Wayne Jackson (1941–2016)

Wayne Jackson was a musician from West Memphis (Crittenden County) who played trumpet for Stax Records before becoming a founding member of the Memphis Horns. Over the course of his career, he played on more than fifty number-one records, more than eighty gold and platinum records, and fifteen Grammy-winning records. Among the artists he worked with were Otis Redding, Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, Neil Young, Sam and Dave, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Peter Gabriel, Neil Diamond, and U2.

Wayne Lamar Jackson was born on November 24, 1941, in West Memphis to Giffin Lamar Jackson and Edna Mai “Shirley” Hayse Jackson. Jackson, who was one of three children, grew up in a middle-class household. His father—who was from Mississippi—worked in insurance. His mother, who was born in Jonesboro (Craighead County), was employed at a loan company for thirty-five years.

Jackson attended high school in West Memphis. He was originally a guitarist, but that changed when he picked up a trumpet. “I opened up the case,” Jackson remembered, “and it smelled like oil and brass. I loved that, so I put it together, blew, and out came a pretty noise.” He said he took to the instrument “like a duck to water,” and he started taking lessons. Jackson’s mother was a fan of big band music, and trumpeters Louis Armstrong and Harry James had an influence on him.

Jackson also learned much from his high school band leader and a lawyer neighbor who had played trumpet in New Orleans. In 1960, even before he was out of high school, he started playing with the Mar-Keys, who, along with Steve Cropper, Donald Dunn, and Booker T. Washington, formed the core of the house band at the soul music recording studio Stax in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1961, Jackson recorded the instrumental “Last Night” with the Mar-Keys for Satellite Records (which later became Stax). The song was a huge hit, selling more than a million copies.

Jackson played on most of the songs recorded at Stax—and thus, many of the greatest pop records ever made. He could read music, but he said horn players at Stax were not given charts (that is, written music). Instead, he improvised arrangements with songwriters such as Steve Cropper, Otis Redding, and Isaac Hayes, who communicated the brass parts verbally. Jackson’s trumpet can be heard on such classics as Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds,” Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man,” and Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” He also played on Otis Redding’s “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.” (Jackson was not with Redding’s band, the Bar-Kays, when their plane went down in late 1967, killing Redding and all but one member of the band.)

In 1964, Jackson began a long musical relationship with saxophonist Andrew Love. The white Wayne Jackson and Black Andrew Love were born just a few days apart in 1941, and for Jackson, their collaboration was an act of fate. The two met in Memphis in 1965, and their pairing was “like magic,” Jackson said. In 1969, Jackson and Love formed the Memphis Horns.

No longer tied to Stax, Jackson launched the second great period of his career with the Memphis Horns. By then, he worked for other outfits, such as Chips Moman’s American Sound Studio in Memphis and Atlantic, where he recorded on such classic albums as Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis in 1969. After a stint with the Doobie Brothers, Jackson moved to Nashville in 1978 and toured with country artist Marty Robbins. Jackson was the first horn player ever to be invited to play at the Grand Ole Opry.

Jackson’s career stalled following the death of Robbins in 1982. After a few years struggling to find work, however, Peter Gabriel—who knew the Stax catalog well—asked him to play on “Sledgehammer” on Gabriel’s smash 1986 album So. “Sledgehammer” was a number-one hit in America and became a staple on rock stations. Jackson’s trumpet skills were again in high demand.

Jackson continued to play with Love until 2004, when Love’s health problems forced him into retirement. In the early 2000s, Jackson self-published, with his second wife, Amy Jackson, a three-volume memoir, In My Wildest Dreams.

In 2008, Jackson was inducted into the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame. He moved back to Memphis in 2010, and in 2012, as a member of the Memphis Horns, he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; at the ceremony, he and Love were called the “breath of soul.” That same year, Love died of Alzheimer’s disease.

Jackson, who had four children, spent his last years giving tours at the Stax Museum and working with young musicians. He died on June 21, 2016, of heart failure at Methodist University Hospital in Memphis and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis.

For additional information:
Associated Press. “Wayne Jackson, 1941–2016: Memphis Horns Soul Legend.” Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2016. https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-wayne-jackson-20160622-snap-story.html (accessed February 20, 2025).

Grimes, William. “Wayne Jackson, Memphis Horns Trumpeter, Dies at 74.” New York Times, June 22, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/arts/music/wayne jackson-memphis-horns-trumpeter-dies-at-74.html# (accessed February 20, 2025).

Jackson, Wayne. In My Wildest Dreams: A Collection of Rock and Roll Tales. Nashville: Wayne and Amy Jackson, 2005.

Mehr, Bob. “Memphis Horns’ Wayne Jackson Dies at 74.” Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 21, 2016. https://archive.commercialappeal.com/news/memphis-horns-wayne-jackson-dies-at-74-35d137f0-e8f9-7891-e053-0100007f0459-383889611.html (accessed February 20, 2025).

“Memphis Horns Member Wayne Jackson Talks about Recording at STAX with Otis, Sam & Dave & MORE.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFRvQnk3uW8 (accessed February 20, 2025). [see Related Video in sidebar]

Sampson, Tim. “In Loving Memory: Wayne Jackson 11/24/41–6/21/16.” Stax Records. https://staxrecords.com/news/in-loving-memory-wayne-jackson-11-24-41-6-21-16/ (accessed February 20, 2025).

Wayne Jackson. https://waynejacksonmusic.com/home (accessed February 20, 2025).

“Wayne Jackson.” NAMM Oral History Program. https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/wayne-jackson (accessed February 20, 2025).

Colin Edward Woodward
Richmond, Virginia