Buddy Emmer & Trey Stone
A black man with an afro channeling the cosmos through a stack of Marshall speakers and an upside-down guitar forever changed the direction of Trey Stone’s life.
The South Shore musician pointed to seeing Jimi Hendrix perform in 1969, when Stone was a teenager going to his first show in Southern California, as the moment he knew the guitar, rather than the trombone, was for him.
“I wanted to write. I wanted to compose. I wanted to have a tight band,” Stone said of his musical ambitions after that first concert.
In the decades since, the multi-instrumentalist has put together a storied career, working with musical legends like Bootsy Collins and George Clinton, playing with long-running Oakland, California, soul act Tower of Power, performing on “Saturday Night Live” and making regular appearances with his own group in Northern California and Nevada. A pioneer in the 1970s soul and funk movement, Stone contributed to songs like Rose Royce’s “Car Wash” and, later, Deee-Lite’s “Groove is in the Heart.” He also earned a gold record for his work with Keith Washington on 1991’s “Kissing You.”
Another career highlight came more recently. In October, Stone was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame for his work with Motown recording act the Undisputed Truth, which counts “Smiling Faces Sometimes” among its notable creations. The honor put him in the company of luminaries like Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles, who were also inducted into the Detroit, Michigan, museum this year