Stone, Jesse
Stone, Jesse
Stone, Jesse, jazz pianist, arranger; b. Atchinson, Kans., 1901; d. Altamonte Springs, Fla., April 1, 1999. Raised in St. Joseph and Kansas City, Mo., Stone led his own Blues Serenaders from 1920; he later organized Blue Moon Chasers working in and around Dallas, Tex. He worked with George E. Lee in Kansas City, and then helped Terrence Holder organize new Clouds of Joy (1929). He was musical director for George E. Lee (1930–31), then co-director of Tharnon Hayes’s Kansas City Rockets (1932–34). He led his own band, The Cyclones, in Chicago from 1935, and had residencies at the Morocco Club, etc. He continued to lead his own bands in the 1940s, and did a U.S.O. overseas tour. From the early 1950s Stone worked mainly as an A&R man for recording companies. He composed popular jazz pieces (“Idaho”) and major R&B hits (“Shake, Rattle, and Roll” and “Money Honey”).
—John Chilton , Who’s Who of Jazz/Lewis Porter