Alvino Rey Sonovox & Stringy The Guitar By Request

G’day Phantom Dancers,

By request on this week’s Phantom Dancer, you get to enjoy once more an Alvino Rey set from a 1942 Spotlight Bands Blue Network broadcast which I played just over a year ago. In particular, the requester asked for the song ‘Cash for Your Trash’

The requests email address is phantomdancer@2ser.com

Alvino Rey, born Alvin McBurney, was a bandleader and pioneer electric guitarist. He built his first amplified guitar pickup in 1923 at the age of 15, but didn’t patent it. Gibson had him help design a pickup for their first electric guitar, the ES-150 in 1935

Quoting Wiki, “Starting in 1939, Rey used a carbon throat microphone to modulate his electric guitar sound. The mike, developed for military pilots, was worn by Rey’s wife Luise, who stood behind a curtain and sang along with the guitar lines. The novel combination was called “Singing Guitar”, and later became known as the Sonovox. Along with early Vocoders (initially called Voders), which were initially developed to scramble messages between the Pentagon and field commanders during WWII, the Sonovox innovation was one the first known talk box experiments. A Soundie film of Rey using the Sonovox is posted on YouTube and further info about Rey and the Sonovox can be found in the Dave Tomkin’s book, “How To Wreak A Nice Beach” (How to Recognize Speech)”

This week, two Phantom Dancer Videos of the Week explaining the Sonovox. The first is a brief explanation from the Disney studios. Is the chappie asking the questions the voice of Bugs Bunny, Mel Blanc?

And here’s the Alvino Rey Sonovox clip with ‘Stringy The Guitar’. All Stringy’s voices are done through Alvino Rey’s pedal steel…

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio CRN Show #5 2SER Tuesday 19 June 2012 12 noon – 1:30pm (+10 hours GMT)   2SER Saturday 23 June 2012 6 – 7:30pm (+10 hours GMT) Set 1 Ad + Fellow On A Furlough + Ad Mark Warnow & The Hit Parade Orchestra (voc) The Hit Paraders ‘Your Hit Parade’ WEAF NBC NY Jan 1944 Ad + Blind Date Open ‘Blind Date’ WJZ ABC NY 28 Sep 1945 Lambeth Walk Jim Davidson & His ABC Dance Orchestra (voc) Alice Smith, Gordon Rawlinson, Dick Cranburn Comm Rec Sydney 2 Nov 1938 Ad + Wolverine Blues + Study In Brown (close) Larry Clinton Orchestra ‘RCA Victor Campus Club’ Glen Island Casino New Rochelle WEAF NBC Red NY 2 Jul 1938 Set 2 Open + Hindustan Alvino Rey Orchestra ‘Spotlight Bands’ Paramount Theatre WJZ NBC Blue NY 28 Feb 1942 Cash For Your Trash Alvino Rey Orchestra (voc) Bonnie Rae ‘Spotlight Bands’ Paramount Theatre WJZ NBC Blue NY 28 Feb 1942 If I Could Only Play A Concertina Alvino Rey Orchestra (voc) The King Sisters ‘Spotlight Bands’ Paramount Theatre WJZ NBC Blue NY 28 Feb 1942 Deep In The Heart Of Texas + Close Alvino Rey Orchestra (voc) Band ‘Spotlight Bands’ Paramount Theatre WJZ NBC Blue NY 28 Feb 1942 Set 3 Bei Dir War Es Immer So Schoen Django Reinhardt (g) Fud Candrix Orchestra Comm Rec Brussels 16 Apr 1942 Moon Love Glenn Miller Orchestra (voc) Ray Eberle Glen Island Casino New Rochelle WEAF NBC Red NY 13 Jun 1939 Up A Lazy River Henry Levine Octet (voc) Dolores O’Neill ‘Chamber Music Society Of Lower Basin Street’ WEAF NBC Red NY 17 Feb 1941 Ad + Serenade In The Night Peter van Steeden & The Ipana Troubadours ‘Town Hall Tonight’ WEAF NBC Red NY 17 Mar 1937 Set 4 Tiger Rag Graeme Bell & His Dixieland Jazz Band 3AW Macquarie Network Melbourne 1949 Canteen Bounce Les Brown Orchestra ‘Spotlight Bands’ Miami Florida Mutual Network 10 Aug 1943 Dixieland Detour Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra Meadowbrook Ballroom Cedar Grove NJ WEAF NBC Red NY 5 Oct 1939 Losers Weepers Tommy Dorsey Orchestra Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 17 Apr 1944 Set 5 Let’s Have One For The Road George Trevare Orchestra (voc) Unknown Comm Rec Sydney 1943 Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me Harry James Orchestra (voc) Helen Forrest Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS LA 1944 Jack Benny-Gary Cooper Skit + One O’Clock Jump Jack Benny, Gary Cooper, Benny Goodman Orchestra ‘Jack Benny Show’ WABC CBS NY 13 Dec 1942 Set 6 Le Boogie De Paris Jacques Helian Orchestra (voc) Jacques Helian & Band Comm Rec Paris 1946 Swing That Music Eddie Condon ‘Eddie Condon Town Hall Jazz Concert’ Ritz Theatre WJZ Blue Network 29 Jul 1944 The Blizzard Louis Prima Orchestra ‘Spotlight Band’ Mitchell Field WJZ Blue New York 15 Jan 1945

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