Stax Instrumentals

Booker T. & The MG's | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 1, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Stax
• ASIN: B00008OM75
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #123,566 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: BOOKER T. & THE MG'S/MAR-KEYS
Title: STAX INSTRUMENTALS
Street Release Date: 04/01/2003
Domestic
Genre: OLDIES

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The band that inspired the Blues Brother's movie, May 20, 2007

By 

Tim Lookingbill "Digital Dude" (New Braunfels, TX. USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stax Instrumentals (Audio CD)

In fact the bassist Donald Duck Dunn and the lead guitarist Steve Cropper of Booker T and the MG's were in the movie as cast members of the Blues Brother's band.

As back up band for the majority of Stax studio soul music alumni, Booker T. & the MG's/Mar-Keys had a wide range of melodic styles back then as represented on this compilation encompassing early '60's yackity sax dance party pop to the smokey electric base, twangy guitar and bluesy-cool jazz organ riffs first heard in the '62 Green Onions hit.

Their unique sound has permeated through American pop culture where their influence can be heard in Frankie Avalon beach movies, Beach Boys songs, the Door's "Rider's On The Storm", the Partridge Family, even TV commercials all the way to the present Late Night with David Letterman and the early SNL bands. And the thing is most of the songs on this compilation sound more modern, fresh and original than what most bands are producing today.

Also, specific to this Fantasy Records release is the sound quality of this remix is the best out of the bunch. Big bass sound with distinct separation between instruments on the majority of the cuts that give a live studio feel similar to the way jazz sessions were recorded back in the day.

I say the majority of the songs because there are some that don't cut the mustard on sound fidelity on this particular CD. In fact on one Rhino label remix I have of the "Very Best of Booker T and the MG's" has the bass sucked right out of most of the songs giving them a flat, AM radio-sh sound where cranking it up makes the kick bass drum sound thonky and hollow. "EQ-ing" doesn't help. It just creates more distortion.

The cause of this can be deduced from the "Stax Instrumental" CD liner notes where Steve Cropper, the lead guitarist, describes this ambient warm bassy sound the early Stax studio embued to their recording sessions. He says they had to use filters to substantialy tone down the bass because it would create wide grooves in the vinyl LP cuts eating up so much wax they couldn't fit the rest of the songs on the album. But because they had plenty of room on a single 45rpm release, Green Onions being their first, they allowed more bass which accounts for this hit's signature sound making it on all CD's and probably the reason for the sound quality inconsistancies on a wide range of re-released cuts. It's apparent on my two CD's some selections may have come from master tapes mixed for LP's. Cool FYI nonetheless for those who've ever wondered why vinyl has that certain sound quality. It's not the wax, it's the mix.

My favorites on this CD are "Slidin", "Consumption", "Tick Tac Toe" among many others. Really cool crusin' music. I can tell you this is definately a keeper album.