“Henry Stone, Father of Real Miami Sound,” Says Miami Herald (1995)

MIAHER Half Century of Hits from Father of real Miami Sound 1 4-2-95

A Half Century of Hits from Father of Real Miami Sound

by Fernando Gonzalez
Herald Pop Music Critic

Henry Stone swivels in his chair as the music blares from the speakers. He is excited. Tito Puente Jr. is doing a Latin-techno-hip-hop-disco version of his father’s classic Oye Como Va, and Stone wonders if this could be his next winner.

If not, well, we have a great Japanese remix here. And did you know dance-oriented Italian remixes are very hot right now? They’re doing great in the clubs, he says. Kids go crazy with that. Then he shrugs.

He listens intently but never taps his foot. At 70, after 50 years of making and selling records, Henry Stone is still trying to figure out what makes a hit – while hyping his latest release of course.

He is the last of an era, one of the few remaining active members of a gallery of fabled rogue record-industry pioneers that includes Leonard Chess, Ahmet Ertegun, Berry Gordy, and Jerry Wexler.

©Miami Herald. All Rights Reserved.

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