Zero to 180 – Three Minute Magic
It’s always a thrill when somebody who actually served on the front lines of music history reaches out to help fill in some of the historical gaps. Just last month, Danny Faragher of the Peppermint Trolley Company chimed in on an earlier NRBQ piece that attempts to identify the earliest
As with Waylon Jennings‘ deeply-felt “Abilene” or Ruby Wright’s surprisingly bass-centric “Adios Aloha,” one cannot but feel alarmed by the depth of bottom in the opening synth notes of this charmingly analog production – recorded at Cincinnati’s Counterpart Studios, with Shad O‘Shea and Wes Boatman at the helm (get it?):
Sadly, too many people are unaware that, before Les Paul and his electronic wizardry, steel guitarist bandleader, Alvino Rey, had already developed the prototype for the first modern electric guitar and created the “Sono-Vox,” a precursor to Pete Drake‘s “talk box,” as I learned this past August. Check out the
One thing you will not experience in a Barnes & Noble or Books-a-Million: finding something inside the book you just bought, such as a newspaper clipping that pertains to the book in question (typical) or a press release from the publisher (also common). More unusual would be to find cut-up
Last November’s tribute to the funkiest musical instrument known to humankind would seem to designate NRBQ‘s “Stomp” (recorded December, 1968) as among the earliest of recordings to feature the clavinet, even though by article’s end I reveal my ace card — “Attractive Girl” by The Termites, an album track on
Is Cincinnati aware the degree to which Manzel‘s two 45s “Space Funk” (from 1977) and “Midnight Theme” (1979) have become revered dance tracks around the globe? Note the trippy backwards drumming intro that immediately draws in the listener on “Space Funk”: “Space Funk“ Manzel (1977) The number of times Dopebrother
I am reading the memoir of music industry legend, Bob Thiele — producer at Coral Records who “discovered” Buddy Holly and would later work with Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Albert Ayler, Joe Turner, Otis Spann, Gil Scott-Heron, and Bernard “Pretty” Purdie & the Playboys,
Thanks to Andy Volk of The Steel Guitar Forum for pointing me to Anne Miller‘s fascinating profile of steel guitarist bandleader Alvino Rey for The Smithsonian in which we learn Rey, as a consultant for Gibson Guitars in the 1930s, helped develop the prototype for the ES-150 (made famous by
Jean Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley — originators of funny and futuristic-sounding 1960s instrumental music with massive kid appeal — found common cause intermittently as a recording act that produced a total of three full-length albums and two single releases. Perrey & Kingsley‘s appearance on an episode of I’ve Got
COPYRIGHT © 2012-2022 ZERO TO 180. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Recent Comments