The Black Moses of the soul and R&B music passed away on Sunday. Isaac Hayes died at the age of 65 and was reportedly preparing for launching new material.

Most people recognized Isaac Hayes as the first Afro-American artist to win the Academy Award for Best Original Score with is masterpiece “Theme from ‘Shaft’.” The younger knew him as the voice of one of “South Park’s” characters, Chef. But who really was Isaac Hayes? One hint only: a lot more than that.

Starting from the beginning, Hayes was born in Covington, Tennessee in 1942. Raised by his grandparents, Hayes loved music from the earliest years. His baritone voice excelled even when he sang in church; he taught himself to play the saxophone, keyboards and the flute. But his dream got closer to becoming reality when he started working at Stax as a session musician. Those were the days when Hayes initiated the collaboration with Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson and Duck Dunn, or shorter, Booker T and the MGs.

Isaac Hayes teamed up with David Porter in the mid ‘60s. The two met when the latter tried to sell the former life insurance and became a successful songwriting pair. Their work back then became the foundation of what we know today as the “Memphis soul sound,” with songs like “Soul Man,” “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby,” or “Hold On, I’m Coming” for Sam & Dave or “B-A-B-Y” for Carla Thomas. Their collaboration produced more than 200 other songs, tunes that surely have been a strong influence for the soul and R&B genre.

Hayes tried his hand at a solo career in 1967 with his debut material “Presenting Isaac Hayes,” however, luck was not in his favor. The odds changed with his second solo album in 1969, “Hot Buttered Soul,” which sold more than 5 million copies. Even though the album included only four tracks, the material was extremely good, with a 19-minute rendition of Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” and a recreation of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Walk on By.” That was only the beginning, a start that announced an even greater achievement.

In 1971 the Academy Awards recognized the theme of the blaxploitation movie “Shaft” as the best. That made Hayes the Afro-American pioneer of the best song Oscar. The adventures of the secret detective depicted in the movie were perfectly suited by the mixture of genres Hayes’ music encompassed.

The artist’s successes drew him an epitomic name: ‘Black Moses’. Even though he first rejected it, “No, no, no, don't lay that religious stuff on me,” he had to become accustomed to being introduced as that, as he recalled in a 1995 interview with the “Tribune.” In 1971 he also released another album, “Black Moses” that included 14 tracks, among which “I'll Never Fall in Love Again,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” “Close to You.”

Unfortunately, soon his career met a painful decline. In 1976, he declared bankruptcy. He went on to play in several films, but his comeback materialized only in 1997 with his “South Park” role as Chef. In 2006, he quit the gig due to its lampooning references to the Scientology.

Isaac Hayes is survived by his wife and 12 children from four marriages.