CD-Charts Position 1

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Self Portrait [Australian Import]

CD-Charts > Music > Stax
by: Lalah Hathaway

Release Date June 09, 2008

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

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Stax - 50th Anniversary Celebration

CD-Charts > Music > Stax
by: Various Artists

Release Date May 21, 2007
Not fot the first time we get a Stax retrospective but here it comes with the half century marker.
Like the other famous Memphis label-Sun-the label concentrated on black music after its beginnings as a country music label called Satellite.
The first hit single was by Carla Thomas daugter of Rufus who'd once been on Sun and who made the first Stax single as a duet with Carla.
Gee Whiz strraddled the boundaries between high school pop and R & B and has been much covered.
Sun was actually ready to set as Stax set the pace for what was to follow in the 60s which was even blacker music and the label would eventually be sold out to the corporates in the 70s
The reissue programs would come shortly and it never ends ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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Shaft: Original Soundtrack

CD-Charts > Music > Stax
by: Isaac Hayes

Release Date December 31, 1993
My dad was a big fan of Isaac Hayes and indeed a lot of the other Stax artists, as a result, I grew up listening to a lot of music from the Stax label.

So far as Isaac Hayes is concerned and film soundtracks, this really is worth buying. Isaac Hayes shows the depth of his creativity by producing an original soundtrack that has everything in it...vocals, instrumentals, lots of strings, horns, excellant rhythym section etc.etc.

Most people will be aware of the 1st track 'The Theme from Shaft' but all the others are great as well. My particular faves include 'Soulsville', 'No Name Bar' and 'Bumpy's Lament' which specifically has been sampled/copied by numerous other rnb and rap artists.

Overall, it's a masterpiece ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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Hot Buttered Soul

CD-Charts > Music > Stax
by: Isaac Hayes

Release Date May 28, 1991
......came Isaac Hayes. A four track album ? In 1969 ? You've got to be kidding, right ? No Sir. Isaac Hayes took the orchestration and elongation of soul music to the nth degree with this ground-breaking release. Whether or not you find the four abnormally-extended workouts to your own personal taste or not, you simply have to admire the artist's willingness to push back the boundaries of contemporary popular music and the sheer chutzpah of it all.

The opener, "Walk On By" is a magnificent interpretation of the track made famous by Dionne Warwick in anyone's book. Lushly and lasciviously orchestrated it has so many peaks it leaves you breathless, despite its essential laid back groove. The contender for the longest track name ever is next, and ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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Soulsville Sings Hitsville: Stax Sings Songs of Motown Records

CD-Charts > Music > Stax
by: Various

Release Date
The understandable reaction to this release would be one of enthusiasm. After all, who would not be intrigued by the prospect of more in the vein of Otis Redding's masterly interpretation of My Girl. Sadly the Stax that one imagines is not the one on offer here. This is Stax as distribution company with much of what is on offer here recorded away from Memphis with barely a Bar-Key or an MG in sight. The result is a series of mostly seventies cuts, string laden, and lacking that taut, sparse, rhythmic sound which one would have hoped for. Hence we get Billy Eckstine's classy but hardly soulful take on My Cherie Amour and other syrupy efforts from Barbara Lewis and Margie Joseph. Mavis Staples' version of Chained is excellent and David Porter's voice is used to good ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
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Be Altitude - Respect Yourself

CD-Charts > Music > Stax
by: Staple Singers

Release Date May 28, 1991
The understandable reaction to this release would be one of enthusiasm. After all, who would not be intrigued by the prospect of more in the vein of Otis Redding's masterly interpretation of My Girl. Sadly the Stax that one imagines is not the one on offer here. This is Stax as distribution company with much of what is on offer here recorded away from Memphis with barely a Bar-Key or an MG in sight. The result is a series of mostly seventies cuts, string laden, and lacking that taut, sparse, rhythmic sound which one would have hoped for. Hence we get Billy Eckstine's classy but hardly soulful take on My Cherie Amour and other syrupy efforts from Barbara Lewis and Margie Joseph. Mavis Staples' version of Chained is excellent and David Porter's voice is used to good ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

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Soul Limbo

CD-Charts > Music > Stax
by: Booker T & The MG's

Release Date April 30, 1990
This late album by the great Stax Records house band is a fine addition to their majestic catalogue. English listeners will note the title track from its use for many years as the theme music to BBC cricket coverage (it's odd how you expect the original version to fade away after thirty seconds). But there are other gems here: there's a remarkably soulful and jazzy version of 'Willow Weep For Me', with Jones on acoustic piano; the great 'Hang 'Em High', whose mixture of R&B and cowboy music was hugely influential on the Jamaican dub scene; a cool version of Hendrix's 'Foxy Lady', bringing Jimi back into the soul music camp; and a fascinatingly menacing version of 'Eleanor Rigby', full of ominous flattened fifths, the most successful cover I've heard of a song that ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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Stax/Volt Revue: Live in Norway 1967

CD-Charts > Music > Stax
starring: Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd, Otis Redding, Booker T. & the MG's, Arthur Conley

Release Date October 02, 2007
This late album by the great Stax Records house band is a fine addition to their majestic catalogue. English listeners will note the title track from its use for many years as the theme music to BBC cricket coverage (it's odd how you expect the original version to fade away after thirty seconds). But there are other gems here: there's a remarkably soulful and jazzy version of 'Willow Weep For Me', with Jones on acoustic piano; the great 'Hang 'Em High', whose mixture of R&B and cowboy music was hugely influential on the Jamaican dub scene; a cool version of Hendrix's 'Foxy Lady', bringing Jimi back into the soul music camp; and a fascinatingly menacing version of 'Eleanor Rigby', full of ominous flattened fifths, the most successful cover I've heard of a song that ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

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Stax Does the Beatles

CD-Charts > Music > Stax
by: Various

Release Date
This late album by the great Stax Records house band is a fine addition to their majestic catalogue. English listeners will note the title track from its use for many years as the theme music to BBC cricket coverage (it's odd how you expect the original version to fade away after thirty seconds). But there are other gems here: there's a remarkably soulful and jazzy version of 'Willow Weep For Me', with Jones on acoustic piano; the great 'Hang 'Em High', whose mixture of R&B and cowboy music was hugely influential on the Jamaican dub scene; a cool version of Hendrix's 'Foxy Lady', bringing Jimi back into the soul music camp; and a fascinatingly menacing version of 'Eleanor Rigby', full of ominous flattened fifths, the most successful cover I've heard of a song that ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

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Mclemore Avenue

CD-Charts > Music > Stax
by: Booker T & The MG's

Release Date July 27, 1992
A bizarre and rather wonderful tribute to a bizarre and rather wonderful album. It's hard to think of any other band that could have covered an entire Beatles' album without sounding like the soundtrack to the movie of 'Sergeant Pepper', but Booker T and The MG's do it with superb conviction, by the simple means of leaving out the vocals. (That's not all they leave out - to the great relief of all, they also don't bother to cover the original album's most embarrassing blemish, the awful 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer'.) Booker T Jones plays the vocal melodies with great virtuosity on a variety of instruments, chiefly his ultra-cool Hammond organ with a Leslie speaker.

They also change the song order around, sequencing the tunes mostly as medleys with a few ... Read More: