VMP Anthology

In a country of extraordinary and innovative electric guitar talents, Victor Kunda Kasoma of the Oscillations is among Zambia's finest. In this episode, Victor candidly shares the story of his disability from polio, the challenges and hard work that shaped his spiritual mind-set and technique, his lifetime dedication to music and personal reflections on I Can See It Coming – an album he released in 1978 when he was just 21 years old.

An episode of Zamrock firsts. Producer Billie David Nyati, who helped run Zambia Music Parlour under the direction of Edward Khuzwayo, recounts the excitement of being Zambia's first independent record label, kick-starting the country's recording boom in the early 1970s with an album by the band Tinkles. Vocalist Jagari Chanda tells the story of WITCH, Zamrock's most beloved ensemble and the first Zambian rock group to release a vinyl record, namely the privately pressed edition of their debut release Introduction. Vocalist Violet Kafula, Zambia's first female recording artist and a member of the band Crossbones, tells the story of the album Wise Man and the hit single that earned her the affectionate title the "Godmother of Zambian Pop."

Amanaz released their sole album Africa in 1975. In this episode, vocalist Keith Kabwe and lead guitarist Isaac Mpofu provide the backstory with some surprising insights into the genesis of one of Zamrock's most sought after and critically acclaimed releases. We also hear from the producer of the album Billie David Nyati of the Zambia Music Parlour label and the bassist of the band Salty Dog, Norman Muntemba, describes Zambia's early recording studios. Also featured are rare tracks from Amanaz offshoot bands Heathen and Drive Unit.

You've already opened your box by now, and now you're probably wondering what you're doing here. Well, Stax closed in 1975, as we established on the last episode, but the road to Stax as it is today: A label and a thriving museum and music academy, has 45 years of history for us to catch up on. As I mentioned in the first episode, the Stax complex at 926 E. McLemore Ave. in Memphis today is not the same Stax that was there in 1975. It took a lot of work--mainly by a Stax writer and office worker named Deanie Parker--to deliver what I think is the best music museum on earth: The Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

In this, our sixth and final episode of the season, I sit down with the museum's executive director Jeff Kollath to talk about the museum's mission, and how Stax went from a studio to a pile of rubble to a museum.

When we left our last episode, Stax was putting out many, many albums in 1969 to make an "instant catalog" and try to dig themselves out of the disasters of 1967 and 1968. In this final set of records, we have two albums from 1972, which, as we'll learn from Robert Gordon here, was one of the last good years at Stax.

When we left our last episode, Stax was putting out many, many albums in 1969 to make an "instant catalog" and try to dig themselves out of the disasters of 1967 and 1968. In this final set of records, we have two albums from 1972, which, as we'll learn from Robert Gordon here, was one of the last good years at Stax.

When we last left you, Stax was left reeling when Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays died in that tragic December 1967 plane crash. The next two albums in your box set came out in the immediate aftermath of the crash, during a 1968 and 1969 that eventually became known in Stax lore as the Soul Explosion.

When we last left you, Stax was just starting it's climb from a regional soul label to one of the most iconic record labels of all time, thanks in part to a distribution deal with Atlantic Records. The boom thanks to artists like Sam & Dave and Booker T. and the M.G.'s--along with a changing music industry--lead to the label starting it's concerted push into LPs, vs. being the singles label they'd been before. The same time this was happening, a Georgian guitarist named Johnny Jenkins got offered some studio time at Stax. And little did Stax know, a guy along for the ride would become their most popular artist.

In this episode, we get to business, since time is tight, and discuss the first two LPs in your VMP Anthology box set: Booker T and the M.G.'s Soul Dressing, and Sam & Dave's Hold on I'm Coming. We introduced you to Booker T and the M.G.'s during our last episode, but here we get into the group's history, and Soul Dressing specifically. Later this episode, I sit down with one of the songwriters of most of Sam & Dave's iconic songbook.

In this intro episode about our Stax box set, The Story of Stax Records, we talk to Robert Gordon and Booker T. Jones about the label's history.