Alvino Ray
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Alvin McBurney (July 1, 1908 – February 24, 2004), known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an American jazz guitarist and bandleader.


Career

Alvin McBurney was born in
Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
, United States, but grew up in
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. Early in life he had a knack for music and electronics. When he was eight, he built his first radio, and within a couple years he was one of the youngest ham radio operators in the country. In his teens, he was given a banjo as a birthday present. His professional career began in 1927 when he got a job playing banjo with Cleveland bandleader Ev Jones. During the following year, he became a member of the Phil Spitalny Orchestra. He switched from banjo to guitar, then changed his name to Alvino Rey to take advantage of the popularity of Latin music in New York City at the time. From 1932 to 1938 he was a member of Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights. He drew attention to himself and the band when he started playing
steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...
. The
Gibson Gibson may refer to: People * Gibson (surname) Businesses * Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment * Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based * Gi ...
corporation asked him to develop a pickup for the guitar. In 1937, he married Luise King of
the King Sisters The King Sisters were an American big band-era vocal group consisting of six sisters: Alyce, Donna, Luise, Marilyn, Maxine, and Yvonne King. History Born and raised in Pleasant Grove, Utah, the King sisters were part of the Driggs family of e ...
. In 1939, he formed his own band with the King Sisters and moved to
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
, where he became musical director at KHJ Mutual Broadcasting radio network. As leader of the house band, he recorded a version of " Deep in the Heart of Texas" that was a hit in 1942. During the same year he hired Al Cohn,
Ray Conniff Joseph Raymond Conniff (November 6, 1916 – October 12, 2002) was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s. Biography Conniff was born November 6, 1916 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, United St ...
, Neal Hefti, Zoot Sims, and arranger
Billy May Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for ''The Green Hornet'' (1966), ''The Mod Squad'' (1968), ''Batman'' (with '' Batgirl'' them ...
. In the 1940s he also worked with saxophonist Herbie Steward, drummer Dave Tough, and arrangers
Nelson Riddle Nelson Smock Riddle Jr. (June 1, 1921 – October 6, 1985) was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid-1980s. He worked with many world-famous vocalists at Capitol Records ...
, Johnny Mandel, and George Handy. The band didn't record in 1943 due to the musicians' strike. The band broke up, and Rey found work at Lockheed as a mechanic. In 1944, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he worked on radar systems and directed a band. After his service, he formed an orchestra that had fifteen horns and recorded a cover version of "Cement Mixer" by
Slim Gaillard Bulee "Slim" Gaillard (January 9, 1911 – February 26, 1991), also known as McVouty, was an American jazz singer and songwriter who played piano, guitar, vibraphone, and tenor saxophone. Gaillard was noted for his comedic vocalese singing ...
that became a hit. During the 1950s, he played
steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...
in small groups, often with Buddy Cole, his brother-in-law. Beginning about 1957, Rey produced many of the George Greeley piano recordings for Warner Bros. Records. During the 1960s, he was music director for ''The King Family Show'' with the King Sisters. Rey made frequent appearances on the show performing "The Alvino Rey Talking Guitar" which was in fact a pedal steel. He also played steel guitar in recording sessions with Jack Costanzo, George Cates, Juan García Esquivel, Esquivel, and the studio group the Surfmen. These musicians were associated with the short-lived genre exotica, which combined Hawaiian music, Latin music, lounge jazz, and unconventional instruments from Burma and Indonesia. In 1978, he was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. In the early 1990s, Rey moved with his wife Luise to her native Utah. In Salt Lake City, he formed a jazz quartet which played in local clubs, sometimes with Luise sitting in. He quit performing in 1994. Luise died in 1997 after 60 years of marriage. In 2004, after breaking his hip and suffering complications including pneumonia and congestive heart failure, Rey died at the age of 95 at a rehabilitation center.


Pioneer of electrified instruments

Rey amplified his banjo in the 1920s. In 1935,
Gibson Gibson may refer to: People * Gibson (surname) Businesses * Gibson Brands, Inc., an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and audio equipment * Gibson Technology, and English automotive and motorsport company based * Gi ...
hired him to develop a prototype pickup with engineers at the Lyon & Healy company in Chicago, based on the one he developed for his banjo. The result was used for Gibson's first electric guitar Gibson ES-150, ES-150. The prototype is kept in the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle. In 1939, Rey invented an early version of a "talk box" device that modified the sound of his electric steel guitar to sound like words. For performances of his big band, he created an animated mechanical character he named "Stringy", shaped like a guitar, that "sang" the altered guitar sounds. A later commercial version of the talk box, using a different technology developed by Bob Heil, was made famous by guitarist Peter Frampton. Around 1959 to 1960, Rey collaborated with composer Euel Box of PAMS Productions of Dallas to bring his distinctive pedal steel guitar sounds to radio jingles. This jingle package was part of the new Top Forty radio format and was heard on such innovative radio stations as K-BOX in Dallas and W-FUN Miami. Rey is also credited with inspiring the later, ground-breaking "Sonosational" PAMS Jingles Series 18 in 1961 which featured the talking or singing instrument effects of Rey's "sonovox".


Discography


As leader

* ''Swingin' Fling'' (Capitol Records, Capitol, 1958) * ''Refreshing Melodies'' (Sacred, 1958; reissued 1976) * ''My Reverie'' (Decca Records, Decca, 1959) * ''Ping-Pong!'' (Capitol, 1960) * ''That Lonely Feeling'' (Capitol, 1960) * ''Alvino Rey! ...His Greatest Hits'' [re-recordings] (Dot Records, Dot, 1961) * ''As I Remember Hawaii'' (Dot, 1962) * ''The Big Band Steel Guitar'' (Steel Guitar Record Club, 1977) * ''Dance With Me ...The Big Band Sound of Alvino Rey'' (Alysa, 1978) * ''The Greatest Jazz Band'' (Alysa, 1979)


As sideman

* Joe "Fingers" Carr, ''The Riotous, Raucous, Red-Hot 20's!'' (Warner Bros., 1961) * George Cates, ''George Cates' Polynesian Percussion'' (Dot, 1961) * Elvis Presley, ''Blue Hawaii'' (RCA Victor, 1961) * Stan Kenton and Tex Ritter, ''Stan Kenton! Tex Ritter!'' (Capitol, 1962) * Kirby Stone Four, ''Frank Loesser's Broadway Hit 'Guys & Dolls' '' (Columbia 1962)


References


Sources


Jazz Journalists Association





External links

*
Alvino Rey Interview
NAMM Oral History Program (2001) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rey, Alvino 1908 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American guitarists American jazz guitarists American jazz bandleaders Converts to Mormonism American Latter Day Saints Big band bandleaders Pedal steel guitarists Musicians from Oakland, California Musicians from Salt Lake City Capitol Records artists Deaths from pneumonia in Utah Amateur radio people King family (show business) American jazz banjoists Guitarists from California Guitarists from Utah American male guitarists Musicians from Cleveland Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park Jazz musicians from California Guitarists from Ohio Jazz musicians from Ohio 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians