''Presenting Isaac Hayes'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American soul musician Isaac Hayes. The album was released in 1968, by Enterprise and

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

. The LP was the first release on

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 September 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. ...

' Enterprise label; Hayes had for several years served as one of Stax's key songwriters, producers, and studio musicians. Recorded to appease Stax vice president Alvertis Isbell (Al Bell), ''Presenting'' features Hayes recording with Booker T. & the MGs members Al Jackson, Jr. and Donald "Duck" Dunn as a

jazz trio A jazz trio is a group of three jazz musicians, often a piano trio comprising a pianist, a double bass player and a drummer. Jazz trios are commonly named after their leader, such as the Bill Evans Trio. Variants and examples Famous examples inc ...

. No material was prepared for the sessions, so the three musicians improvised an album's worth of material. "Precious, Precious", recorded as a 19-minute jazz piece, was edited to under three minutes for release as a single. Both the 45 and the album under-performed, and Hayes would only continue his recording career after Stax lost its entire back catalog to

during the process of breaking away from Atlantic. The lack of material necessitated all Stax artists — Hayes included — to record albums for release, resulting in Hayes' successful and groundbreaking '' Hot Buttered Soul'' (1969). Following Hayes' success with ''Hot Buttered Soul'', in 1971 '' Black Moses'' and the '' Shaft'' soundtrack, Atlantic reissued ''Presenting Isaac Hayes'' under the title ''In the Beginning''.

Track listing

Personnel

* Isaac Hayes - vocals,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

* Donald "Duck" Dunn -

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

* Al Jackson Jr. -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

;Technical * Arif Mardin, Steve Cropper - mixing * Alvertis Isbell - supervision *Bill Kington, API Photographers - photography *Loring Eutemey - cover design * Stanislaw Zagórski - reissue cover design (article includes 30 images of his album covers)

References

{{Authority control 1968 debut albums Isaac Hayes albums Albums produced by Al Bell Albums produced by Donald "Duck" Dunn Albums produced by Al Jackson Jr. Stax Records albums Atlantic Records albums