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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZMAR-KEYS, TheStudio session players who had instrumental hits: guitarist Steve Cropper (b 21 October 1941, Willow Springs MO), bassist Donald 'Duck' Dunn (b 24 November 1941, Memphis), drummer Terry Johnson, Jerry Lee Smith on keyboards, Wayne Jackson on trumpet, Don Nix on baritone sax, Charles 'Packy' Axton on tenor. Axton's mother and uncle had formed the Satellite label (renamed Stax); white youngsters who loved black music began by backing Rufus and Carla Thomas. Their own hit was 'Last Night', written and arranged by Chips Moman (no. 3 USA pop chart '61, when the label was still Satellite); they continued with 'Morning After', 'Pop-Eye Stroll', 'Philly Dog' etc but never reached the top 40 again. The Mar-Keys name was soon retired as Cropper became a founder member of Booker T and the MGs, taking Dunn with him; but the MGs and the Mar-Keys played together on stage, backing all the label's stars in now-legendary Stax soul revues. Eventually survivors Andrew Love (tenor sax: d 12 April 2012 aged 70) and Jackson added Floyd Newman on baritone and became the Memphis Horns, remaining an ace session group; Axton formed the Packers, had R&B hit with Mar-Keys soundalike 'Hole In The Wall' '65; Nix had a solo career, wrote 'Goin' Down' (much covered by J.J. Cale, Jeff Beck etc), then turned producer, working with Beck, John Mayall, Freddie King, Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett etc. Don Nix published Road Stories And Recipes '97, some of the stories poignant and the Southern recipes mouth-watering. |