Written and directed by Chicago native Andrew Davis, Stony Island is a look at a group of aspiring musicians trying to "make it" in the world of popular music. First released in 1979, this hallmark of independent filmmaking was hailed for its wit and charm at the US Film Festival (the forerunner of Sundance), and received energetic applause from critics across the nation.

Richie Bloom is the last white kid on the block in the tough Stony Island neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. A sweetly naive 18 year-old guitar player, he dreams of putting together his first band. Richie has the perfect musical collaborator in his best friend, Kevin Tucker, who has a voice second only to James Brown. Richie buys a used Les Paul model electric guitar from Jerry Domino, who owns a tropical fish emporium, but also runs a few other "businesses" on the side.

Percy Price is a local legend on the saxophone. The kids used to listen to him practicing at night when they were growing up. Percy agrees to help Richie and Kevin to form a group, letting them practice at the local mortuary where he works. However, the owner Lewis Moss wants to sell the business to the local Alderman, who plans to turn it into a disco.

Richie, Kevin and Percy begin to put the band together, searching the city for horn players. Richie stumbles upon Harold Tate, a hillbilly sax player, while Harold is washing windows at the music store where Richie works. Harold's mean uncle yanks him away from an impromptu jam session before Richie can get his name or address. Richie scours the city to find the young wunderkind and then hilariously conspires with Kevin to get Harold a horn to play.

The band starts coming together, and Percy even manages to set up their first gig in a club where blues legend B.B. King often performs.
However, annoyed with the music during a customer’s funeral, Alderman Waller orders Mr. Moss to fire Percy, and the group must find a new place to practice. Fortunately, Jerry Domino lets the kids use a rehearsal space above his tropical fish emporium.

During a rehearsal, Percy has a heart attack while playing a solo, and dies. Stunned by their mentor’s death, the kids sadly take his body back to the mortuary for a courtesy funeral. However, Mr. Moss informs them that Percy's insurance policy had lapsed, and callously demands they pay the funeral cost or take Percy's body to the County morgue.

But Mr. Moss makes the mistake of calling Ronnie Roosevelt, a man listed as "next-of-kin" on Percy's lapsed insurance policy. Mr. Moss tricks Ronnie into believing that he is the beneficiary of the policy, when in fact, Mr. Moss only hopes to sell him an expensive funeral service for Percy. Ronnie is a New Orleans piano man with a soulful voice and a voodoo attitude. He is outraged to learn that he was duped into coming to Chicago and he threatens Mr. Moss with an especially unpleasant form of death.

As if by magic, Mr. Moss is found dead at his expensive home, and the kids decide to take matters into their own hands. When Kevin learns it will be a closed casket ceremony for Mr. Moss, he and Kevin switch Percy's and Mr. Moss' bodies, so that Percy will get the expensive funeral. That night the mortuary is filled with music and musicians as they celebrate a New Orleans style wake. Mr. Moss' body ends up in the autopsy room of the County Morgue.

The Stony Island Band’s debut is a smash. The evening is dedicated to Percy, whose spirit arrives just in time to finish the solo he was playing when he died.

Introduction

When it first appeared in 1978, Stony Island was hailed by critics for its fresh, original approach to the musical genre. In his directorial debut, filmmaker Andrew Davis took a page from the book of Italian Neo-Realism when he crafted this gritty, heartfelt homage to the people living in the Inner-city Chicago neighborhood known as Stony Island. Davis went on to acclaim as one of Hollywood’s most sought after directors with such hits as The Fugitive, Holes, The Guardian, A Perfect Murder, and Under Siege.
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Featuring an ensemble cast of notable actors and musical stars, Stony Island has been completely restored with a state-of-the-art digitally re-mastered soundtrack.

Musical Heritage

When famed Mississippi Delta blues man Muddy Waters stepped off a bus in Chicago for the first time he landed in Stony Island. It was here that Louis Armstrong first recorded with his “Hot Five” and “Hot Seven” ensembles, including such hits as "Potato Head Blues", "Muggles" (a reference to marijuana, for which Armstrong had a lifelong fondness), and "West End Blues", the music of which set the standard and the agenda for jazz for many years to come.

Mel Torme and Gene Krupa were both from the Stony Island Neighborhood. Tormé was born to immigrant Russian Jewish parents whose name had been Torma. A child prodigy, he first sang professionally at 4 with the Coon-Sanders Orchestra, singing "You're Driving Me Crazy," at Chicago's Blackhawk restaurant. Eugene Bertram Krupa began playing professionally in the mid 1920s with bands in Wisconsin. He broke into the Chicago scene in 1927, when he was picked by MCA to become a member of Thelma Terry and Her Playboys, the first notable American jazz band (outside of all-girl bands) to be led by a female musician. The Playboys were the house band at The Golden Pumpkin nightclub in Chicago and also toured extensively throughout the eastern and central United States.

Grammy Award-winner Chaka Kahn also grew up here. Best known for her 1984 cover of Prince's "I Feel For You", and her smash hit "I'm Every Woman", she was an R&B singer who explored numerous musical genres including funk, disco, jazz, ballads, hip hop, adult contemporary, pop and blues standards.

Rap artist Common has always had a strong sense of place, and he gives much credit to his early experiences in Chicago as having been an important influence on his musical style. In the area around 87th Street and Stony Island, the neighborhood in which he grew up, Blacks with middle class aspirations, working-class Blacks, and young gang members lived side by side.

The Stony Island Band

Gene “Daddy G” Barge was the inspiration for the Stony Island Band. The former high school teacher was a natural to play the mentor to a group of young musicians. His work as a composer/arranger/producer/musician on a host of Top 40 hits made him a perfect choice to lead the band.

Gene began his career in Norfolk, Virginia, helping to create what came to be known as The Norfolk Sound, including co-writing the 1961 #1 pop hit “Quarter to Three”, ushering in a whole new “funky” sound that revolutionized popular music. Barge first made the big time in 1957 when he played a memorable sax solo on Atlantic Records’ monster hit “C.C. Rider” by Chuck Willis.

In 1964 Gene moved to Chicago to become a producer/arranger/session player for Chess Records. He played on Fontella Bass’ hit “Rescue Me” and convinced Phil and Leonard Chess to sign guitarist Buddy Guy—they played together on Koko Taylor’s first big hit “Wang Dang Doodle”. He also played and/or arranged for Chess Records’ artists Bo Diddley, Etta James and Little Walter, and produced the seminal Muddy Waters album “Electric Mudd”.

In 1976, he won a Grammy for co-producing Natalie Cole’s album “Sophisticated Lady” and became friends with Mick Jagger, later touring Europe with The Rolling Stones. Today Gene “Daddy G” Barge is still living in Chicago and performing regularly, as well as recording with Public Enemy’s Chuck D, who calls Barge “the flyest Octogenarian I know”.

The Stony Island Band featured some of the finest young musicians in Chicago, including New Orleans keyboardist and singer Ronnie Barron, who played and recorded with Dr. John, Paul Butterfield, Canned Heat, Ry Cooder, Eric Burdon & The Animals, and Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, among others. Ronnie died in 1997.

Guitarist Richard “Richie” Davis is the brother of film director Andrew Davis. He has recorded with Bobby Womack, Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples, J.T. Taylor (Kool & the Gang), Angela Bofill, Billy Preston, Patrice Rushen , Grand Master Flash. Mariah Carey, Do or Die and Twista. He was a member of Maxx Traxx (formerly Third Rail) and has performed on stage with The Winans, Patti LaBelle, Nancy Wilson, Najee, Tom Scott, Bo Diddley James Burton and Kenny Loggins. He has written and produced music for “Above The Law”, “Under Siege”, “The Package”, “A Perfect Murder”, “Holes” and “The Guardian”.

Bassist Larry Ball has toured with Smokey Robinson and performed on many of his albums. Keyboardist Tennyson Stevens had his most successful collaboration with guitarist Phil Upchurch in the 1970s. He also wrote songs for jazz singer Nancy Wilson and others.
Background singer Windy Barnes has worked with Stevie Wonder, Julio Iglesias, Michael Bolton, Anita Baker, Billy Preston, and many others. Background singer Rae Dawn Chong (daughter of Tommy Chong) went on to a successful career as an actress in such films as “Commando” and “The Color Purple”.
While not technically in the band, two other notable musicians appear in the film.

Susanna Hoffs plays the girlfriend to Richie Bloom (Richie Davis). Susanna went on to fame as the lead vocalist for the all girl pop group The Bangles, including such hits "Manic Monday," which charted at number two and paved the way for the follow-up smash, "Walk Like an Egyptian," which went to number one. Their next single, a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade of Winter," from the “Less Than Zero” soundtrack, reached number one in 1987. Their final album spawned another number one, "Eternal Flame," in 1988.

As a session guitarist and performer Phil Upchurch has worked with a whose-who of contemporary music. Upchurch began playing in R&B bands, including for The Kool Gents, The Dells, and The Spaniels. He eventually formed the Phil Upchurch Combo, and his song "You Can't Sit Down" reached the US Top 30 in 1961 and the UK Top 40 on its reissue five years later. Upchurch later appeared on albums by Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and Howlin' Wolf. In the 1970s Upchurch appeared on several fusion albums, including Grover Washington, George Benson and The Crusaders. He has also collaborated with Chaka Khan, Booker T. Jones, and Michael Jackson.

Upchurch received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1997.

Score

Long before there was Dave Mathews, the pop star, there was David Mathews the jazz composer. It was David Mathews who composed and recorded the score for Stony Island. He enlisted the help of some of modern jazz’s great players, including multiple Grammy Award winning saxophonist David Sanborn and guitarist Hiram Bullock.

In l970, he began working as both an arranger and bandleader for James Brown, making it possible for him to relocate to New York City and utilize the Brown connection in order to garner steady freelance assignments. His clients included demanding performers such as drummer and bandleader Buddy Rich, singers Mark Murphy and Bonnie Raitt, and the Starland Vocal Band, among many others. In the mid-'70s he became staff arranger for the CTI label, resulting in a series of smooth productions that were loved by jazz buffs. Matthews formed his own groups from this period on, including David Matthews & the Manhattan Jazz Quintet. In addition to Stony Island, he scored many films for Hollywood such as The Parallax View, the original version of “The Stepford Wives” and “Night Moves”.

He has had quite a lot of success in Japan, where he continues to live and record.

Saxophonist David Sanborn has been a highly regarded session player since the late 1960s, playing with an array of well-known artists, such as Eric Clapton, Roger Daltrey, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Jaco Pastorius, the Brecker Brothers, David Bowie, Little Feat, Bob James, James Taylor, Al Jarreau, George Benson, Joe Beck, Donny Hathaway, Elton John, Gil Evans, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Billy Joel, Roger Waters, and Steely Dan.
Sanborn has won numerous awards including Grammy awards for Voyeur (1982), Double Vision (1987) and the instrumental single Close Up (1988). In television, Sanborn is well-known for his sax solo in the theme song for the NBC hit drama “L.A. Law”. He has also done some film scoring for films such as “Lethal Weapon” and “Scrooged”.