Packy Axton, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetPacky Axton
American musician
Date of Birth: 17-Feb-1941
Date of Death: 01-Jan-0001
Profession: saxophonist
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Aquarius 
About Packy Axton
- Charles "Packy" Axton (17 February 1941 Memphis Shelby County, Tennessee – 20 January 1974 Memphis Shelby County, Tennessee ) was an American rhythm and blues tenor saxophone player and bandleader, who was a member of the Mar-Keys and later the Packers. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Everett and Estelle Axton.
- Estelle Axton and her brother, Jim Stewart, were the founders of Stax Records.
- By 1959, Packy Axton had become a member of the Royal Spades, a group formed by Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Charlie Freeman and Terry Johnson, which expanded to include a horn section composed of Axton, Don Nix and Wayne Jackson.
- In 1961, they renamed themselves the Mar-Keys and had a major hit with "Last Night" (number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 2 on the R&B chart).
- Axton, Cropper and Jackson were the only members of the band to perform on the record; the other parts were played by session musicians. The Mar-Keys quickly fractured into what were effectively two separate groups; the Mar-Keys that continued to record in the studio and release material on Stax were often a completely different set of musicians to the Mar-Keys who played live gigs.
- After Cropper left the live band in 1961, soon followed by Dunn, Axton became the effective leader of the live Mar-Keys.
- He also worked as a session musician at Stax, working with the studio Mar-Keys (including Cropper and Dunn) on an irregular basis.
- Axton left Memphis—effectively severing his relationship with the Mar-Keys—in 1965 to live in Los Angeles, reportedly after a series of disagreements with Jim Stewart.Later in 1965, the Stax Revue performed in Los Angeles, and radio disc jockey Magnificent Montague persuaded Axton to record there with Cropper, Booker T.
- Jones and Al Jackson, all of Booker T.
- & the M.G.'s.
- They recorded an instrumental track together, "Hole in the Wall", which Montague then released as by the Packers; it reached number 43 on the pop chart and number 5 on the R&B chart.
- Axton formed a pickup group to promote the record. Axton later returned to Memphis.
- In 1966/67, he was a member of the Pac-Keys, an instrumental group which released two singles.
- The first, "Stone Fox", saw some regional chart action, but neither single charted nationally.
- After 1967, Axton ran the Satellite Record Shop in Memphis, occasionally performing with musicians such as Charlie Rich.Axton died in January 1974, at the age of 32.
- According to one source, the cause of death was cirrhosis of the liver; according to another source, he died of a heart attack.
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