Topic: Just when I thought it was safe to go back into
basilh
From: United Kingdom
Posted 10 May 2006 4:13 am
Someone sent me this video they did of Pat and myself at a church fund raiser last year.
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Quote:
Steel players do it without fretting
Andy Barlo
From: Schererville, Indiana, USA * R.I.P.
Posted 10 May 2006 4:30 am
Very, very nice Basil.
Andy
Rick Garrett
From: Tyler, Texas
Posted 10 May 2006 5:01 am
Really great stuff Baz. Tone to the bone man. Good job!
Rick
Howard Tate
From: Leesville, Louisiana, USA, R.I.P.
Posted 10 May 2006 5:24 am
Really beautiful! I'm curious about your technique, I've never seen anyone sit behind a guitar in quite that position. After hearing you, maybe I should try it.
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Howard
David Cook
From: Florida, USA
Posted 10 May 2006 5:44 am
Great playing,Basil. Love that Fender pedal steel tone,too. What are your copedents if you don't mind. Thanks, David
Bill Leff
From: Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Posted 10 May 2006 5:59 am
That swung Baz! Really great.
The tone and chord voicings very much reminded me of Billy Hew Len on the version of that tune on Steel Guitar Magic.
Bill Hatcher
From: Atlanta Ga. USA
Posted 10 May 2006 6:00 am
Bas. Nice playing. Kind of hard to see under the guitar, but it looks like you have a right knee lever there. Is that getting you the diminished chord?
basilh
From: United Kingdom
Posted 10 May 2006 6:00 am
Thanks lads, you've made a "happy man feel very old"
scrap that.. I mean Old man happy !!!
The way I sit is the result of being paralysed on my left hand side in the Polio epidemic of 1949. An Iron Lung for 4 years and then extensive physiotherapy saw me ambidextrous and quite flexible. BUT, having only 14 months of schooling in TOTAL left me somewhat challenged in the knowledge department.
There's also a video of me playing The Londonderry Aire, but I'm not sure it should be here in the 'no peddlers' section..
I'll post it in the pedal steel section and a link fro here..
Bob Stone
From: Gainesville, FL, USA
Posted 10 May 2006 6:04 am
Great Baz! Thanks.
basilh
From: United Kingdom
Posted 10 May 2006 6:14 am
This is the Londonderry Aire with the chords that the Irish musicians use.. !!
It's no 'Big E' or Curley C, but it's the best Basil Henriques in the whole world (That's what I keep telling myself)
[This message was edited by basilh on 10 May 2006 at 07:22 AM.]
Andy Volk
From: Boston, MA
Posted 10 May 2006 6:50 am
Nice! and a nod to Pat for her rhythm playing.
Greg Pettit
From: Ontario, Canada
Posted 10 May 2006 6:51 am
Superb!
basilh
From: United Kingdom
Posted 10 May 2006 7:40 am
Andy, both Pat and I say thanks, without her I'd be less than half of what I am today.!! an' that's a fact..
I taught her to play in TWO weeks back in 1963.. Her dad taught her the Ukulele and I just adapted what she knew to work on the guitar. She's a Natural, same as me, we didn't ever have formal tuition, just played it as we heard it ..
And this is info for Howard Tate Maybe this picture shows ANOTHER reason why I tend to sit at the 24th fret !!
[This message was edited by basilh on 10 May 2006 at 08:45 AM.]
Kay Das
From: Los Angeles CA
Posted 10 May 2006 7:48 am
baz,
that was just great, beautiful inventive melody lines and arpegggios and also lovely backing!
someway through the tune you change tone and get into a lovely passage emulating a foot pedal. did you switch in any special effect? i was once looking for that automated effect and found it in the Line6 Delay green stomp box, which i now own. to my knowledge, no one else does it. did you use an automated effect?
i was in the UK this past week, from singapore en route to los angeles, to see me dad and mum and other wild animals but too rushed to think about a trip to your neck of the woods.
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kay
basilh
From: United Kingdom
Posted 10 May 2006 8:04 am
Hi Kay, pity we couldn't have got together when you passed through 'Old Blighty'
as for the volume pedal effect, it's like Coca Cola , 'The Real Thing' !!
There's another clip coming up soon .. Of me Singing ?
Howard Tate
From: Leesville, Louisiana, USA, R.I.P.
Posted 10 May 2006 9:16 am
Thanks Baz, with something as lovely as that behind me I might turn all the way around. I've enjoyed every thing I've ever heard you play.
basilh
From: United Kingdom
Posted 10 May 2006 9:48 am
Hawaii Tattoo
basilh
From: United Kingdom
Posted 10 May 2006 10:04 am
I suppose it's not too bad for a couple of old 'Pensioners'
(She's six months older than me)
Don Kona Woods
From: Hawaiian Kama'aina
Posted 10 May 2006 10:34 am
Nice job Baz.
How did the Britons at the church fund raiser take to the steel guitar playing and Hawaiian music? Do the older people enjoy it more because of its past popularity? Do the young people express interest when they hear it?
Aloha,
Don
basilh
From: United Kingdom
Posted 10 May 2006 10:39 am
Don, I'll answer after my tea, The Boss Calls !!
basilh
From: United Kingdom
Posted 10 May 2006 11:25 am
Don, over the past 70 years Hawaiian music has been played in the Birmingham area. In the Sixties there was a HUGE night-club with a Polynesian decor that we played resident at (The Castaways)
It ran for six years at almost capacity crowds, two shows per night 600 people per show, six days a week, with TOP stars Like Tom Jones Billy Ecstein an Sarah Vaughan Shirley Bassey Mat Monro etc. We were resident and played from 8:30pm 'till 1:30am every night.
A LOT of people saw us. Between Television and Radio broadcasts, we were quite well known.
The Popularity of Hawaiian Music in the Birmingham area was such that at any given time in the 40's 50' and 60's there were at least half a dozen groups registered with the Musicians Union and the Club magazines.
To this day, the people of the UK have a liking for Hawaiian Music, mainly because of the touring of Felix Mendelssohn and his Hawaiian Serenaders.
Pats Father formed the Waikiki Islanders in 1937-38 and since his premature death at 48 years of age, we have kept on the tradition, both singly and collectively.
The older people still remember the 'Hay days" whilst the younger generation are not oblivious to the sound of the Hawaiian Guitar. You only have to listen to the amount of its use in advertising to know the popular perception of Paradise associated with the 'Signature Sound' of the Islands. It seems a pity that the Islands themselves don't seem to know this. (I know the reason for the swing in popularity to the 'Slack Key guitar' but that's another story and one that I'm serialising in Aloha Dream at the moment.
As for charity work, the man I work as MD for (Bob Brolly) last year raised over $200.000 for breast cancer research and he actually got his MBE (Queen's award) for his charity work. When not playing for Bob at charity events, Pat and I do the same thing on a much more modest scale, but still feel that it's significant. The Church Fundraiser we played for where the videos come from, raise over $2000 and most of our functions do that type of figure.
Regarding the general love for Hawaiianna in the UK, If it wasn't for the events of January 17th1893 there would be a different flag flying over the Iolani Palace today.. we have ALWAYS had an affinity for the Sandwich Islands..!Even if Cooke wasn't very popular.
Baz
[This message was edited by basilh on 10 May 2006 at 12:27 PM.]
basilh
From: United Kingdom
Posted 10 May 2006 11:33 am
Further, as an example of the UK's fondness for things Hawaiian, Edwin Pouncey who wrote sleeve notes for EMI Records, wrote this on one of my albums, It sums up the general perception over here.
In the same way that US masters of exotic music as Martin Denny and Les Baxter transported their listeners to mysterious tropical islands and ancient civilizations, Birmingham born Basil Henriques and his Waikiki Islanders managed to re-create a similar mirage on these two albums from the EMI Studio 2 series. Henriques destination was Hawaii, the unmistakable sound of which he expertly summoned up from the strings of his steel guitar, an instrument that was perfectly adapted to capture the mood and romance of the South Seas - with its golden beaches, palm trees and dramatic burning sunsets - and transport it into thousands of suburban homes across the UK. Basil Henriques was, for many mood music fans, the main supplier of instant sunshine.
Edwin Pouncey
Special thanks to Rob Owen
Design by EMI Art Department
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Baz
[This message was edited by basilh on 10 May 2006 at 12:33 PM.]
basilh
From: United Kingdom
Posted 10 May 2006 12:06 pm
I just realised, I was competing with Kellogs !!
Quote:
and transport it into thousands of suburban homes across the UK. Basil Henriques was, for many mood music fans, the main supplier of instant sunshine.
A clip of Pat's dad playing Ten Tiny Toes.. Click Here
[This message was edited by basilh on 10 May 2006 at 01:07 PM.]
Kay Das
From: Los Angeles CA
Posted 10 May 2006 8:44 pm
baz,
- its a great thing you're doing for steel guitar music in the UK...and more power to your elbow. i believe the time may be right for a real revival. one of these days i predict we may see a young steel guitarist in "top of the pops"...of course, this is horse-feathers for now. i have met many people who love the sound of steel guitar but have not the faintest idea what it is
- to your UK names i could add kealoha life. and was not wout steenhuis actually based out of the UK, somewhere in hampshire? you already must know of the yearly pedal steel guitar festival in newton, hants.
- there is nothing like steel guitar to whisk away those milk-of-magnesia UK winter mornings and evenings.
- regarding the cost of lap steel guitars in the UK, i have also, on occasion, paraded the london shops ...and been gob-smacked by the prices of the few steel guitars i saw
i have also an e-mail for you on another subject...
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kay
Don Kona Woods
From: Hawaiian Kama'aina
Posted 10 May 2006 10:25 pm
Baz,
Thanks for the nice overview. Keep up your good work, ole chap.
