Rock Pioneer Jesse Stone Dies In Florida
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. (Reuters) - Rock and roll pioneer songwriter Jesse
Stone, composer of the classic ``Shake, Rattle & Roll,'' has died at age 97,
his attorney said Friday.
Stone died Thursday at a hospital near Altamonte Springs, in the Orlando area
where he and his wife, singer Evelyn McGee Stone, moved in the early 1980s,
attorney Dan Fallon said.
He had been on kidney dialysis and recently suffered from heart problems,
Fallon said.
As a composer and arranger at Atlantic Records in the 1940s and 1950s, he
worked with artists such as Big Joe Turner (''Shake, Rattle & Roll,'' later
popularized by Bill Haley and His Comets), Ray Charles (''It Should Have Been
Me''), the Drifters (''Money Honey'') and the Clovers (''Your Cash Ain't
Nothin' But Trash'').
Discussing Atlantic Records' history in 1974, company President Ahmet Ertegun
said: ``Jesse Stone did more to develop the basic rock 'n' roll sound than
anybody else.''
Stone, who sometimes wrote under the name Charles or Chuck Calhoun, was born
in Atchison, Kansas, on November 16, 1901, and got his start in show business
touring with his family's minstrel show.
In the 1920s, he led a jazz group that included saxophone legend Coleman
Hawkins. In the heyday of Kansas City jazz, Stone was a prominent pianist and
arranger.
In 1936, Duke Ellington helped Stone get a booking at New York's famed Cotton
Club. Stone went on to work at the fabled Apollo, composing songs, arranging
and also writing jokes and sketches for comedians.
He made his first big mark with the jazz standard ``Idaho,'' first recorded
by Benny Goodman and several other bands, in 1942.
Although Stone had retired, in the '80s and early '90s he accompanied his
wife on keyboards and wrote many of the songs on her recent album, ``Jump
Back.''
His last live performance was on February 26 at the Black Entertainment
Television sound stage at Walt Disney World, Fallon said.
