Malaco Records
Encyclopedia
Malaco Records is an independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

 based in Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...

. Malaco is and has been the home of various major soul, blues and gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

 acts, such as Johnnie Taylor
Johnnie Taylor
Johnnie Harrison Taylor was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from rhythm and blues, soul, blues and gospel to pop, doo-wop and disco.-Early years:...

, Bobby Bland, ZZ Hill, Denise LaSalle, Benny Latimore, Dorothy Moore
Dorothy Moore
Dorothy Moore is an American pop, R&B, and soul singer best known for her 1976 hit song, "Misty Blue".-Career:...

, Little Milton
Little Milton
James Milton Campbell, Jr. , better known as Little Milton, was an American electric blues, rhythm and blues, and soul singer and guitarist, best known for his hit records "Grits Ain't Groceries" and "We're Gonna Make It."-Biography:Milton was born James Milton Campbell, Jr., in the Mississippi...

, Shirley Brown, Marvin Sease, and the Mississippi Mass Choir
Mississippi Mass Choir
The Mississippi Mass Choir is an American gospel choir based in Jackson, Mississippi.-Musical career:Serving God Through Song" is the motto and the mission of The Mississippi Mass Choir. Although striving to succeed in the gospel music industry, the choir's purpose is to help establish the gospel...

. It has received an historic marker issued by the Mississippi Blues Commission to commemorate its important place on the Mississippi Blues Trail
Mississippi Blues Trail
The Mississippi Blues Trail, created by the Mississippi Blues Commission, is a project to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the growth of the blues throughout the state of Mississippi. The trail extends from the border of Louisiana in southern Mississippi...

.
A tornado on April 15, 2011, destroyed much of the company's main building and studio.

Beginnings

Malaco Records was founded in 1962
1962 in music
-Events:*January 1 – The Beatles and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes both audition at Decca Records, a company which has the option of signing one group only...

 by Tommy Couch, Mitchell Malouf, and Wolf Stephenson, initially as a booking agency. In 1967, the company opened a recording studio in a building that remains the home of Malaco. Experimenting with local songwriters and artists, the company began producing master recordings. Malaco needed to license their early recordings with established labels for national distribution. Between 1968 and 1970, Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

 released six singles and a Grammy-nominated album by legendary bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell
Mississippi Fred McDowell
Fred McDowell known by his stage name; Mississippi Fred McDowell, was an American Hill country blues singer and guitar player.-Career:...

. Revenue from record releases was minimal, however, and Malaco survived doing jingles, booking bands, promoting concerts, and renting the studio for custom projects.

In May 1970, a bespectacled producer-arranger changed the struggling company's fortune. Wardell Quezergue
Wardell Quezergue
Wardell Quezergue was an American music arranger, producer and bandleader, known among New Orleans musicians as the “Creole Beethoven”. Wardell was born into a musical family with his father, Sidney Quezergue Sr., being a guitar player. Wardell was the second youngest of three brothers: Sidney...

 made his mark with New Orleans stalwarts Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....

 and Professor Longhair
Professor Longhair
Professor Longhair was a New Orleans blues singer and pianist...

, among others. Quezergue offered to supply Malaco with artists in return for studio time and session musicians. With very little money left, Malaco knew this might be their last shot at making something happen. Quezergue brought five artists to Jackson in a borrowed school bus for a marathon session that yielded two mega-hits - King Floyd
King Floyd
King Floyd was a New Orleans soul singer and songwriter, best known for his Top 10 hit from 1970, "Groove Me".-Early career:...

's "Groove Me" and Jean Knight
Jean Knight
Jean Knight is an African-American soul/R&B/funk singer, best known for her 1971 Stax Records hit single, "Mr. Big Stuff".-Early years:...

's "Mr. Big Stuff." But the tracks met rejection when submitted to Stax
Stax Records
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...

 and Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

 for distribution. Frustrated, Malaco released the King Floyd tracks on its own Chimneyville label. When "Groove Me" started a wildfire of radio play and sales, Atlantic picked the record up for distribution after all, giving Malaco a label deal for future Chimneyville product. "Groove Me" entered the national charts in October, going to #1 R&B and #6 pop. In 1971, Chimneyville scored again with King Floyd's "Baby Let Me Kiss You" (#5 R&B and #29 Pop). Meanwhile, Stax decided to take a chance on "Mr. Big Stuff", selling over two million copies on the way to #1 on the R&B charts and #2 pop.

Malaco's studio and session musicians were now in demand. Atlantic sent the Pointer Sisters
Pointer Sisters
The Pointer Sisters are an American pop/R&B recording act from Oakland, California that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Spanning over three decades, their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, disco, jazz, bebop, blues, soul, funk, dance, country and rock.The...

 among others for the Malaco touch; Stax sent Rufus Thomas
Rufus Thomas
Rufus Thomas, Jr. was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian fromMemphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the...

 and others. And, in January 1973, Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...

 recorded material for his There Goes Rhymin' Simon
There Goes Rhymin' Simon
There Goes Rhymin' Simon is the third solo studio album by American musician Paul Simon rush-released on May 5, 1973. It contains songs covering several styles and genres, such as gospel and dixieland . It received two nominations at the Grammy Awards of 1974, including Best Male Pop Vocal...

album. Later that year, Malaco released its first gospel record, "Gospel Train" by the Golden Nuggets. Also in 1973, King Floyd's "Woman Don't Go Astray" made #5 R&B.

When Dorothy Moore recorded "Misty Blue
Misty Blue
"Misty Blue" is a song written by Bob Montgomery in 1966 which has become a hit in the pop, C&W and soul fields through various versions, the most successful being the 1976 pop/soul hit by Dorothy Moore.-C&W hit versions:...

" in 1973, Malaco got stacks of rejection slips trying to shop the master to other labels. Two years later, Malaco was broke and desperate for something to sell. With just enough cash to press and mail out the record, "Misty Blue" was released on the Malaco label just before Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...

. Luckily, it took off the moment it hit radio turntables.

"Misty Blue" earned gold records around the world, peaking at #2 R&B and #3 pop in the USA, and #5 in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. This was followed by thirteen chart records and five Grammy nominations for Moore by 1980.

The Golden Era, 1975-1985

Another Malaco gamble in late 1975 was targeting the gospel market again with The Jackson Southernaires. The gamble paid off, and other premium gospel artists signed on, including the Soul Stirrers, The Sensational Nightingales, The Williams Brothers, The Truthettes, and The Angelic Gospel Singers, to name a few. The Southernaires's Frank Williams became Malaco's Director of Gospel Operations, producing virtually every Malaco gospel release until his untimely death in 1993. By 1977, songwriters, artists, and producers from the defunct Stax Records were knocking on Malaco's doors, including Eddie Floyd
Eddie Floyd
Eddie Lee Floyd is an American soul/R&B singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s and the song "Knock on Wood".-Biography:...

, Frederick Knight
Frederick Knight (singer)
Frederick Knight is an American R&B singer, songwriter and record producer.- Biography :Knight recorded with Mercury and Capitol in New York before signing with Stax Records in 1972. He had his only UK hit single, "I've Been Lonely For So Long," in 1972. The song was on the chart for 10 weeks and...

, The Fiestas, and David Porter
David Porter (musician)
David Porter is an American soul musician. Porter is best known as the songwriting and production partner of Isaac Hayes at Stax Records during the 1960s...

.

By this time, Malaco had stopped trying to compete with mainstream labels. It fell back on what it did so well - down home black music. Larger labels dismissed the genre as an unprofitable relic of the past. However, Malaco could make a tidy profit selling 25,000 - 50,000 units. Starting with Z. Z. Hill, Malaco became the center of the universe for old-time blues and soul.

Since blues supposedly no longer sold, everyone was shocked when Hill's second album, Down Home Blues, sold 500,000 copies. It was the most successful blues album ever, revealing a core audience for quality blues records. It also became an anthem for R&B singers struggling against disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

 and the emergence of rap. Hill had become a blues superstar when he suddenly died in 1984. His funeral was attended by a who's who of southern blues culture. Hearing Johnnie Taylor
Johnnie Taylor
Johnnie Harrison Taylor was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from rhythm and blues, soul, blues and gospel to pop, doo-wop and disco.-Early years:...

 sing at the service, Tommy Couch invited Taylor to become Malaco's new flagship artist.

Blues legend Denise LaSalle
Denise LaSalle
Denise LaSalle is an American R&B/soul and blues singer, songwriter, and record producer.-Career:...

 charted fourteen times in the 1970s. But during the disco era, her R&B style was called blues, and big labels were no longer interested. It was a southern blues-radio staple and racked up substantial sales, but never showed up on national charts. This became the rule. Malaco's undisputed sales successes could never be measured by Billboard chart positions during the 1980s.

After 29 chart entries for other labels, blues guitarist Little Milton
Little Milton
James Milton Campbell, Jr. , better known as Little Milton, was an American electric blues, rhythm and blues, and soul singer and guitarist, best known for his hit records "Grits Ain't Groceries" and "We're Gonna Make It."-Biography:Milton was born James Milton Campbell, Jr., in the Mississippi...

 signed with Malaco in 1984. Little Milton's first Malaco single "The Blues is Alright" reestablished his presence as a major blues artist and solidified Malaco's reputation as the contemporary southern blues company.

In 1985, Malaco signed Bobby Blue Bland. He had notched up 62 Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

R&B chart records in 25 years, though few of them made an impression on pop radio.

The Malaco Records studio gets destroyed

On April 15, 2011, the company's studio and offices were hit by a tornado that caused major damage and destruction. Thousands of master tapes from recording sessions survived intact in a separate concrete vault. The company plans to re-build the damaged offices and recording studio. This storm came six years after Hurricane Katrina also hit the area, causing some damage to the Malaco premises.

Malaco Gospel

Clearly the dominant contemporary southern blues label, Malaco purchased the gospel division of Savoy Records in 1986. Now, Malaco was also the preeminent black gospel company in North America. The Savoy acquisition brought a vast catalog of classic recordings dating back decades, including albums by Shirley Caesar
Shirley Caesar
Shirley Ann Caesar is an American Gospel music singer, songwriter and recording artist whose career has spanned six decades...

, Rev. James Cleveland
James Cleveland
The Reverend Dr. James Cleveland was a gospel singer, arranger, composer and, most significantly, the driving force behind the creation of the modern gospel sound, bringing the stylistic daring of hard gospel and jazz and pop music influences to arrangements for mass choirs...

, Albertina Walker
Albertina Walker
-Early years:Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ruben and Camille Coleman Walker. Her mother was born in Houston County, Georgia, and her father in Bibb County, Georgia. They moved to Chicago between 1917-1920 where they lived out their lives. Albertina had four siblings born in Bibb County...

, The Caravans
The Caravans
The Caravans is a Jubilee Gospel group that was started by Albertina Walker . The group reached its peak popularity during the 1950s and 1960s, launching the careers of a number of artists, including: Delores Washington, Albertina Walker, Bessie Griffin, Cassietta George, Dorothy Norwood, Inez...

, and Inez Andrews
Inez Andrews
Inez Andrews is an American gospel singer and recording artist.-Biography:In 1957, Andrews became a member of the gospel group The Caravans; she auditioned for Albertina Walker and Dorothy Norwood, and they sent for her in Chicago...

. In further expansion moves that year, Malaco entered the world of telemarketing
Telemarketing
Telemarketing is a method of direct marketing in which a salesperson solicits prospective customers to buy products or services, either over the phone or through a subsequent face to face or Web conferencing appointment scheduled during the call.Telemarketing can also include recorded sales pitches...

. Malaco's gospel labels under Jerry Mannery and Savoy Records under Milton Biggham earned multiple honors, including Billboard designations as Top Gospel Label and Top Gospel Distributor, while the artists received numerous awards (Grammy, Stellar, Soul Train, and Gospel Music Workshop), as well as Billboard Top Gospel Artist of the Year designations. The company also dominated Billboard Gospel charts, achieving #1 rankings by Keith Pringle, Walter Hawkins
Walter Hawkins
Walter Hawkins was an American gospel music singer, and a pastor. Hawkins was consecrated to the bishopic in 1992. He died at his home in Ripon, California, from pancreatic cancer....

, Rev. James Moore, The Mississippi Mass Choir
Mississippi Mass Choir
The Mississippi Mass Choir is an American gospel choir based in Jackson, Mississippi.-Musical career:Serving God Through Song" is the motto and the mission of The Mississippi Mass Choir. Although striving to succeed in the gospel music industry, the choir's purpose is to help establish the gospel...

, and Dorothy Norwood.

Malaco Music Group

Malaco's market focus widened dramatically in 1995. Songwriter/producer Rich Cason cut "Good Love" on Johnnie Taylor with a contemporary L.A. jeep beat, enabling the artist to reach a new, younger audience. Combining contemporary tracks with old school material like "Last Two Dollars", the Good Love album soared to #1 on Billboard's blues charts and #15 R&B, becoming the biggest record in Malaco's history. In 1997, Malaco found itself without a distribution deal and formed Malaco Music Group, which consists of Malaco Records and its subsidiaries as they are now looking for artists of all genres.

In the late '90s, Malaco signed veteran Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 soul great Tyrone Davis
Tyrone Davis
Tyrone Davis , born Tyrone Fettson, was a leading American soul singer with a distinctive style, recording a long list of hit records over a period of more than 20 years. He had three no...

, whose credits included 42 R&B chart records. The company also continued its steady, prudent expansion, purchasing half of the Memphis-based distributor Select-O-Hits
Select-O-Hits
Select-O-Hits is an independent label distributor of music based in Memphis, Tennessee. They have been in business for 50 years, and distribute artists that include Johnnie Taylor, Jimmy Buffett, Three Six Mafia, Colt Ford, and Diana Reyes.-The early years:...

, and making inroads into the urban contemporary
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...

, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, and contemporary Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 markets. Malaco continues to be a breeding ground for up-and-coming blues artists.

Malaco Records has been designated as a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail
Mississippi Blues Trail
The Mississippi Blues Trail, created by the Mississippi Blues Commission, is a project to place interpretive markers at the most notable historical sites related to the growth of the blues throughout the state of Mississippi. The trail extends from the border of Louisiana in southern Mississippi...

.

Labels Under Malaco

  • 601 Music
  • Muscle Shoals Records
  • Grind-Up Records
  • B-Flint Entertainment

Artists

  • Tommy Tate
  • Tye
    Tye
    Tye may refer to:* Tye, Texas* Tiye or Tye , queen of ancient Egypt* TYE - an acronym for Tax Year Ending-People with the name:* Christopher Tye Tye may refer to:* Tye, Texas* Tiye or Tye (1398–1338 BC), queen of ancient Egypt* TYE - an acronym for Tax Year Ending-People with the name:* Christopher...

  • Z. Z. Hill
  • Dorothy Moore
    Dorothy Moore
    Dorothy Moore is an American pop, R&B, and soul singer best known for her 1976 hit song, "Misty Blue".-Career:...

  • McKinley Mitchell
    McKinley Mitchell
    McKinley Mitchell was an American Chicago-based soul-blues and rhythm and blues singer, who started out performing gospel music. He recorded singles for Boxer Records, Chess Records , and a variety of other record labels. Most of his releases are still only available on records...

  • Johnnie Taylor
    Johnnie Taylor
    Johnnie Harrison Taylor was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from rhythm and blues, soul, blues and gospel to pop, doo-wop and disco.-Early years:...

  • Jean Knight
    Jean Knight
    Jean Knight is an African-American soul/R&B/funk singer, best known for her 1971 Stax Records hit single, "Mr. Big Stuff".-Early years:...

  • King Floyd
    King Floyd
    King Floyd was a New Orleans soul singer and songwriter, best known for his Top 10 hit from 1970, "Groove Me".-Early career:...

  • Da Minista
  • Freedom
  • 24/7
  • Buddy Ace
    Buddy Ace
    Buddy Ace was an American blues singer, known as the "Silver Fox of the Blues." His best known tracks were "Root Doctor" and "Pouring Water on a Drowning Man"....

  • Bobby "Blue" Bland
  • Cicero Blake
  • Jerry Butler
    Jerry Butler (singer)
    Jerry Butler is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.Butler is also an American politician...

  • Lil' Bobb E Bling
  • The Beat Daddys
  • Shirley Brown
    Shirley Brown
    Shirley Brown is an American soul singer, best known for her million-selling single "Woman to Woman" which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1975.-Woman to Woman:...

  • Jonathan Burton
  • J. Blackfoot
    J. Blackfoot
    J. Blackfoot , was an American soul singer, who was a member of The Soul Children in the late 1960s and 1970s, and subsequently had a moderately successful solo career...

  • David Brinston
  • Big Synthia
  • Vick Allen
  • Eddie Floyd
    Eddie Floyd
    Eddie Lee Floyd is an American soul/R&B singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s and the song "Knock on Wood".-Biography:...

  • Roberta Flack
    Roberta Flack
    Roberta Flack is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music...

  • Mr. David
  • The Drifters
    The Drifters
    The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...

  • G.C. Cameron
  • I-55
  • Lil' DJ
  • Mike Griffin
  • Larry Hamilton
    Larry Hamilton (musician)
    Larry Hamilton is an American New Orleans blues, rhythm and blues and soul blues singer and songwriter. Although he has been a professional musician since the mid 1960s, his solo debut album was not released until 1997.-Biography:...

  • Jewman
  • Ernie Johnson
  • Patrick Green
  • Denise LaSalle
    Denise LaSalle
    Denise LaSalle is an American R&B/soul and blues singer, songwriter, and record producer.-Career:...

  • Keri Leigh
  • La' Keisha
  • Lil' Nikki
  • Fred McDowell
  • Latimore
    Latimore
    Latimore can refer to :-* Latimore Township, Adams County, PennsylvaniaFamily name:* Benny Latimore, American R&B musician* Deandre Latimore , a professional boxer* Franklin Latimore , an American actor...

  • Johnnie Taylor
  • Little Milton
    Little Milton
    James Milton Campbell, Jr. , better known as Little Milton, was an American electric blues, rhythm and blues, and soul singer and guitarist, best known for his hit records "Grits Ain't Groceries" and "We're Gonna Make It."-Biography:Milton was born James Milton Campbell, Jr., in the Mississippi...

  • Marvin Sease
    Marvin Sease
    Marvin Sease aka "The Candy Licker" was an American blues and soul Singer/Songwriter known for his racy lyrics....

  • Heavy D.
  • B-Hamp
  • Dondria
    Dondria
    Dondria Nicole Fields , better known by her stage names Phatfffat or Dondria, is an American R&B singer, currently signed to So So Def Recordings. Before getting signed, Dondria was known to post YouTube videos singing cover songs.-Discovery and early life:Dondria was discovered on YouTube by So So...

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