Malaco Records

Jackson, Mississippi-based black gospel / Southern R&B label started by Tommy Couch and Mitchell Malouf (the company name is a combination of founders Malouf and Couch's last names = Malaco) in 1966. Label Code: LC 4496 / LC 04496. The Malaco Music Group, as the company is known today, is active in gospel, blues, R&B and dance music. Malaco first success in the US nationally was King Floyd's Groove Me on its Chimneyville label (which was distributed by Atlantic Records subsidiary Cotillion) in 1970 and Jean Knight's Mr. Big Stuff (produced by Couch, Malouf and partner Wolf Stephenson but released on Stax). The label eventually signed a national distribution deal under its own name in 1975 with Henry Stone's T.K. Records, also migrating its Chimneyville Records label from Atlantic. It had a monster pop and R&B hit with the classic Southern soul ballad Misty Blue by Dorothy Moore a year later. It later signed Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, Little Milton, Z.Z. Hill and Denise LaSalle to the label. Malaco became a major force in black gospel music when The Jackson Southernaires left ABC Songbird and signed with the label in 1975 with the group's second lead singer Frank Williams eventually becoming their chief Gospel Music A&R executive, a post he would hold until his death in 1993. Malaco distributes recordings on the Melendo and Blackberry labels formed by Williams' brothers Melvin, Leonard and Doug of The Williams Brothers. The director of their Gospel Music division was Frank Williams and Roy Wooten ran their Gospel Promotions & Video. Malaco also acquired the gospel division of the legendary Savoy Records. The deal was finalized December 31, 1986. Its jazz and R&B backlog is today known as Savoy Jazz. It remained largely dormant apart from reissues of the Rev. James Cleveland's work until recently when an attempt to relaunch the label was made with new signings. It had also recently acquired Atlanta International Records from Alan Freeman.