The backstory: “This is the best damn instrumental I’ve heard”īooker T Jones was a precociously talented multi-instrumentalist who played the saxophone, oboe, trombone and double bass, as well as keyboards. Here’s the story of how Green Onions changed the world… Listen to the ‘Green Onions’ album here. Rush-released after the success of The MGs’ high-flying debut single, the catchy instrumental Green Onions – which spent a month at the top of the US R&B chart in August 1962 – the parent album helped to establish the instantly recognisable and highly influential Stax sound. Distinctly urban in its blend of grit and polish, the record heralded an exciting new sound that drew on the deep emotional well that was at the heart of both the blues and soul-music idioms. ![]() Green Onions was the first album released by Stax, the label founded a year earlier by siblings Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton. But not only did Booker T And The MGs offer a model of inclusivity and harmonious racial integration at a time when North America was being torn apart by ethnic divisions, they also helped establish the reputation of a white-owned independent record company that became renowned for mostly recording Black soul musicians. A young rhythm’n’blues combo from Memphis, Tennessee, the group was led by a 17-year-old organist called Booker T Jones and broke new ground in the US because their line-up contained both Black and white musicians, a development that was then deemed controversial. ![]() In the autumn of 1962, the distinctive sound of Stax Records reached the wider world thanks to Green Onions, the electrifying debut album by Booker T And The MGs.
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