Product Dimensions: 8'X 10"in 11”x14” matte
Author/Artist: Center for Southern Folklore Archives

Isaac Hayes (“Black Moses’) In a town noted for its music titans, few stood taller in the history of Memphis music than Isaac Hayes, depicted here in a photograph from his album Black Moses. It was Isaac Hayes who turned chains once symbols of slavery and degradation into ornaments, creating not just a fashion statement but an iconic image of black pride and determination. Isaac Hayes was born into a sharecropper's family in Covington, Tennessee, about thirty miles south of Memphis. While at Manassas High School, Hayes played saxophone in his school band, eventually teaching himself the piano. He won seven college scholarships for vocal music that he chose not to pursue. Instead, he became adept enough at the piano to land a job with bandleader Floyd Newman at the Plantation Inn, a legendary night club across the river in West Memphis, Arkansas. Newman was also the staff baritone sax player at Stax Records which led to Hayes’ initial involvement with the famed studio. Throughout the 1960s he teamed with David Porter to create the Memphis sound by writing, producing and arranging a truckload of soul classics for performers such as Sam & Dave, Rufus & Carla Thomas, Otis Redding, Booker T & the MG's, the Mar-Keys, the Bar-Kays – virtually every major artist at Stax. In 1969 his landmark album Hot Buttered Soul, launched his new career as a vocalist followed shortly afterward by Black Moses. During the 1970s he emerged as one of the leading artists on the Stax label culminating as the headliner before a crowd of over 50,000 at the famous Wattstax concert in 1972. The year before, he became the first African-American to be honored as composer for the Oscar and Grammy winning soundtrack for the move Shaft. Isaac then turned to acting, first in films such as Truck Turner and the hilarious I’m Gonna Get You Sucker. In his later years, he was best known as the voice of Cookie on the animated TV series South Park.