Butch Stone

Photo of Butch Stone

Sax­o­phone player and nov­elty singer Butch Stone spent over thirty years with Les Brown’s Band of Renown, first join­ing the or­ches­tra in late 1941. A nat­ural show­man, he was im­mensely pop­u­lar with au­di­ences and crit­ics alike. Though he at­tempted on sev­eral oc­ca­sions in the mid-​1940s to front groups of his own, Stone never man­aged a suc­cess­ful solo ca­reer, and he al­ways re­turned to Brown’s fold, where he fi­nally set­tled for good in 1948. Stone be­came such a fix­ture in Brown’s or­ches­tra that in 1955 one re­viewer com­mented: “The eter­nal Butch Stone, now in his 97th year with the band.”

Stone played and sang with Van Alexan­der’s or­ches­tra from 1938 until the leader dis­banded in Sep­tem­ber 1940. Stone then joined Jack Tea­gar­den. By Jan­u­ary 1941 he was with Larry Clin­ton, for whom Alexan­der was ar­rang­ing. Stone was singing with Clin­ton when Brown heard him per­form the song “My Feet’s Too Big” at Loew’s State The­ater in New York. When Clin­ton took a two-​week lay­off in Oc­to­ber 1941, dur­ing which his mu­si­cians wouldn’t be paid, Stone was among those who sought other jobs, and Brown of­fered him a po­si­tion. Stone’s ar­rival in the band gave Brown six sax­o­phones.

Stone be­came a val­ued mem­ber of Brown’s band. His com­edy tim­ing and nov­elty songs were al­ways one of the high­lights of a Brown show, and Brown him­self served as a per­fect straight man for Stone’s humor. Stone was con­stantly en­cour­aged to start a unit of his own, and in Sep­tem­ber 1945 he an­nounced that he would form his own band after the be­gin­ning of the new year. By De­cem­ber, how­ever, a crowded field of new groups had made him sec­ond guess his de­ci­sion, and he re­mained with Brown.

When the band busi­ness briefly col­lapsed at the end of 1946, Brown dis­solved his or­ches­tra, as did sev­eral other name lead­ers. Stone was one of only two for­mer mem­bers who joined Brown’s newly re­or­ga­nized band when it de­buted at the Hol­ly­wood Pal­la­dium in March 1947. That same month, he signed with the Ad­vance label to record under his own name using a stu­dio combo, though he in­tended to re­main with Brown. By May, though, Stone had left Brown to form his own small band on the West Coast, with Alexan­der writ­ing its book. The group de­buted on April 30, re­ceiv­ing good re­views from crit­ics and doing steady busi­ness at clubs. Stone recorded sev­eral sides on the Ma­jes­tic label that year and on Mod­ern in 1948.

Stone con­tin­ued with his combo until at least Jan­u­ary 1948. By March, though, he was on his own as part of a pack­age deal with singer Car­olyn Grey and vibist Johnny White’s quar­tet. The pack­age broke up in early April when White scrapped his band, and Stone re­turned to Brown, where he re­mained into the 1970s.

Stone mar­ried Shirley Blum­son, and the cou­ple had a son, Barry, in July 1944. Butch Stone passed away in 2009 at the age of 96.

Sources

  1. Simon, George T. The Big Bands. 4th ed. New York: Schirmer, 1981.
  2. The Online Discographical Project. Accessed 22 Aug. 2015.
  3. “Butch Stone.” IMDb. Accessed 22 Aug. 2015.
  4. “Socko.” Down Beat 15 Feb. 1940: 7.
  5. “Orchestra Personnels.” Down Beat 15 Feb. 1940: 18.
  6. “Van Alexander Junks Band.” Down Beat 15 Oct. 1940: 2.
  7. “Art St. John to Train Airmen.” Down Beat 15 Oct. 1940: 2.
  8. “Clinton Band Shines at Strand.” Syracuse Herald-Journal [Syracuse, New York] 25 Jan. 1941: 9.
  9. “Butch Stone, Carroll Join Larry Clinton.” Down Beat 1 Feb. 1941: 12.
  10. “Vaudeville Reviews: Earle, Philadelphia.” Billboard 11 Oct. 1941: 23.
  11. “Larry Clinton To Concentrate On Recordings.” Down Beat 15 Nov. 1941: 15.
  12. “Six Saxes For Les Brown.” Down Beat 1 Dec. 1941: 4.
  13. “Vaudeville Reviews: Earle, Philadelphia.” Billboard 22 Apr. 1944: 27.
  14. “Vaudeville Reviews: Strand, New York.” Billboard 28 Oct. 1944: 26.
  15. “Butch Stone Set To Go On His Own Jan. 1.” Billboard 6 Oct. 1945: 16.
  16. “Crowded Field Makes Butch Change Plans.” Down Beat 15 Dec. 1945: 10.
  17. “Les Brown Has Palladium Date.” Down Beat 29 Jan. 1947: 1.
  18. “Butch Cuts Own Sides.” Down Beat 28 Mar. 1947: 11.
  19. “Record Reviews.” Billboard 29 Mar. 1947: 30.
  20. “On the Stand: Les Brown.” Billboard 5 Apr. 1947: 20.
  21. “Butch Stone Heads Own Combo.” Down Beat 7 May 1947: 10.
  22. “Butch Stone's New Coast Crew Tops.” Down Beat 13 Aug. 1947: 7.
  23. “Record Reviews.” Billboard 25 Oct. 1947: 135.
  24. “Butch Stone Line-up Set.” Down Beat 3 Dec. 1947: 7.
  25. “Stone Combo Held Over At L.A.'s Red Feather.” Down Beat 31 Dec. 1947: 8.
  26. “Milwaukee's Continental Drops Acts.” Billboard 20 Dec. 1947: 38.
  27. “Advanced Record Releases.” Billboard 6 Mar. 1948: 32.
  28. “Stone, White, Grey In Fast Package.” Down Beat 24 Mar. 1948: 2.
  29. “White-Stone-Grey Combo Breaks Up.” Down Beat 21 Apr. 1948: 9.
  30. “Advanced Record Releases.” Billboard 25 Sep. 1948: 34.
  31. “Record Reviews.” Billboard 11 Jun. 1949: 32.
  32. “The Les Brown Ork.” Down Beat 15 Jun. 1955: 9.
  33. “Band Review: Les Brown.” Down Beat 24 Aug. 1955: 8.
  34. “Les Brown Is Bound for Expo '74.” The Spokane Spokesman-Review [Spokane, Washington] 13 Oct. 1974: 15.
  35. “United States Census, 1950,” FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6XGH-1CPD : Thu Oct 05 12:12:10 UTC 2023), Entry for Henry Stone and Shirley Stone, 15 April 1950.
  36. “United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007,” database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K43-YPGN : 11 February 2023), Shirley R Blumson in entry for Barry Jeffrey Stone.