Floyd Newman obit

 

Floyd Newman, sax great and linchpin of Stax Records, dead at 91

He was not on the list.

Veteran Memphis musician Floyd Newman, the man who put the sax in Stax, has died.

Newman — a baritone saxophonist and key figure in the development of Stax Records — died early Tuesday morning at the age of 91 after a period in hospice. The Stax Museum of American Soul Music confirmed the news in a statement posted to social media: "Rest in power to our dear Mr. Floyd Newman... an all star on the baritone sax and as a human being."

Newman’s expressive, sonorous tone was a signature of the early Stax/Satellite Records sound and the foundation for one of the label’s first successes, the instrumental “Last Night,” by the Mar-Keys, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart in 1961.

Memphis music legend Floyd Newman died Tuesday at the age of 91. He is photographed in 2018 with the saxophone he had been playing since 1949.

Over the course of an eight-decade career, Newman recorded and performed with giants of American music: B.B. King, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, The Temptations, Dionne Warwick and Isaac Hayes, among others. 

Even late in life, Newman remained a musical force. He performed and record with Memphis R&B revivalists The Bo-Keys, featuring on their 2011 album, “Got to Get Back.”

“It was amazing to me how lucid and vibrant he was in his 80s when we were working with him,” said Bo-Keys bandleader Scott Bomar. “He was a monster player, in terms of his ability and tone. The first time he was in the studio with us I said, ‘Floyd, you got the best tone.’ And he laughed and said, ‘[Stax Records founder] Jim Stewart told me I didn’t have a tone, I have a sound.’ And he was right. Floyd had a sound, a very signature sound, that was all his own.” 

 

Music and the military

Born and raised in the neighborhood near Stax that is now identified as Soulsville, Floyd Sidney Newman III had musical parents: His father, Floyd Newman Jr., who earned a living as a Pullman porter, played saxophone and violin, while his mother, Lillian Hill Newman, was a pianist.

 

The younger Newman played piano all through school, switching to saxophone full time only after his 1949 graduation from Booker T. Washington High School.

Attending classes at what was then known as Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Newman studied to be a dentist.

"I didn't want to be a musician," Newman recalled in a 2018 interview with The Commercial Appeal. "I wanted to be 'Dr. Floyd Newman.'" But he couldn't pass chemistry and other demanding courses because he didn't get back to campus until the wee hours, returning to school from his musical gigs just in time for the classes that failed to keep him awake.

While enlisted in the United States Army, saxophonist Floyd Newman smiles for the camera.

His college education was interrupted further when he was drafted into the Army, where he honed his chops alongside great players from all over the country in the military band at Fort Benning, Georgia. (Newman would eventually return to school, studying music at Rust College in Mississippi.)

The incentive to pass the Army's regular musicianship tests was even greater than the lures that attracted players to civilian gigs. "If you didn't pass the tests, you were sent straight to Korea with a rifle,” he recalled. “But anyway, Floyd Newman passed all the tests."

From touring with B.B. King to working for Memphis City Schools

By that time, Newman already had been a member of B.B. King's first touring band, the massive B.B. King Review which also included tenor saxophonist George Coleman, who would become a noted jazz player in New York.

Before Stax, Newman toured relentlessly and recorded with Sam Cooke, Jerry Butler and others. After a period living in Detroit, he returned to Memphis and led his own band throughout the area, becoming a staple of the entertainment at West Memphis’ Plantation Inn. Newman’s group included future Hi Rhythm drummer Howard Grimes and organist Isaac Hayes. 

At Stax, Newman’s musical contributions and role as a talent connector were crucial. He brought in young pianist/organist Booker T. Jones into the Stax fold and introduced his bandmate Hayes to the label, bringing the company an artist who would become one of creative forces and eventual superstars. And it was also Newman's vocal interjection "Ooooh... last night!" along with his sax stylings that made the 1961 Mar-Keys single so memorable.

Newman also was an original member of the so-called Memphis Horns (a name coined by Atlantic Records honcho Jerry Wexler), an outfit that was always in demand, recording with rock artists as well as R&B and soul acts, and working at studios in Memphis, Muscle Shoals, Miami, and New York.

In 1971, Newman joined Stephen Stills for an extravagant international tour with crowds in the thousands. But weary of the demands on his time as well as of the frequent racism he had encountered over the years, he tired of the road.

Instead, he opted for a steady job as a band director and guidance counselor. He would spend several decades working for the Memphis and Tunica, Mississippi school systems.

Continuing to perform and mentor young musicians

Memphis music legend Floyd Newman died Tuesday at the age of 91. He is photographed in 2018 with the saxophone he had been playing since 1949.

Even with his day job, Newman continued to perform and play as part of the Isaac Hayes Movement. Newman — who’d appeared in a couple episodes of the TV series “Route 66” in the 1960s — could be seen in the 1973 concert film “WattStax,” and would later cameo in the 1989 Jerry Lee Lewis biopic “Great Balls of Fire.”

In the late-2000s, Newman began appearing as part of a horn section with local throwback R&B band The Bo-Keys. He would also serve as a mentor to several generations of young musicians who were schooled at the Stax Music Academy, where Newman was a beloved presence.

During his later years, Newman would collect various honors including a Brass Note on Beale and a lifetime achievement honor from the W.C. Handy Heritage Awards.

Newman, who famously played the same saxophone since 1949 — which his father purchased for $200 in a Beale Street pawn shop — donated the iconic instrument to the Stax Museum in 2018 as part of an event celebrating his life and career.

Plans for memorial services are pending.