), Jimi Jamison (vocals), Carl Marsh (woodwinds, horns), Paul Allen Taylor (guitar, backing vocals), Joel Williams (drums, percussion, guitar) Discography: Combinations (1973)
The Memphis Horns were an American brass/woodwinds ensemble that originally served as a house act at Stax Records. As an autonomous unit, the band debuted with an album on Cotillion in 1970, followed by the 1972 album Horns for Everything on Million Records Inc. Between 1976 and 1979, the band released four albums on RCA. […]
Frank Lowe (June 24, 1943 — Sept. 19, 2003) was an American free-jazz saxophonist and composer from Memphis who cut the 1973 album Black Beings on ESP Disk, followed by titles on assorted labels through 1985 in solo and collaborative form. Background Frank Lowe was born June 24, 1943, in Memphis, Tennessee. As a child, […]
William Bell (born July 16, 1939) is an American soul singer and songwriter who released sixteen studio albums between 1967 and 2023, including the popular 1977 Mercury release Coming Back for More and the 2016 Stax Grammy winner This Is Where I Live. Bell landed 1968 R&B hits with “A Tribute to a King,” “I Forgot […]
Sandra Wright (Oct. 1, 1948 — Jan. 11, 2010) was an American soul singer from Memphis who recorded for Coral and the Stax subsidiary Truth. She cut Wounded Woman with producer David Johnson in 1974, but the collapse of Stax left the album unreleased until a UK issue in 1989. Wright continued as a club […]
James Williams (March 8, 1951 — July 20, 2004) was an American post-bop/jazz-funk pianist, composer, and bandleader from Memphis. He spent 1977–81 with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, followed by work with Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, and Sonny Stitt. Williams led albums from the 1978 debut Flying Colors, co-founded the Contemporary Piano Ensemble, and later taught at […]
Hank Crawford (Dec. 12, 1934 — Jan. 29, 2009) was an American post-bop/jazz-funk alto saxophonist, arranger, and composer from Memphis. From 1958 to 1963, he served as musical director for Ray Charles. Crawford commenced his bandleader catalogue with the 1961 Atlantic release More Soul, then recorded for Kudu/CTI and Milestone with collaborators including Grant Green, […]
The Box Tops were an American pop-rock band that released four 1967–69 albums on Bell Records. They are best known for the hits “Choo Choo Train,” “Soul Deep,” and the Billboard chart-toppers “Cry Like a Baby” and “The Letter.” Singer Alex Chilton later fronted Big Star. Members: Alex Chilton (lead vocals, guitar, bass, 1963-70, 1989, […]
