The Memphis record label co-founded by Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton in 1957 was Stax Records.
The company began as Satellite Records, founded by Stewart in Memphis in 1957. His sister, Estelle Axton, later invested in the business and helped provide the equipment needed to develop a recording operation. The label adopted the name Stax in 1961, combining the beginnings of Stewart and Axton’s surnames: “Stewart” and “Axton.”
Stax became one of the defining institutions of Southern soul and Memphis soul. Its catalog included recordings by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, William Bell and Isaac Hayes. The label’s house band, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, supplied a distinctive instrumental sound, and Stax was notable for its racially integrated artists, musicians and staff during a period of intense racial tension in Memphis and the American South.
The wrong options are important record labels, but they point to different histories. Atlantic was founded in New York, Chess was established in Chicago, and Motown was founded in Detroit by Berry Gordy in 1959. Stax’s Memphis identity and its Stewart-Axton origin are the decisive clues.