The Mar-Keys, formed in 1958, were an American

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design, ...

session band for

Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. Stax was ...

, in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...

, in the 1960s. As the first

house band A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...

for the label, their backing music formed the foundation for the early 1960s Stax sound.

Career

Early success with "Last Night" (1961)

The group began as The Royal Spades while its members were in high school. They tried to get a record made for the local Satellite Records (the forerunner of Stax), unsuccessfully, even though the label was owned by the mother and uncle of the group's tenor sax player, Charles "Packy" Axton. When the band eventually made a record, Axton's mother, Estelle Axton, convinced them to change their name, and they became "The Mar-Keys". However, the live lineup of the Mar-Keys was not always the same as the band heard on the recordings. Their first and most famous recording was the organ- and

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

-driven single " Last Night", a number three hit nationally in the US in 1961. It sold over one million copies, earning certification as a gold disc. The lineup for this recording included the Royal Spades'

Steve Cropper Steven Lee Cropper (born October 21, 1941), sometimes known as "The Colonel", is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as O ...

(normally a guitarist, here playing second keyboard; producer Chips Moman did not want a guitar part on the song), Packy Axton (tenor sax),

Wayne Jackson Wayne Jackson may refer to: *Wayne Jackson (brigadier), List of Australian generals and brigadiers, senior Australian army officer *Wayne Jackson (footballer) (born 1944), Australian football player and former CEO of the Australian Football League ...

(trumpet), and Jerry Lee "Smoochy" Smith (main keyboards), augmented by horn players Floyd Newman (baritone sax), Gilbert Caple (tenor sax) and others. The authorship of the song, credited simply to "Mar-Keys" on the label, is registered with BMI to Axton, Caple, Newman, Smith, and producer Moman.

Follow-ups and fragmentation (1961–1966)

Singles and albums continued to appear under the Mar-Keys name throughout the 1960s, though none anywhere near as successful as "Last Night". The original all-white band continued to play live dates for a time, but fairly quickly, were largely replaced for studio recordings by session players. This meant that in practice, "The Mar-Keys" became a ''de facto'' name for the racially integrated Stax Records house band, which had a floating membership. The most frequent Mar-Keys studio players during this era, subject to change from session to session, were: *Guitar:

*Bass: Duck Dunn, or occasionally Lewie Steinberg (until 1964). *Keyboards: Smoochy Smith (occasionally through 1963) and/or Marvell Thomas (frequently through 1963); essentially supplanted by Booker T. Jones (with increasing frequency from 1962) and/or

Isaac Hayes Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songw ...

(after mid-1964). *Drums: Howard Grimes (1961–62) or Terry Johnson (occasionally, 1961–62); supplanted by Al Jackson Jr. (from mid-1962). *Horns: varying combinations of

, Floyd Newman, Don Nix, Gilbert Caple, Vinny Trauth (through 1963), Packy Axton (through 1964), Andrew Love (from 1964). These musicians, in addition to being the studio Mar-Keys, served as the backing band on singles and albums by dozens of rock, R&B, and

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became pop ...

artists who recorded at the Stax studios, including

Otis Redding Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blue ...

Carla Thomas Carla Venita Thomas (born December 21, 1942) is an American singer, who is often referred to as the Queen of Memphis Soul. Thomas is best known for her 1960s recordings for Atlantic and Stax including the hits " Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)" (1 ...

Wilson Pickett Wilson Pickett (March 18, 1941 – January 19, 2006) was an American singer and songwriter. A major figure in the development of soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, many of which crossed over to the ''Bill ...

, and many others. While still involved with the Mar-Keys and Stax studio work, Cropper, Steinberg, Jones and Al Jackson Jr. also began recording as Booker T. & the M.G.'s in 1962. Consequently, from then through 1966 instrumental music recorded by the Stax house band was issued under the name of either the Mar-Keys or Booker T. & the M.G.'s, depending on the type of recording: in general, tracks featuring a horn section were credited to the Mar-Keys, and those without horns were credited to Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Dunn replaced Steinberg in the M.G.'s in 1964, having already played with the Mar-Keys both live and in the studio for several years. The demise of the group as a singles act occurred due to the success of several of its members. By the time of the 1965 recording "Boot-Leg", singles credited to Booker T. & the M.G.'s were far outselling recordings credited to the Mar-Keys, who had failed to chart in years. Therefore, the decision was made to issue the horn-driven "Boot-Leg" (co-written with Packy Axton and Isaac Hayes) as a track by Booker T. & the M.G.'s, even though it had been conceived of as a Mar-Keys track, and Booker T. Jones himself did not actually play on it. With the top 40 chart success of "Boot-Leg", by the end of 1966 the Mar-Keys name was no longer appearing on singles.

The six-man line-up (1967–1969)

Although the Mar-Keys were no longer routinely issuing singles, the name still had a certain amount of marketability, and in the late 1960s the Mar-Keys name was used whenever horn players Andrew Love and Wayne Jackson (later known as the Memphis Horns) teamed with Booker T. & the M.G.'s in live performances. The two groups shared billing on a live album in 1967, ''Back to Back'', from a concert in Paris. For the 1969 album ''Damifiknow!'', the Mar-Keys were back in the studio, and were explicitly identified in the album credits as the sextet of Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Booker T. Jones, Al Jackson, Andrew Love, and Wayne Jackson (no relation to Al). The album was not a chart success, and the Mar-Keys name was essentially retired once again.

Final years (1970–1971)

For the final album credited to the Mar-Keys, 1971's ''Memphis Experience'' Stax simply assembled a number of instrumental cuts from various sources, without regard for group continuity. Three of the album's seven cuts were outtakes from sessions by the Bar-Kays, while the other cuts were performed by various uncredited Memphis musicians with no other ties to the Mar-Keys' past.

Legacy and recent activity

The legacy of the Mar-Keys is that they were key players in the development of

Southern soul Southern soul is a type of soul music that emerged from the Southern United States. The music originated from a combination of styles, including blues (both 12 bar and jump), country, early R&B, and a strong gospel influence that emanated fr ...

and Memphis soul. In 2012, the Mar-Keys regrouped with a lineup consisting of original members Wayne Jackson, Floyd Newman, Don Nix, Smoochy Smith, Terry Johnson, plus former M.G. Lewie Steinberg, and original member Packy Axton's son Chuck. Terry Johnson (born James Terry Johnson on April 3, 1943 in Memphis, Tennessee) died on March 19, 2016 after a short illness, at age 72.

Members

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

*Charlie "Redman" Freeman –

Donald "Duck" Dunn Donald "Duck" Dunn (November 24, 1941 – May 13, 2012) was an American bass guitarist, session musician, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn was notable for his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.'s and as a session bassist for Stax Re ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

* Howard Grimes –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

*James "Terry" Johnson – drums,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

–

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrat ...

* Charles "Packy" Axton –

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

*Gilbert Caple – tenor saxophone * Floyd Newman – baritone saxophone, vocals on "Last Night" * Don Nix – baritone saxophone * Andrew Love - tenor saxophone *Gene Parker – tenor saxophone *Joe Arnold – alto saxophone *Jerry Lee "Smoochy" Smith – keyboards * Marvell Thomas – keyboards * Booker T. Jones – keyboards *

– organ * Al Jackson Jr. – drums *Billy Purser (aka Gary Burbank) – drums *Rick Keefer – bass guitar *Ronnie "Angel" Stoots was the band's lead vocalist when they had gigs on the road.

Discography

Albums

* 1961: ''Last Night!'' (Atlantic SD-8055) August release * 1962: ''Do the Pop-Eye with the Mar-Keys'' (Atlantic SD-8062) * 1966: ''The Great Memphis Sound'' (Stax S-707) * 1967: '' Back to Back'' ive(Stax S-720) with Booker T. & the M.G.'s * 1969: ''Damifiknow!'' (Stax STS-2025) * 1971: ''Memphis Experience'' (Stax STS-2036)

Singles

References

External links

History-of-rock.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mar-Keys American soul musical groups American session musicians Atlantic Records artists Musical groups established in 1958 Stax Records artists Booker T. & the M.G.'s 1958 establishments in Tennessee