Henry Stone obit

Founder of the ‘Miami Sound,’ TK Records’ Henry Stone dies at 93

He was not on the list.

Before there was a recognized music industry, long before there was a “Miami Sound” and Boogie Shoes and booties to Shake, Shake, Shake and a musical Rockin’ Chair that had the nation grooving under one beat, there was Henry Stone. He was instrumental in the careers of Ray Charles, James Brown, KC & the Sunshine Band and that whole stable of R&B and disco stars from Hialeah’s TK Records. And, he was one of the last of an era of fabled music industry pioneers like Berry Gordy of Motown, Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records and trailblazing producers Tom Dowd and Jerry Wexler. Stone, 93, died Thursday at Mercy Hospital of natural causes. Stone’s career stretched back to post-war Los Angeles, where the Bronx-born trumpeter sold vinyl records to jukebox owners out of the trunk of his car.

Born Henry David Epstein, was an American record company executive and producer whose career spanned the era from R&B in the early 1950s through the disco boom of the 1970s to the 2010s. He was best known as co-owner and president of TK Records, but reportedly set up more than 100 record labels, and generated more than $100 million in record sales across the world. Stone was described as "an acute businessman who always made sure that contracts and publishing agreements were written in his favor.

Born in the Bronx as Henry David Epstein, Stone began playing the trumpet in his teens while at an orphanage in Pleasantville, New York. In 1943 he joined the US Army, playing in a racially integrated band and developing an appreciation of what were then called "race records". After being discharged in 1945, he changed his last name to Stone, moved to Los Angeles, and started working on sales and promotion for Jewel Records and then Modern Records, and traveling around the country. In 1947, he and his family moved to Miami, Florida.

In 1947, Stone settled in Miami, Florida, setting up his own distribution company, Seminole, and shortly afterwards the Crystal recording studio. In 1951 he recorded Ray Charles’ "St. Pete Florida Blues", among others. In 1952 he started two record labels, Rockin' (for blues) with artists including Earl Hooker, and Glory (for gospel), and soon had success in both styles. In association with King Records, Stone released The Charms’ "Hearts of Stone" on King's De Luxe Records subsidiary, and it became an R&B chart #1 hit in 1954. He was also instrumental in signing James Brown to King, and in recording Brown’s first hit "Please, Please, Please".

In 1955, he established his own independent publishing companies and several record labels, including Chart and Dade, mainly recording local blues artists. In 1960, Stone cut "(Do The) Mashed Potatoes" by "Nat Kendrick and the Swans" – actually James Brown's backing band - for the Dade label. He also set up Tone Distribution (originally Tru-Tone), which became one of the most successful record distribution companies, working with Atlantic, Motown, Stax and many more independent labels. Stone's distribution expertise was instrumental in spreading the music produced by those labels around the world. At its height, Tone occupied a full city block and a large warehouse in Hialeah, Florida, and employed over 100 people.

While he focused on the distribution business during the 1960s, Stone also continued to record R&B artists. These included Betty Wright, whose "Clean Up Woman" was a major hit in 1971 on his and Steve Alaimo's Alston label. Alaimo had previously recorded for Stone and been a Tone employee. Stone also set up the Glades label, recording the million selling hit "Why Can’t We Live Together" by Timmy Thomas. Stone established many different labels on the basis, he said, that it was easier to get records played if the radio stations did not realize they came from the same source.

In 1972, Stone heard from Jerry Wexler that Warner Record's Atlantic and Elektra divisions would merge, handle its own distribution, and no longer use Tone. At that point, he decided to concentrate on recording and manufacturing his own records, forming another new record company, TK Records with Alaimo (named after the studio's recording console designer Terry Kane), based in Hialeah, with which he had his greatest success.

In 1973, Stone’s warehouse worker and occasional front desk receptionist, Harry Wayne “KC” Casey and TK's budding recording studio engineer Richard Finch were introduced by Stone and began collaborating on writing and performing songs, with Stone allowing them to experiment in the recording studio after hours. As KC and the Sunshine Band, they released a string of hits including "Get Down Tonight", "That's The Way I Like It" and "Shake Your Booty", all on Stone's TK label. The band had five number one pop singles, platinum albums, won three Grammys and one American Music Award. Prior to the success of KC and the Sunshine Band, Casey and Finch wrote and produced the number one hit, "Rock Your Baby" by George McCrae, and his follow-ups. "Rock Your Baby" is credited as being the very first disco hit record.

Stone’s companies produced numerous other hits during the 1970s, including The Beginning of the End's "Funky Nassau" (on Alston), Latimore's "Let's Straighten It Out" (on Glades), Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell" (on Juana), Little Beaver's "Party Down" and Gwen McCrae's "Rockin’ Chair" (both on Cat), Peter Brown's "Do Ya Wanna Get Funky With Me" (on Drive), and Bobby Caldwell's "What You Won't Do for Love" (on Clouds).