MUSIC TREASURE PLAYS IT FORWARD FOR HOMEBOYS

2021 SPRING-SUMMER

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller at the 1985 award ceremony when both were inducted into the “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.”

MUSIC TREASURE PLAYS IT

FORWARD FOR HOMEBOYS

Come along with the Collegian Times on a nostalgic journey with half of the songwriting team of “Hound Dog” for Elvis Presley. Music heals and is used to create harmony among former gang members.

BY DIANA CAMPBELL

Classes begin with a drum circle where everyone checks in and shares their feelings. It may include issues they are facing or hopes for the future.

Music affects people in different ways. It can bring them together, create joy or bring a sense of healing.

Legendary songwriter Mike Stoller found a way to use his years of music expertise for the Young Musicians Foundation (YMF). The

Music Heals program is a unique, trauma-informed music immersion program for participants in

Homeboy Industries. Homeboy regards itself as the largest gang rehabilitation group in the U.S.

Previously incarcerated men and women receive support and assistance as they re-enter society.

The Music Heals program integrates instrumental, vocal and music technology and production. Emphasis is placed on helping participants connect with “their innate musical abilities” through hands-on experience, exploration and communal participation.

It all began because of a chance meeting between the Executive Director of the YMF Foundation, Walter Zooi and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Stoller.

“Mike mentioned an upcoming meeting at Homeboy Industries regarding a music program he wanted to start,” Zooi said. “I was intrigued and mentioned that YMF would be thrilled to help in any way.”

Zooi says the foundation was in the finishing stages of restructuring YMF’s program model to exclusively provide access to music education “to those who would not have the opportunity otherwise.”

1. “Music Heals,”classes always start with the ‘Homeboys’ participating in a drum circle. They share feelings and any issues they are facing, or hopes for the future.

2. Elvis performing the Leiber/Stoller song “Jailhouse Rock,” in film with same name in 1957 2021 SPRING-SUMMER

Months of planning happened before the debut of Stoller’s Music Heals program. It was an immediate success with the Homeboys. Zooi says Stoller attended every meeting his schedule would allow.

After the opening drum circle, participants may choose instruction in guitar, keyboards, drums, voice, songwriting or music production with a faculty of accomplished professional musicians and educators, like percussion instructor, Martin Flores. He sees the program as a revelation.

“It amazes me every time to realize that folks who fight,” Flores said, “have been shooting at each other before, are now smiling, playing music together.”

Stoller Honors Songwriting Partner

A tribute to the late Jerry Leiber, Stoller’s musical collaborator, was memorable. It included performances of some of the songs that made the duo famous like “Hound Dog,” “Stand By Me,” “Jail House Rock,” “Love Potion No. 9,” and “Spanish Harlem,” among many others. The tribute also included gems that had gone unheard until that night.

B EST- K N OWN H I TS O F L IEBE R & STO LLE R

“Kansas City” “Yakety Yak” “I Am Woman” “Hound Dog” “Love Potion No. 9” “Jail House Rock” “Is That All There Is!” “Riot in Cell Block No. 9”. “Hard Times” “Smokey Joe’s Cafe”* (*Broadway musical)

2021 SPRING-SUMMER

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1. Participants in the Music Heals program have access to musical instruments, computers, software and other creative tools.

2. “Hound Dog” is the title of Stoller and Leiber’s autobiography originally published in June 2009. 3. “Big Mama” Thornton sold more than one million copies of “Hound Dog,” which she first recorded for Peacock Records.

Rock-pop vocalist Tricia Tahara performed as jazz pianist and singer-songwriter Patrice Rushen led a 13-piece band through a journey of the Leiber and Stoller songbook. Stoller delighted the attendees when he capped the event with a performance.

“There are so many great singers and musicians here tonight,” Stoller said. “I am not either. But I did write the songs.”

Stoller began to play something he said he did not love — a medley at the grand piano. Within moments, the entire audience appeared to be in tears with his poignant performance of countless classics. Stoller choked up a bit when he recounted his first meeting in 1949 with Jerome Leiber when they were both 16 years old.

He says Leiber was writing words, poems and songs, and he needed a melody man. Stoller, however did not like pop songs. He liked blues. After Stoller graduated from Belmont High School and Leiber from Fairfax High, they both enrolled at L.A. City College and signed up for “Harmony 1,” in 1950.

Fast forward to their biggest hit “Hound Dog.”

Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton was the first to record the song on Peacock Records. She sold more than a million copies.

Elvis Presley heard “Hound Dog” and made it his own in an appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” with different stylings where he gyrated his hips and changed the original lyrics.

“We didn’t like that the cheating man had been morphed into a dog, but considering the success it was receiving, we said nothing,” the two men wrote in the autobiography “Hound Dog.” The forward of the book includes a photo of Thornton and the record she released. They paid her homage for being part of their early success.

Stoller returned to L.A. City College in 2018 to teach a master class. Leiber and Stoller became architects of rock and roll, two of the most influential songwriters ever in popular music. They were accomplished, impactful hit record producers.

The glue that bonded Leiber and Stoller was a mutual passion for boogie-woogie and blues that started in their early childhood.

And the beat goes on, because Stoller still writes and creates original music.

It seems so appropriate since Stoller is 88, because that’s the number of keys on a piano. ∫