MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The co-founder of Stax Records in Memphis, Jim Stewart, will be honored with a posthumous Grammy award during the 2023 ceremonies.
The Recording Academy will present its Special Merit Awards on Feb. 4 during Grammy Week.
Stewart is being honored with a Trustees Award, which the Recording Academy said is presented “to individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording. (Through 1983, the award also included performers).
The award puts Stewart in the company of Stax label mates Estelle Axton and Al Bell, The Beatles, Les Paul, Walt Disney, Clive Davis, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, and others who have received the award.
According to the Recording Academy’s website: “Jim Stewart founded Stax Records and produced some of the greatest rhythm and blues (R&B) records of the 1960s. He was instrumental in launching the careers of Otis Redding, the Bar-Kays, Isaac Hayes, Eddie Floyd, Booker T. & the M.G.s, the Staple Singers, Johnnie Taylor, Albert King, Rufus and Carla Thomas, and hundreds of others. With Stewart at the helm, Stax moved some 800 singles and 300 albums, placing more than 167 hit songs in the Top 100 on the pop charts, and a staggering 243 hits in the Top 100 R&B charts. Stewart was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 by Steve Cropper of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and Sam Moore of Sam & Dave. In 2012, he was also among the first class of inductees to the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.”
Stewart died peacefully Dec. 5, 2022, surrounded by his family, according to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.
