Label was home to Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, and others
A new docuseries, Stax: Soulsville U.S.A., will look at the radical history of the groundbreaking Memphis label, which has been home to Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam and Dave, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, and the Staple Singers, among others. A trailer for the four-part series, which debuts with two episodes on HBO and the whole thing on Max on May 20, explains how label founders Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, who were white, fell in love with Black music and made the label a haven for artists of color during the beginnings of the civil rights movement in the Fifties.
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They documentary features interviews with Stax execs, both living and dead, who recall the label’s history. Stewart, who died in 2022, and Axton, who died in 2004, are featured, as are the late Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes. Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Carla Thomas, Sam Moore, and many others are also featured. Ailey filmmaker Jamila Wignot directed the series.
The first two episodes will look at how Stax shook up the charts with music by Sam and Dave, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, and Redding, as the label sought to dissolve racial divisions, as well as Redding’s stunning Monterey Pop performance and how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination changed things. The next two, which will premiere May 21, show how the Stax promotions director kept the label going after Redding’s death with “Who’s Making Love?” and other hits and how the label matured in the Seventies with Hayes and the legendary Wattstax benefit concert.
