Mike Stoller

As half of the legendary writing/production team of Leiber and Stoller, during the '50s and '60s Mike Stoller was at once a devoted follower of black culture and music and one of its defining forces. Born in Belle Harbor, Long Island, Stoller's mother had been an actress and a member of the chorus in Gershwin's Funny Face. Nudging her son towards classical piano lessons, Stoller instead rebelled and began playing boogie woogie and bebop jazz in his teens and frequenting the R&B clubs of Harlem. When he was 16 the family moved to Los Angeles and, soon after, the naturally shy S...