Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. passed away yesterday after being found unconscious near a treadmill in his home in Memphis. He was 65.

It would be difficult to overstate Hayes’ importance to ’60s and ’70s music. Hayes’ work with Stax/Volt Records in the mid-’60s layed the foundation for the Memphis soul sound. His hugely important solo career furthered the range of soul and R&B, and also contributed to both disco and rap.

Hayes joined Stax Records in 1964, and his first gig was as a pianist for Otis Redding. As a session musician, producer and half of Stax’ primary songwriting team (along with David Porter), Hayes played a major role in making Stax the home of the “Memphis Soul” sound. The Hayes/Porter combo wrote most of the hits for Sam & Dave (including “Soul Man” and “Hold on, I’m Comin’ “), as well as songs for Johnnie Taylor (“I Had a Dream” and “I Got to Love Somebody’s Baby”), Carla Thomas (“B-A-B-Y”), and the Soul Children.

Hayes became a recording artist in the late ’60s and, following the death of Otis Redding, became Stax’ premier artist, releasing the hugely successful soul albums Hot Buttered Soul and Black Moses.

Hayes is perhaps best-known for his movie scores, especially for blaxploitation classic Shaft (which earned him the first Oscar won by an African-American in a non-acting category). He also wrote the scores to Three Tough Guys and Truck Turner, and appeared in several movies (starring role in Truck Turner, and supporting roles in Reindeer Games and Hustle & Flow, among others) and TV series (including A-Team and Miami Vice). After years of lowered profile, Hayes became popular again in the ’90s as the voice of Chef on South Park.

Hayes will appear posthumously in the upcoming comedy Soul Men, starring Samual L. Jackson and Bernie Max (who died yesterday, in an unrelated circumstance), as estranged back-up singers from the Stax era.

Isaac Hayes – “Theme from Shaft” [Live]

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