#1
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Ukulele - before Jake Shimabukuro, there was Roy Smeck
Check out Roy Smeck - he even does a bit of Van Halen tapping on the uke...
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#2
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Great stuff. He plays the heck out of that thing, doesn't he?
I'd heard of Smeck, but had never heard him play before. Looks like he's playing a Martin maybe? Was it Harmony that made a Roy Smeck model uke? I've seen them on ebay I think. |
#3
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And he could really cut a rug.
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I only play technologically cutting edge instruments. Parker Flys and National Resonators |
#4
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Roy was amazing on many instruments -- lap guitar, guitar, uke, banjo. Back in the day I interviewed him and had the pleasure of writing a chapter about him -- his background and his influence -- in my book The Guitar Players: One Instrument in American Music.
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#5
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That was awesome. Not just because it was some amazing playing, but there's a little bit of history preserved in those clips.
Thanks for sharing! |
#6
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That is very cool - what a great experience!
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#7
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Although I really like some of Johnny Winter's music, playing fast is not necessarily my idea of good music.
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#8
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Imagine you're a kid, maybe ten, maybe fifteen, in 1926. Maybe you know someone who plays a stringed instrument, maybe you've heard them on a Gramophone or Victrola. You go to the movies, which have always been silent, accompanied by an organist or pianist. And then this comes on the screen:
Maybe, after seeing this short, you grow up to be Charlie Christian or George Barnes. "His Pastimes" was one of the very first "music videos", the year before the first feature-length "talkie," The Jazz Singer. It's a link to a time before recordings, when a vaudeville performer had to be loud and over-the-top flashy in order to hold his or her own, unamplified before an audience of hundreds or thousands, with a dozen other performers on the bill. See Paul Fox's Epiphone History page for a fascinating account of the pre-Epiphone House of Stathopoulo, the eight string Octochordo lap steel played by Smeck in the video, and the connection between Smeck and Sam Moore, for whom the instrument was built and who devised the 8 string E7 tuning and composed the tune ("Laughing Boy Rag") with which Smeck begins the video. Smeck's endorsement deal with Harmony, and the company's "Vita" ukuleles, came after this Vitaphone short catapulted Smeck into superstardom.
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John Pictures of musical instruments are like sculptures of food. Last edited by syrynx; 02-11-2015 at 06:30 PM. Reason: Fixed typo |
#9
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Quote:
Not many can take a lowly little ukulele and put some flash in it like he did. No amplification....no effects....no studio trickery....just a little acoustic instrument in the hands of a master. |