New Tune HSGA - EXOTICA! - from Gerald Ross

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 7 Nov 2005 6:22 am

I knew the subject line would get you.

Here’s a tune I played onstage at HSGA Joliet 2005 last month with my pal Bill Leff (thanks for forcing me to play it Bill). It’s the Arthur Lyman Exotica classic “Poinciana”. Bill lives 2400 miles away, he couldn’t stop by this past weekend. So for this recording I was forced to play all the instruments myself.

I am using my 1935 Bakelite Rick tuned CEGACE, my 2003 D’Angelico New Yorker archtop guitar and a 2004 Lanikai Tenor uke. Band In A Box provides the bass.

I ran the Rick through a Roland Microcube and mic’ed the amp with an Audio Technica Pro-37 condenser mic. The guitar and uke were recorded acoustically with the same mic.

I used a touch of reverb on the Microcube… that’s it. The “chorusing” effect you hear on the steel is achieved by NOT placing your left fingers on the strings behind the bar. I am letting both sides of the string ring out under the bar.

Poinciana

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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

CEO, CIO, CFO - UkeTone Records
Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association

[This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 07 November 2005 at 06:24 AM.]

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 7 Nov 2005 6:49 am

I knew the subject line would get you.

Maybe, if it were Erotica

Beautiful job Gerald. I certainly also enjoyed it when Bill and yourself played it onstage.

Jeff Strouse · Post by **Jeff Strouse** » 7 Nov 2005 7:36 am

Nice Gerald!

Todd Weger · Post by **Todd Weger** » 7 Nov 2005 8:19 am

Gerald, I like that Latin feel. VERY NICE playing AND arrangement.

Man, I wish you lived by us. Seriously, the cold and snow isn't good for you, dude. You NEED to move to the Tampa/St.Pete area of Florida, and play steel/uke/guitar with Haole Kats!!! so I can just stay on bass! I'll have my drummer/uke player Joe call you to badger you.

C'mon! The water's fine!

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Todd James Weger --
1956 Fender Stringmaster T-8 (C6, A6, B11); 1960 Fender Stringmaster D-8 (C6, B11/A6); Regal resonator (C6)

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 7 Nov 2005 8:28 am

Todd,

I hate the cold weather, but I get a decent paycheck from U of M and I have to pay my rent.

My father's family came to the USA in 1921 and landed in NYC. Half the family went to California and half went to Detroit. Guess which half I got.

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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

CEO, CIO, CFO - UkeTone Records
Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 7 Nov 2005 1:31 pm

Great tune and great rendition, Gerald. I used to play it in A6th but can't remember my own arrangment! The jazz guitarist, Jimmy Bruno, played a killer version on his Live at Birdland CD:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000IN3V/qid=1131398925/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/102-5379575-7170548?v=glance&s=music

Don Kona Woods · Post by **Don Kona Woods** » 8 Nov 2005 12:23 am

Great Job Gerald!!!

When will you put the bird calls or whistles on your recording?

I had the pleasant opportunity numerous times to hear Arthur Lyman play the vibes at the Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel and do his famous bird whistles.

On one visit I kept hearing a bird whistle echo, so I thought. Arthur would do a bird whistle and then I would hear another bird whistle, but it wasn't coming from Arthur. IT WAS COMING FROM THE WAITRESS. She had learned to bird whistle just like Arthur. They would go back and forth with bird whistling.

It was like two birds talking. It was hilarious.

Aloha,
Don

Andy Sandoval · Post by **Andy Sandoval** » 8 Nov 2005 3:05 am

Beutiful tune Gerald.

Kay Das · Post by **Kay Das** » 8 Nov 2005 4:14 am

nice style, gerald, pretty,...

always thought that tune was written for steel guitar.....

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kay

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 8 Nov 2005 5:01 am

It sure caught my eye.
Beautiful, and the backing tracks have all the taste of Joao Gilberto's quartet from the '60s--taste in the extreme.

Gerald, you have introduced me to more fine island music than any other source, except maybe Kay. I sure appreciate the education.

The bird calls--my mind fills them in, as they're still there.

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 8 Nov 2005 6:21 am

Thanks all. The tune falls naturally under the bar in a C6 tuning. Give it a try.

Hey, listen to this. I got an email from Wally Pfeifer of the HSGA. He befriended Arthur Lyman in the 1990's.

Read this:
Wally remembers Arthur Lyman

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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

CEO, CIO, CFO - UkeTone Records
Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association

[This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 08 November 2005 at 06:22 AM.]

Joel Newman · Post by **Joel Newman** » 8 Nov 2005 7:12 am

Very Groovy Gerald!! I always like to hear what everyone is doing in that tuning as that's all I'm messing with right now,(maybe in a thousand years I'll move off of it, but there is so much to learn on just that tuning).And very nicely recorded,(clean and clear). A question if I might, did you use a click track or was the bass from biab sufficient for tempo of the tune? thanks again as usual . . .

Kay Das · Post by **Kay Das** » 8 Nov 2005 7:46 am

a nostalgic anecdote on arthur lyman....i was on vacation in waikiki ( where else could i have been?!) , it would have been 2001 if my memory serves me well...someone on the trolley bus at ala moana center told me that arthur lyman was playing that afternoon at the new otani so i beetled along to see him, it was our last day there. i sat right next to him and ordered a drink. after a while he asked if i had any requests. i asked him to play " trade wind" but half way through the tune he lost track (he was suffering then) and asked me to whistle the bridge of the tune. i did so and he resumed playing. at the conclusion of the tune asked me if i played steel guitar....surprised, i asked him how he knew...he said he had guessed it by the way i whistled the tune....we got talking, amongst other topics, about "poinciana" and how well the tune suited his instrument and steel guitar...he was such a humble man...

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kay

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 8 Nov 2005 8:06 am

Joel,

I did not use a click track. I only used the 4 beat BIAB countoff to orient me.

Here's how I recorded the tune. I generated a bass line from BIAB and exported it to a WAV file. I also exported the 4 beat count off that in starts every BIAB song to a WAV file. I imported the bass and the countoff WAVs file into ProTools as two separate tracks.

I then overdubbed the mic'ed rhythm guitar and the uke, each on it's own track.

When this rhythm section (3 tracks of audio, 1 track of countoff) was completed I overdubbed the steel part.

Recording takes a long time. My wife was out of town over the weekend, hence the new tune.

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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

CEO, CIO, CFO - UkeTone Records
Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association

Joel Newman · Post by **Joel Newman** » 8 Nov 2005 8:56 am

Thanks for the recording low down. That sounds about how I'd do it too. the blank 4 bars at the top i probably would'a sweated as
the uke and guit. part are just solo there. Always hang nails with sequenced and live stuff with me . .congrats again!

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 8 Nov 2005 9:10 am

My wife was out of town over the weekend, hence the new tune.

Let's all kick in and send her on a cruise to the Antartic.....that should get us 4 or 5 cds from Gerald!

Gerald Ross · Post by **Gerald Ross** » 8 Nov 2005 9:25 am

When their wives are out of town a lot of guys go to a "Gentlemen's Club", smoke whatever is available, gamble and drink to excess.

I don't shave, order-in deli, retreat to my "man cave" and record.

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Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'

CEO, CIO, CFO - UkeTone Records
Gerald's Fingerstyle Guitar Website
Board of Directors Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association

[This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 08 November 2005 at 09:35 AM.][This message was edited by Gerald Ross on 08 November 2005 at 03:47 PM.]

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 8 Nov 2005 4:13 pm

No wonder all that you play sounds so great and always top drawer.

You have those hidden traits that most all good musicans have. Really nice performance.

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 8 Nov 2005 4:26 pm

Gerald, just exquisite! Thank you.

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Mark