WAYNE JACKSON,
1941-2016

Trumpeter Wayne Jackson, who partnered with tenor saxophonist Andrew Love and helped define Memphis soul in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the Stax Records house band, died on Tuesday congestive heart failure in Memphis. He was 74.

Jackson, who started recording as a teenager, had his first hit with The Mar-Keys’ “Last Night” and in the ‘60s and ‘70s would play on countless records by Stax stars Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Sam and Dave, Albert King, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes and Rufus Thomas. He and Love would also work at American Sound Studio in Memphis and FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., backing artists such as Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and Percy Sledge.

They officially became the Memphis Horns in 1969, and would record with Elvis Presley, Al Green, James Taylor, The Faces, Steve Winwood, Ray Charles, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson and others. They also toured and recorded with The Doobie Brothers, Robert Cray, Jimmy Buffett and Joe Cocker.

Besides playing on nearly every Stax release, Jackson could be heard on Franklin’s “Respect,” Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man,” Presley’s “Suspicious Minds,” U2’s “Angel of Harlem,” Cray’s Strong Persuader and Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”

Jackson and Love received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.