Malaco: The Last Soul Company

Malaco Records has outlasted Motown, Stax, and Chess from one Jackson studio since 1967 — meet "The Last Soul Company."

The Last Soul Company

Drive down West Northside Drive in Jackson, and you'll pass a small blue and silver marker, easy to miss if you're not looking for it. It sits at 3023 West Northside Drive — the address where, in 1967, a handful of Ole Miss fraternity brothers turned a college booking gig into Malaco Records. What the marker doesn't say is that Malaco is still there. Still independent. Still making records.

That matters more than it sounds. Motown sold. Stax folded. Chess faded. Malaco has been called "The Last Soul Company" — a small, mostly unheard-of independent label that has outlasted every major soul-era competitor while staying based not in New York or Los Angeles, but in Jackson, Mississippi.

Tommy Couch Sr. and Wolf Stephenson started out booking fraternity bands at Ole Miss; Couch's brother-in-law, Mitchell Malouf, joined him in Jackson, and the name Malaco came from mashing Malouf and Couch together. The label barely survived its first years on jingles and studio rentals, until New Orleans producer Wardell Quezergue brought five artists to Jackson in a borrowed school bus for a session that yielded two hits — King Floyd's "Groove Me" and Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff."

Misty Blue to Down Home Blues

Dorothy Moore's 1976 "Misty Blue" hit the Top 5 on both the R&B and pop charts, giving Malaco its first national breakthrough through a Jackson singer's voice. Then in 1982, Z.Z. Hill's "Down Home Blues" stayed on Billboard's R&B charts for 93 weeks and sold half a million copies — proof there was still a real audience for the blues. Around Hill, Malaco built a roster of Denise LaSalle, Little Milton, Bobby Bland, and Johnnie Taylor that made it the dominant Southern soul-blues label of its era.

Less visible, but just as vital: Malaco's 1986 purchase of Savoy Records' gospel division made it the preeminent Black gospel label in North America, home to the Mississippi Mass Choir and Rev. James Cleveland.

API Console at Malaco Records

Why Jackson still hears Malaco

A tornado destroyed the company's main building in 2011. They rebuilt on the same footprint. Today, Malaco's catalog turns up sampled in songs by Kanye West, Drake, and Cardi B — younger artists reaching back into a Jackson studio's archive without always knowing it. The marker on Northside Drive just says the company was founded there in 1967. Everything since is the reason that small green sign still stands in front of a working studio, not a historical ruin.

Author

Paul Wolf

Paul is the Director of Destination Storytelling at Visit Jackson, managing the website, Soul Sessions podcast, and travel journalism initiatives. Drawing on three decades in communications, he brings expertise in writing, photography, video, and podcasting to showcase what makes Jackson special. When he's not working, Paul enjoys running, exploring the local food scene — great craft beer, coffee and BBQ.

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