James Hendrix

From 'The Lamp" 1974, the yearbook for American Baptist Theological Seminary (now American Baptist College).

Born in Nashville in 1920, Hendrix graduated from Pearl High and attended Fisk University for two years before moving to Detroit. While there, he contributed to the rise of Motown records in its early years as a songwriter and musician.

According to a spotlight newspaper article, Hendrix moved to Detroit to live with an uncle and continue his music education at the Detroit Institute of Music as well as Clunas School of Music, with classes at the YMCA night school in music business law. Along his educational pursuits, Hendrix became organist and choir director at a local church, saying "In those days, most of the music people were in the churches, and that's where you met them." In the late 1950s he befriended Milton Jenkins, who was managing local singing groups, including The Primettes, with a young Diana Ross, as well as The Primes, later to become The Temptations.

Through his music publishing, Hendrix met a man names Fuller Gordy, who ran the family printing business, which involved sheet music, such as Hendrix was producing. Coincidentally while riding the bus one day, Hendrix met Fuller's younger brother Berry, who was asking for advice on how to start a record label. "A few weeks later, while visiting the Gordy printing shop, Fuller Gordy told Hendrix that his younger brother was over on the west side 'doing something music-wise.' " That label later became Motown Records.

In Detroit, he started his own record label, Carrie Records, focusing on soul and gospel music, which he later brought back with him when he returned to Nashville in 1967. Other labels he started include Ricare, which included many of teh same musicians as Carrie, and which he also occasionally used even in later years. With Lou Beatty he founded La Beat records that briefly continued in Detroit after Hendrix returned to Nashville, following the Detroit riots in 1967. Sublabels for La Beat included Cool School (only active 1966-67 with a few releases), Mary Jane (only active in 1967 but with over a dozen releases), and Rambler (only a single release in 1967). Another label he founded in Detroit, Lanrod records included a few releases up there, before returning with Hendrix to Nashville, where he used that imprint to releases a 45 by local DJ and, now radio station owner of WVOL 1470, John Heidelberg in the early 1970s.

In 1967, Hendrix returned to Nashville, and within a year was writing for a local white gospel label, HeartWarming records, run by John Benson of the famous Benson music publishing family. Curiously, indicative of the Nashville musical landscape at the time, Benson's wife, Jane Benson, had a series of releases in the late 50s and 60s on some early rock and roll labels in town. Aside from music publishing and songwriting, Hendrix continued his music and choir director roles in several local churches, including Westwood Baptist, King Solomon Baptists, and Twelve Robes Baptist, which also briefly served as the mailing address for his Black Music Foundation. Furthermore, Hendrix worked as choir director for several churches, as well as music director at American Baptist Theological Seminary for 5 years, shortly after his return to Nashville.

In 1976, he founded the Black Music Foundation, to showcase, celebrate, preserve and encourage black music. This undertaking built on years of networks created by Hendrix in the sacred and secular communities, including briefly using a church as its headquarters, where Hendrix was briefly music director.

In 1983, through his Black Music Foundation, Hendrix published a pamphlet, "I Remember Tom," based on his personal experiences and research on Tom Wilson, who had owned Nashville' Negro Leagues Elite Giants as well as the Paradise Ballroom in South Nashville's Trimble Bottoms neighborhood. As writer of the publication, Hendrix also employed his songwriting abilities to conclude with a song in honor of Wilson.