Charles "Packy" Axton (February 17, 1941 – January 20, 1974) was an American

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

player and bandleader, who was a member of the

Mar-Keys The Mar-Keys, formed in 1958, were an American studio session band for Stax Records, in Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1960s. As the first house band for the label, their backing music formed the foundation for the early 1960s Stax sound. Career E ...

and later the

Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the thi ...

Early life

Charles Everett "Packy" Axton was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, the son of Everett and

Estelle Axton Estelle Axton (September 11, 1918 – February 24, 2004) was an American record executive and co-founder of Stax Records, along with her brother Jim Stewart. Biography Born in Middleton, Tennessee, Estelle Stewart grew up on a farm. She move ...

. Estelle Axton and her brother, Jim Stewart, were the founders of

Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. Stax was ...

. He graduated from

Messick High School Messick High School was a public high school in Memphis, Tennessee, established in 1908 and operated from 1909 to 1981.Vance Lauderdale. The Messick school mascot is the Golden WildcatElizabeth Messick and Messick High School ''Memphis Flyer'', Oct ...

in 1959.

Career

By 1959, Packy Axton had become a member of the Royal Spades, a group formed by

Steve Cropper Steven Lee Cropper (born October 21, 1941), sometimes known as "The Colonel", is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as Ot ...

Donald "Duck" Dunn Donald "Duck" Dunn (November 24, 1941 – May 13, 2012) was an American bass guitarist, session musician, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn was notable for his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.'s and as a session bassist for Stax Rec ...

, Charlie Freeman and Terry Johnson, which expanded to include a

horn section A horn section is a group of musicians playing horns. In an orchestra or concert band, it refers to the musicians who play the "French" horn, and in a British-style brass band it is the tenor horn players. In many popular music genres, the te ...

composed of Axton,

Don Nix Don Nix (born September 27, 1941, Memphis, Tennessee, United States) is an American songwriter, composer, arranger, musician, and author. Although cited as being "one of the more obscure figures in Southern soul and rock", he is a key figure in ...

, and Wayne Jackson. In 1961, they renamed themselves the Mar-Keys and had a major hit with " Last Night" (number 3 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

, number 2 on the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

). Axton, Cropper and Jackson were the only members of the band to perform on the record; the other parts were played by session musicians. The Mar-Keys quickly fractured into what were effectively two separate groups; the Mar-Keys that continued to record in the studio and release material on Stax were often a completely different set of musicians to the Mar-Keys who played live gigs. After Cropper left the live band in 1961, soon followed by Dunn, Axton became the effective leader of the live Mar-Keys. He also worked as a session musician at Stax, working with the studio Mar-Keys (including Cropper and Dunn) on an irregular basis. Axton left Memphis—effectively severing his relationship with the Mar-Keys—in 1965 to live in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, reportedly after a series of disagreements with Jim Stewart.Bowman, Rob (2003). ''Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records''. Music Sales Group. . Later in 1965, the Stax Revue performed in Los Angeles, and radio

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

Magnificent Montague Nathaniel "Magnificent" Montague (born in New Jersey, January 11, 1928), is an American R&B disc jockey notable not only for the soul music records he helped promote on KGFJ Los Angeles and WWRL New York City, but also his trademark catch-phras ...

persuaded Axton to record there with Cropper,

Booker T. Jones Booker Taliaferro Jones Jr. (born November 12, 1944) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known art ...

and

Al Jackson Alvin Neill Jackson (December 26, 1935 – August 19, 2019), affectionately referred to as "Little" Al Jackson, was a left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1959 to 1969. His 43 wins with the New York Mets were the franchi ...

, all of Booker T. & the M.G.'s. They recorded an instrumental track together, "Hole in the Wall", which Montague then released as by the Packers; it reached number 43 on the pop chart and number 5 on the R&B chart. Axton formed a pickup group to promote the record. Axton later returned to Memphis. In 1966/67, he was a member of the Pac-Keys, an instrumental group which released two singles. The first, "Stone Fox", saw some regional chart action, but neither single charted nationally. After 1967, Axton ran the Satellite Record Shop in Memphis, occasionally performing with musicians such as

Charlie Rich Charles Allan Rich (December 14, 1932July 25, 1995) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. His eclectic style of music was often difficult to classify, encompassing the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country music, country, sou ...

Personal life

Axton had one son, Charles Everett Jr. Axton died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Memphis on January 20, 1974, at the age of 32. According to one source, the cause of death was

cirrhosis of the liver Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...

. He was buried at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Axton, Packy 1941 births 1974 deaths American male saxophonists American rhythm and blues musicians Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee 20th-century American saxophonists Deaths from cirrhosis Alcohol-related deaths in Tennessee 20th-century American male musicians