Click above image for larger picture and better detail. Offered here is a great 1940s era promo 8x10 of jazz guitar pioneer, Alvino Rey. Mr. Rey has written on it: "To George - It's been a great pleasure to be associated together My best always Alvino Rey" Alvino Rey is one of those artists who you might not have heard of, but whose work and influence you are most likely familiar with in a round about way. Rey started his career in the 1920s playing banjo with the bands of Ev Jones and Phil Spitalny, switching to guitar by 1929. He changed his name from Alvin McBurney to Alvino Rey when Latin Music became the hot thing in New York, and played with Russ Morgan and Freddie Martin. In the mid 30s he moved to San Francisco with the Horace Hiedt Orchestra and began playing the pedal steel guitar. The switch to pedal steel made Rey a star in his own right, and in the early 40s he had a band with a lineup that included Ray Conniff, Neal Hefti, Billy May, Al Cohn and Zoot Sims among others. Rey's unique style on pedal steel was highly influential in the exotica era, and he found lots of work as a session man for artists like Esquivel, George Cates, Jack Constanzo, and the Surfmen. So next time you hear the warbly wail of a spaced out pedal steel guitar, tip your hat to Alvino Rey! Autograph autographs autographed signed |
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THIS JUST IN: Louie's New Orleans jazz novel, "The Sound of Building Coffins," will be published in March 2009 by The Toby Press.Please visit Louie's MySpace Page for more info (friend me, baby!) Also, please visit Louie's publisher, The Toby Press.  Click here to see what we have THIS WEEK ON EBAY |
