Rhythm & Blues changed in the mid-1960s. The jumping, romantic and optimistic voices of rock music, doo-wop and the early days of the Auto City have rougher and tougher edges respectively, echoing some social changes in the post-civil rights era, the Vietnam War era. Sam & Dave, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Booker T & The MGs, The Bar-Kays, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, perhaps especially Otis Redding and other artists helped midwives to evolve R&B into soul music-intense, fashionable, and emotional. All of this reached its peak in 1968. This was a precarious year. The brand redefined its voice and guided a greater historical zeitgeist in the process.

Stax '68: A Memphis Story is a set released this week that embodies the spirit of the year with exquisite details. The five-disc set contains the A and B sides of each single released under Stax in 1968, including the company's subtags. This is a complete package with a 56-page book that includes enlightening, in-depth class notes by Andrea Lyle, Robert Gordon, and Steve Greenberg, as well as rare And previously invisible photos. This set shows more than 120 songs from the unprecedented creation period of American music. Some tracks are soul legends (Isaac Hayes, Staple Singer, William Bell, Booker T. and MG's, Johnny Taylor), some come from the deeper Stax catalog, with incredible Featured by many of the artists, many of whom are like Linda. I almost forgot Lindel, Son of Soul, and Madman. For students of R&B and funk music, a release like this is like finding a new Rosetta Stone.

The origin of this compilation is all the changes that occurred at that time. Otis Redding died in December 1967, and Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in April 68. Otis Redding's post-death hit singles "(Sittin' on the) Dock of the Bay" and Sam & Dave's "IThank You" are the label's first singles in 68 years. These tunes show how soul artists evolved and how black artists at the time increasingly transitioned to more ordinary audiences.

Al Jackson Jr. received a lot of praise, not only because of Stax's drums, but also the overall sound of Stax. It is said that there would be no Stax without him. As the drummer of the early Stax family band Booker T. & The MGs, Jackson played with some of the big-name stars of the label. Booker T once told me that he played "Green Onions" with more than 80 drummers over the years, but only one or two people can really do this like Jackson. Considering how simple the sound is, relying heavily on snare drums and hi-hats, this proves his sense of rhythm production.

But Jackson is not alone. Thank you very much to all the musicians at Stax, especially drummers Willie Hall and Howard Grimes. Hall applauded Bar-Kays and Isaac Hayes and later Blues Brothers and others. Grimes worked closely with star producer Willie Mitchell and recorded many records. I heard that Howard Grimes performed better on Jr. Al Jackson than Jr. Al Jackson.

So how to reproduce the sound? You need to go back in time, because that is part of the secret of the sound. Once you get your little Al Jackson into trouble, you need to grasp the artistic freedom spirit that injects these rhythms. Willie Hall started recording there when he was in high school. He said that the biggest advantage of working at Stax is, "Expression and music are so free, and musicians have such a deep friendship." And, you might It takes time to determine the sound. Willie recalled that Isaac Hayes meetings were usually all night-7pm to 7am-and they lasted for several days.

Terry Manning designed many great Stax conferences, and he said that Jackson was recording at a fairly small booth, and we can see this in some photos from those days. His equipment is usually Rogers and Ludwig 400 snare drums. In the studio, they usually set up a Neumann KM-84 snare drum that points about 5 inches to 8 inches away. The rest of the kit will be captured on U87 or U67. The bass drum may be equipped with (electroacoustic) RE-20, or sometimes the snare drum or bass drum may be equipped with RE-15 or Shure 545.

In the early days, the bass guitar, bass drum, and snare drum might be tracked together on the first track, the rest of the drums on the second track, and other music on other tracks. They use Flickinger and Spectrasonics consoles most of the time in various studios.

One technique you might use is doubling. In Al Green's "Let's Stay Together", Jackson played drums and Grimes played Conga. The result is a thick sound similar to a tom on the snare drum. The drum is tuned very low and you can hear it too. They sound like African drums, not modern rifle shooting.

In some photos, you can see Jackson's wallet on the snare drum. In a forum comment on Gearslutz Terry, he said: “We almost always put the drummer’s wallet on the snare drum. When the drum is struck it will “jump up”, make a sound, and then fall again (I Think of it as gravity!) and mute it again so that the ring is not very long. Few people hit Thomas. Almost everything is bass drum, snare drum and hat (no microphone)."

In addition, you may keep a head kicking, never change your head (because Jackson does not), and once you have a good voice, never touch your microphone.

Stax '68: A Memphis Story will be released through Craft Recordings on October 19 and is available for pre-order. Stax Records also offers special bundles.

In addition to various CDs and digital editions, the Stax Museum also displayed two exhibits from September to December. One is "Stax '68" and the other is "Damn it! Stax Records music + activism."

[Note: My good friend Paul Siegel, co-founder of Hudson Music and manager of Pedrito Martinez pointed out today that Willie and Howard are part of a group of blues and R&B drummers, and their eternal work deserves further attention. Like James Black (New Orleans), Jerry Carrigan (Muscle Shoals) or Al Duncan (Chicago), their works are indeed related to a city and an era. We hope to be behind the scenes with some of these players in the future. ]

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