The Steel Guitar Forum

My semi annual request for info about 50's era Pop music non pedal whiz Joe Maize;


Is he still alive?
If so, Where on the planet might he be?
Does anybody here know him ?
Did any of you ever hear him LIVE in his heyday?

http://www.voicenet.com/~vanallen/lounge2.html




[Note: This message has been edited by Brad Bechtel]

Dave...

I don't have any new info.

Did the sand sculpture Joe Maize that somebody mentioned last time around lead to anything? A web search leads to this: Joe Maize sand sculpture.

I did buy a copy of the 12-inch LP "Presenting Joe Maize And His Cordsmen" from some used record dealer. I made a tape from the record, and put the tape in my car. I have had more fun listening to that tape than anything else I've gotten my hands on in the last year. Played it for two weeks straight a few months ago! Couldn't get enough.

A web search for his accordian player Johnny Cassinari (a key part of the act) didn't turn up anything.

Best I can figure, "Presenting Joe Maize And His Cordsmen" was recorded in the late 1950's. The album is Decca DL-8590, according to this www polka music dealer (item 172).

Wish there was more Joe Maize to hear.

Thanks for telling us about him.

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NOTE: Follow Dave's Link above. There is a Real Audio sound clip of Joe Maize there. Joe Maize had a great sense of humor to go with his music.

Tune List:
"Presenting Joe Maize And His Cordsmen"
Decca DL-8590
Joe Maize - Console Steel Guitar, Vocals
Johnny Cassinari - Accordian, Vocals
Chubby Dorin - Bass Viol, Vocals
"Little" Joe Tobia - Spanish Guitar

Side 1:
1. Alla En El Rancho Grande
2. Peg O' My Heart
3. Mambo No. 5
4. The Third Man Theme
5. I Wonder, I Wonder, I Wonder
6. The Donkey Serenade

Side 2:
1. Kohala March
2. Lonely Lover's Rhapsody
3. Miserlou
4. Harbor Lights
5. Drigo's Serenade
6. Sleepy Time Gal

No real vocals, just some hollering and carrying on in a few tunes. There is some great percussion on a few tunes, but no one is given credit for it on the album cover. Some of the percussion effects seem to be coming from the steel guitar.

<p ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#ce23ab">Three typos corrected. Two were in song title number 1.</FONT></P><p ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b">[This message was edited by Richard Vogh on 12-23-99]</FONT></P>

Mambo No. 5 ???

Yep. "Mambo No. 5", composed by Perez Prado.

With "vocal"!


<p ALIGN=CENTER><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b">[This message was edited by Richard Vogh on 12-22-99]</FONT></P>

The REAL Mambo No.5- not that piece of Hip Hop non-Mambo drek that was all over the airways recently with a micro-sample of Perez in it..

(a little bit of monica on my ...)

Dreck? If it's good enough for Bill Clinton to sing on the Tonight Show, it's good enough for me.

EB:Perhaps I was a little harsh in my statement about Mambo No.5 (1999)...
after all if it's popular it MUST be good

The sand sculptor has never responded to my requests for information - I get the feeling he may well be related- (how many Joe Maize's can there be?)

Back to one of Dave's questions at the top of this thread: "Did any of you ever hear him (Joe Maize) LIVE in his heyday?"

Here is something to jog your memories, quoted from the liner notes of the "Presenting Joe Maize And His Cordsmen" Decca album:

"The unique quartet, brought together originally by a chance meeting, has been working together for over nine years. They have made public appearances at some of the top hotels and night clubs in the United States and Hawaii. (The Mocambo in Hollywood, Last Frontier in Las Vegas, The Boulevard in New York, and many others) On television, they have been seen on their own show and other local shows emanating from Salt Lake City, and on the Kate Smith show over the CBS network."

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This album is un-dated, but it had to be no earlier than 1950 and no later than 1957. One of the tunes on it was composed in 1950. There is no mention of Stereo anywhere on the album, which places it (I think) before 1958.