In a Presidential proclamation issued May 31 2002, President Bush declared June to be “Black Music Month” in the United States. This proclamation urged “every American to appreciate and enjoy the fabulous achievements of this highly creative community.”

Whoever penned this sentence from the proclamation truly knew their musical bones: “In the 1940s, rhythm and blues emerged, synthesizing elements from gospel, blues and jazz; and from these styles came the birth of rock and roll.” No arguments here - in fact, I’d suggest that this is also a great description of the virtual “Soulsville” you’ll discover walking through the Stax Records catalog.

Soulsville is a town of amazing breadth and depth: Digging roots in backwoods country blues and gospel from which blossomed artists such as Otis Redding and The Staple Singers; bouncing off the elastic tubby funk of Rufus Thomas, or gliding with the refined elegance of his daughter Carla; detonating the explosive, pinwheeling “black rock” explored by the Bar-Kays in the shadows of Jimi and Sly; shimmering in the Academy Award-winning brilliance of “Black Moses,” Isaac Hayes, whose interpretive genius could transform a three-minute pop ballad into a twenty-minute soul symphony; and all mostly built upon the solid bedrock of the world’s greatest rhythm machine of all time - ever - Booker T. & The MGs.

Discovering the Stax catalog for the first time, or rediscovering Stax within the soundtrack of your past, is a great way to celebrate Black Music Month.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 7th, 2008 at 10:44 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.