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Old 02-07-2015, 07:08 AM
815C 815C is offline
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Default 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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Old 02-07-2015, 09:02 AM
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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.
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Old 02-07-2015, 10:47 AM
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And he could really cut a rug.
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Old 02-07-2015, 01:13 PM
Jimmie Jimmie is offline
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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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Old 02-07-2015, 02:59 PM
FormerFoodie FormerFoodie is offline
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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!
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Old 02-08-2015, 05:29 AM
815C 815C is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmie View Post
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.
That is very cool - what a great experience!
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Old 02-08-2015, 08:47 PM
MutinousDoug MutinousDoug is offline
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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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Old 02-11-2015, 06:28 PM
syrynx syrynx is offline
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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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Last edited by syrynx; 02-11-2015 at 06:30 PM. Reason: Fixed typo
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Old 02-12-2015, 05:56 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MutinousDoug View Post
Although I really like some of Johnny Winter's music, playing fast is not necessarily my idea of good music.
Playing fast is not necessarily bad either. Depends on what you do with it....and I think Smeck pulls it off very well.

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.
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