I'm so tired of these damn tornados coming through here. They don't call us tornado alley for nothing. Anyway, a tornado came through Jackson Friday and this time it destroyed Malaco Records. Malaco is the label that folks like ZZ Hill, Dorothy Moore, Denise LaSalle, Freedom, Sho Nuff, etc. was on as well as gospel artists too.

Damn stuff like this sucks. Thank goodness no one was hurt. How mch of the masters and material is gone??

Wow, that's really bad that some of the masters were lost, but at least no one was hurt. I remember not that long ago Philadelphia International's building caught on fire and they lost stuff too.

Not surprised. Jackson, Mississippi got hit hard by the tornado. North Carolina also suffered in the tornado... thank God nothing happened where I was though. But glad that everyone was safe.

Some Malaco blues....

^^

Here's to hope Malaco makes, if not a full, but big recovery.

Some Malaco funk....

And two of the baddest slow jams....

WOW!!! MALACO GOT THAT COOKOUT MUSIC! DESPITE NEVER HAVING COMMERCIAL AIRPLAY, MALACO SURVIVED.

i just realized i wrote in all caps. HA!

vainandy said:

I'm so tired of these damn tornados coming through here. They don't call us tornado alley for nothing. Anyway, a tornado came through Jackson Friday and this time it destroyed Malaco Records. Malaco is the label that folks like ZZ Hill, Dorothy Moore, Denise LaSalle, Freedom, Sho Nuff, etc. was on as well as gospel artists too.

BeBe & CeCe Winans' reunion album was THE final album from Malaco Records thus far.

At least no one was injured OR killed within that location. But I've notice that Mississippi & (especially) Alabama has been getting most of the tornado touchdowns in recent years. And most of those storm clouds were coming from Oklahoma, THE tornado capital of the USA. Given that Arkansas is right next door, I never look forward to severe spring weather season at all.

And I thought I was getting a good deal leaving Louisiana because of summer hurricanes. Like hell!!!

So Sad...............

MJJstudent said:

WOW!!! MALACO GOT THAT COOKOUT MUSIC! DESPITE NEVER HAVING COMMERCIAL AIRPLAY, MALACO SURVIVED.

i just realized i wrote in all caps. HA!

Actually, they did have some national hits with ZZ Hill, Denise LaSalle, and Dorothy Moore. They've also done very well locally for decades. I know when shit hop took over in the 1990s, most people my age and older just stopped paying attention to the national scene which had become all shit hop and adult contemporary and just simply listened to the local blues acts on the local blues station. I was more into the house music though but I do tip my hat to a lot of local black Mississippi listeners for not selling out and listening to the national acts once they turned into bullshit. I remember back in the 1990s when I was up in Memphis, there was a station up there that was playing a lot of the Malaco blues acts so they must have done well in the surrounding states also.

TonyVanDam said:

vainandy said:

I'm so tired of these damn tornados coming through here. They don't call us tornado alley for nothing. Anyway, a tornado came through Jackson Friday and this time it destroyed Malaco Records. Malaco is the label that folks like ZZ Hill, Dorothy Moore, Denise LaSalle, Freedom, Sho Nuff, etc. was on as well as gospel artists too.

BeBe & CeCe Winans' reunion album was THE final album from Malaco Records thus far.

At least no one was injured OR killed within that location. But I've notice that Mississippi & (especially) Alabama has been getting most of the tornado touchdowns in recent years. And most of those storm clouds were coming from Oklahoma, THE tornado capital of the USA. Given that Arkansas is right next door, I never look forward to severe spring weather season at all.

And I thought I was getting a good deal leaving Louisiana because of summer hurricanes. Like hell!!!

It ain't gotta be spring down here. I had a tornado come very close to getting me this past New Year's Eve. I'm talking right up the street from my apartment. It's this crazy ass weather we have down here in the spring and in the winter. It will be 80 degrees one day and 30 degrees the next day.

We're the reason that Prince wore his trenchcoat and underwear during his "Dirty Mind" tour. When he was down here a few months earlier on tour with Rick James that March, he had on his trench coat. The next day, it was so damn hot, he didn't have any summer clothes to put on so he just took all his clothes off and walked around in his underwear. Then it turned cold on his ass again so he put his trench coat back on. A few months later, he went on his new tour with that outfit.

vainandy said:

TonyVanDam said:

BeBe & CeCe Winans' reunion album was THE final album from Malaco Records thus far.

At least no one was injured OR killed within that location. But I've notice that Mississippi & (especially) Alabama has been getting most of the tornado touchdowns in recent years. And most of those storm clouds were coming from Oklahoma, THE tornado capital of the USA. Given that Arkansas is right next door, I never look forward to severe spring weather season at all.

And I thought I was getting a good deal leaving Louisiana because of summer hurricanes. Like hell!!!

It ain't gotta be spring down here. I had a tornado come very close to getting me this past New Year's Eve. I'm talking right up the street from my apartment. It's this crazy ass weather we have down here in the spring and in the winter. It will be 80 degrees one day and 30 degrees the next day.

We're the reason that Prince wore his trenchcoat and underwear during his "Dirty Mind" tour. When he was down here a few months earlier on tour with Rick James that March, he had on his trench coat. The next day, it was so damn hot, he didn't have any summer clothes to put on so he just took all his clothes off and walked around in his underwear. Then it turned cold on his ass again so he put his trench coat back on. A few months later, he went on his new tour with that outfit.

@ Prince's trenchcoat story!

I've never seen a tornado in real life and I really do NOT want to neither. Experiencing a tornado warning during the daytime is one thing, since I know that there is a storm shelter right behind my apartment building and I can find it with some light. But a tornado warning in the middle of the night is scary AND riduculous. Those sirens would come on at full blast and people (especially me) would have only less than one minute to get to the storm shelter or jump in the emply bathtub with blankets. And since I lived on the second floor, I'm always at a huge disadvantage if OR when there is a tornado touchdown somewhere.

Isn't Kelly Price on Malaco now? Her new release is scheduled for May 3.

phunkdaddy said:

Isn't Kelly Price on Malaco now? Her new release is scheduled for May 3.

I don't know if she is on Malaco, but unless the printing of albums are done elsewhere and not at the studio, pending releases might be postponed. It might also depend on if her master tape is intact and not damaged by the tornado.

MickyDolenz said:

phunkdaddy said:

Isn't Kelly Price on Malaco now? Her new release is scheduled for May 3.

I don't know if she is on Malaco, but unless the printing of albums are done elsewhere and not at the studio, pending releases might be postponed. It might also depend on if her master tape is intact and not damaged by the tornado.

Timmy alerted me last night that she has a label called My Block. It may be distributed

through Malaco. She is credited on Mint Condition's cd as being on the Malaco label.

Malaco Records to rebuild bigger, better after tornado

by Billy Watkins

Wolf Stephenson

Malaco Records' flamingo-pink main office was one of the few buildings in the area when it opened in 1967 on the west end of Jackson's Northside Drive.

"We were practically out in the country," recalled Wolf Stephenson, vice president and chief engineer. "I can remember all of us sitting out in the parking lot in the wee hours of the morning, eating watermelon and listening full blast to the song mixes we were working on at the time. We wanted to see how they sounded away from the speakers. And there was nobody else around, so we weren't bothering anybody."

Stephenson, 67, managed to chuckle at the memory Monday afternoon, a few seconds of escape from the grim reality brought on by Friday's tornado that ravaged parts of Clinton and northwest Jackson, injuring seven and causing major damage to numerous homes and businesses. The twister didn't spare Malaco, which has produced its share of music history. It destroyed the accounting building. The shipping warehouse suffered roof and some structural damage. And the main building, which housed executive offices and the legendary recording studio, was pummeled.

"We're waiting for the insurance company to agree with us that (the main building) is totaled before we start tearing it down," said president and co-founder Tommy Couch Sr.

There were some bits of good news: Approximately 20 employees who were at work when the storm struck escaped injury. Couch and Stephenson said they plan to rebuild bigger and better than ever. And Malaco's thousands of precious master tapes weathered the storm in a vault-type building made of concrete blocks and supported by reinforced steel. "A few of them got wet," Couch said, "but they're all OK."

The recording studio was dark and dank Monday. A grand piano and a Hammond B3 organ were barely visible, buried in debris. The sound of music was replaced by the flapping of a blue tarp, serving as a temporary roof. Pieces of the wood tile floor - upon which music legends have walked - were scattered about. Amplifiers and microphones looked soulless and lonely.

Hits were born in this room. Among them: Jean Knight's 1971 No. 1 single, Mr. Big Stuff; King Floyd's Groove Me, which went to No. 1 on the R&B chart the same year; and (despite what Wikipedia claims) Dorothy Moore's 1976 classic, Misty Blue. Paul Simon recorded Learn How to Fall here. It appeared on his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin' Simon, which earned two Grammy nominations and was rated No. 267 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Malaco Records was the brainchild of Couch and Mitchell Malouf. "I was in pharmacy school at Ole Miss in the early 1960s, and I started booking bands," Couch said. "When I got out of school (fall 1965), I got a job at a Rexall drug store in Jackson. I was still booking bands, and I was really loving the music scene."

Couch and Malouf opened Malaco - the name including part of both their last names - in hopes of getting a few local acts to record there. Stephenson met Couch while also in pharmacy school at Ole Miss and also landed a job at a drug store in Jackson following his graduation in the spring of 1966.

"After they opened Malaco, I spent just about every spare minute over here helping them out," Stephenson said. "I didn't know much about recording. None of us did, really. But we read books and did a lot of stuff by trial and error."

Malaco's major break occurred when producer/arranger Wardell Quezergne had a falling out with a studio in New Orleans and brought two acts to record at Malaco - King Floyd and Jean Knight.

"After those songs went to No. 1, word started spreading in the music world about us," Stephenson said. "Then in the 1980s, a lot of labels started letting go of their soul acts. Pop groups were selling millions of records and publishers didn't want to fool with acts who were selling 150,000 or 200,000 copies of their albums."

So Malaco welcomed performers such as Johnny Taylor, Denise LaSalle, Little Milton and Bobby Blue Bland. "No matter how you look at it, 150,000 records sold is a lot," Stephenson said.

Malaco's spot in the music industry was sealed.

Couch and Stephenson both say the tornado's wrath hasn't fully hit them yet. "They've been too busy, I think, to really let it all soak in," said office manager Jane Hart. "But it's coming."

"It almost happened for me (Monday), when my wife came down here and saw it for the first time," Stephenson said. "My whole life is invested in this place. Whenever a loved one comes by and breaks down, you sorta get a frog in your throat. But I'm trying to hold it together. There is lots to be done. And, in a lot of ways, lots to look forward to."

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