Stax Museum celebrates Rufus Thomas' 'Century of Funk'
Next week, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music will celebrate a milestone anniversary for one of Memphis' most pivotal musical figures, Rufus Thomas. Known as “The World's Oldest Teenager," Thomas — who died in 2001 — would have marked his 100th birthday March 26.
On Thursday, March 23, the Stax Museum will celebrate the centenary with the launch of a new exhibit, "A Century of Funk: Rufus Thomas at 100,” as well as a panel discussion and musical tribute.
Stax Museum executive director Jeff Kollath, who spearheaded the retrospective, says the exhibit will offer fans a look at Thomas' life -— not just as a showman, but also as a family man and working man. “We like tell the story of how Stax was a blue collar, do-it-yourself label. Rufus is the ultimate blue-collar working-class musician,” says Kollath. “He worked three jobs to support his family. He was a musician and a DJ at WDIA, but during the week he worked long hours at American Finishing Co., manufacturing textiles.
“After he wrapped up at the mill is when he would do his shift at WDIA. He’d work during the week and then go out on the road and do Friday and Saturday and sometimes Sunday gigs out of town, and then come home and get up early Monday and go back to the mill. That was the depth of his dedication to his craft and his art and to entertaining people. He really was the ultimate entertainer.”
“A Century of Funk” — which runs through Aug. 31 — will include photos, promotional material, stage costumes and other memorabilia to show the wide swath Thomas cut across Memphis music history — from the beginnings of black radio at WDIA to the glory days of Beale Street, as well as his crucial role at both the Sun and Stax labels.
Born in 1917 in Cayce, Miss., Thomas moved to Memphis as an infant. A precocious child performer, he worked his way through the local entertainment ranks as a dancer, comic, and deejay on WDIA, before launching a recording career — and giving Sun Records its first national hit — with 1953's "Bear Cat."
By the late '50s, Rufus and wife Lorene's family included a pair of teenagers, piano-playing son Marvell and singing daughter Carla. (The Thomases' baby sister, Vaneese, would later sing background on Stax sessions, before going on to a successful jazz career). In summer 1960, Rufus, who'd been shopping a Carla demo tape he'd recorded at home, was tipped by local musician and family friend Robert Talley about Satellite Records, a fledgling label run by country fiddler and banker Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton.
Satellite had been cutting country and pop songs, mostly unsuccessfully, for almost three years. With his money and prospects dwindling, Stewart welcomed a chance to record a Rufus and Carla duet of an R&B number called "'Cause I Love You" — the first session cut in the newly renovated movie theater-cum-studio at 921 E. McLemore that would become the label's headquarters and creative hub.
Within a few months of its release, "'Cause I Love You" was a regional hit, selling several thousand copies in Memphis, Nashville and Atlanta. Its success piqued the interest of New York's Atlantic Records and executive Jerry Wexler, beginning a distribution relationship that would eventually catapult the label to national prominence.
Carla would soon break things wide open as a solo act with her self-penned "Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes)" — which sold half a million copies — while Rufus charted with "Walkin' the Dog." Stax, as it was renamed in 1961, was off and running.
As Jim Stewart told author Rob Bowman in his Stax label history, "Soulsville, U.S.A,," the experience of recording the Thomases was a turning point. "Prior to that I had no knowledge of what black music was about," Stewart recalled. "Never heard black music and never even had an inkling of what it was all about. It was like a blind man who suddenly gained his sight."
“Aside from Jim Stewart, [label co-owner] Estelle Axton and [executive] Al Bell, you could argue Rufus Thomas might be the most important person in Stax Records history,” says Kollath. “Even before he recorded at Stax, as a DJ, Rufus played the Vel-Notes record, the first African-American artist that Jim Stewart had worked with. Rufus played it on the radio, and it became the first record that Jim Stewart really sold. That’s what convinced him to start making R&B music. So Rufus is there at the very beginning and throughout in so many crucial moments.”
Rufus would continue to play a vital role in the creative culture at Stax in later years, scoring multiple funk hits ("Do The Funky Chicken," "The Breakdown") and making an unforgettable appearance during the 1972 WattStax concert and documentary film (Thomas' famed hot pink short-pant suit from the performance will be part of the new exhibit).
“He doesn’t get the credit for the being the innovator that he was, in terms of the music he helped create. He’s the one that brought funk to McLemore Avenue. I would say [1967’s] "Sophisticated Sissy" is the first funk record Stax put out. Again, I think he gets shortchanged in terms of his ability to arrange music by feel and by gut. He responded to trends in the industry, people doing new dances in all the clubs — that’s where his great dance songs came from. He always had his finger on the pulse.”
As part of next Thursday’s exhibit opening, there will be a discussion about Rufus led by WDIA's Bev Johnson. The Stax Music Academy Rhythm Section will also be performing some of Thomas' hits. Although it's a celebration, the event will be tinged with a bit of sadness as Thomas’ son and Stax session musician Marvell Thomas died last month at age 75. However, Rufus Thomas’ surviving family members, including daughters Carla and Vaneese, will be on hand to take part.
“Rufus was and remains such an essential figure to not just Stax but Memphis music in general,” says Kollath. “His 100th really feels like a great opportunity to mark and honor that life and legacy.”
'A Century of Funk: Rufus Thomas at 100'
March 23-Aug. 31 at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, 926 E. McLemore. staxmuseum.org
Opening reception at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 23.