JohnPizzarelli is preparing to release his latest recording, Double Exposure. The 13-song set is a collection of tunes bygreat pop songwriters framed within traditional jazz arrangements. The album opens with the upbeat and uptempo “I Feel Fine/Sidewinder,” a trackwhich Pizzarelli describes as “Lennon and McCartney meet Lee Morgan.” Double Exposure draws from a pool of pop songwriters from the past five decades: Lennon and McCartney, Neil Young, James Taylor, Leiber and Stoller, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell and others. Woven into the compositions are threads of jazz borrowed from figures like Wes Montgomery, Billy Strayhorn, Thad Jones and John Coltrane.
Pizzarelli appears on several tracks on Paul McCartney’s new album, Kisses on the Bottom. The two also performed together at this year’s Grammy Awards.
Born from a passion for the music of legendary drummer Tony Williams, Spectrum Road is a collaboration between Jack Bruce, Vernon Reid, John Medeski and Cindy Blackman Santana.
Although Spectrum Road is named for one of the tracks on the original Tony Williams Lifetime album, it is not a tribute band. After performing alongside Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker in Cream, British bassist Jack Bruce joined the Lifetime for two records, serving as Spectrum Road’s direct connection to their muse. The group is rounded out with guitarist Vernon Reid of Living Colour, multi-keyboardist John Medeski of Medeski, Martin & Wood, and former Lenny Kravitz drummer, Cindy Blackman Santana.
Spectrum Road will release its self-titled debut album June 5 and will kick off its summer tour a tBonnaroo later that week.
The Palladium Ballroom, Dallas, will play host March 4 to Benefit Bugs, a musical event and auction to help guitarist Bugs Henderson with medical expenses relating to cancer treatment.
Henderson is local blues icon who has been playing in the area since the early ’70s, jamming in theatres and arenas, opening for and playing alongside performers including B.B. King, Freddie King, Ted Nugent, and Eric Clapton. When their tours hit Dallas, many noteable musicians would make it a point to see Henderson’s shows.
Tickets for the benefit are available at AXS.com or by calling 888-929-7849.
The Höfner Club 40 Limited Edition is based on the ’60s version of the guitar. It uses a Höfner Toaster single-coil pickup and has a nitrocellulose sunburst finish, tortoiseshell control panel, and the retro-style tailpiece. See more at hofner.com.
The 2012 Pickathon Music Festival will take place on Friday, August 3 through Sunday, August 5, returning to the beautiful Pendarvis Farm nearPortland,Oregonfor its 14th year. Pickathon has a well-curated 50-band bill where every artist plays at least twice. The festival provides six performance spaces spread throughout the 80 wooded acres of Pendarvis Farm. Past performers include Mavis Staples, Will Oldham, Michael Hurley, Bill Callahan, The Heartless Bastards, Iris Dement, and Freakwater, The Avett Brothers, Dr. Dog, Justin Townes Earle,BlackMountain, Frank Fairfield, and more.
Fifteen minutes from Portland, Oregon, Pickathon is a family-friendly festival. Tucked away on 80 s acres of wooded Oregonlandscape, Pickathon presents attendees with grounds for camping and miles of terrain for hiking. The six performance spaces spread throughout Pendarvis Farm provide a variety of environments to take in the music and atmosphere; including the tension-fabric strcture that covers the Mountain View and Fir Meadow Stages, which ranks as one of the largest temporary installations of its kind in the world.
For more information, visit pickathon.com.
Black Stone Cherry will premier its video for “In My Blood” today, exclusively on Yahoo. The documentary-style video follows PFC Randy Hirneisen, a 20-year-old tanker with U.S. Army Europe, on his journey from his deployment in Afghanistan to his redeployment back to his assignment in Germany and finally to his arrival home in Augusta, Georgia where his wife, Cindy Torres, introduces him to his two-month-old son. To celebrate Hirneisen’s homecoming on January 16, B.S.C. participated in a surprise party for the soldier with his family and friends in Augusta.
Black Stone Cherry grew up in a small town in Kentucky, where family and friends have served or are currently serving in the Armed Forces. Wanting to do something to acknowledge their appreciation, the band reached out to the U.S. Army to find someone who would help bring awareness to the struggles and sacrifices that a soldier has to endure to protect our country.
The band is kicking off its What’s In Your Blood? web campaign, inviting fans in the U.S. to share their stories. Fans can submit stories through the band’s YouTube channel beginning today. A winner will be chosen by B.S.C. on March 31, and the band will play a private acoustic set in the winner’s hometown. To see the video, go to yahoo.com.
REO Speedwagon, Styx, and Ted Nugent will join forces this spring and summer for The Midwest Rock ’n Roll Express tour, set to begin May 1.
“Forget all those TV shows with glee clubs singing rock songs,” said Styx guitarist/singer James “J.Y.” Young. “It’s time for mega-platinum Illinois bands Styx and REO Speedwagon to battle to the end of the Mayan calendar with the Motor City Madman!”
“In the Midwest, we work hard, play hard, and rock hard,” added REO singer/guitarist Kevin Cronin. “I am proud to join my brothers in Styx and Ted Nugent to celebrate Midwest rock-and-roll and represent the greatest rock fans in the world.”
REO Speedwagon
“It’s gonna be a twang fest of screaming guitars and big, sing-along choruses that continue to be the soundtrack for the misbehavior of our collective fan base,” added Styx guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw. “ In other words, a real good time.”
Ted Nugent
Nugent couldn’t agree more. “The heart and soul of American R&B and rock and roll has always gushed forth from the heartland,” he said. “REO, Styx, and The Nuge have always celebrated the power of our special music and on [this tour], the energy, attitude, and spirit is more intense than ever.” Learn more at styxworld.com, reospeedwagon.com, and tednugent.com.
PRS’ DGT model, the DGT Standard, is an all-mahogany version of David Grissom’s signature model. It has Grissom’s signature neck shape, slightly larger frets and heavier strings, tremolo capability, and DGT pickups with individual volume controls.
Grissom made his debut as Joe Ely’s lead guitarist in the mid-Eighties. His on stage and studio resume include stints with Ringo Starr, Buddy Guy, John Mayall, John Mellancamp, Chris Isaak, the Dixie Chicks, Brooks & Dunn, and even a brief period as a member of the Allman Brothers Band.
The Beatles’ appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in February of 1964 is often referred to as the most important event in the history of rock music, having inspired thousands (millions?) of teenagers to play in a band.
A mid-’60s EKO 995. Photo: Rick Malkin. Instrument courtesy of Sean Smith.
Many budding bassists aspired to own a violin-shaped instrument like the one Paul McCartney played on the show; his was a Höfner, which was out of reach, cost-wise, for most at the time. But there were cheaper alternatives, like the Eko 995.
Eko guitars and basses were crafted by the Oliviero Pigini company of Recanati, Italy, founded in 1959. From the outset, the firm concentrated on accordion manufacturing and expanded into guitar production in the early ’60s. One of its accordion clients was the Lo Duca Brothers Musical Instruments company, of Milwaukee, which joined forces with the Italian manufacturer as the exclusive distributor of Eko guitars in the U.S.
Eko guitars and basses came in myriad styles and shapes; Strat-like instruments, semi-hollow electrics, the rocket-shaped Rokes, and even map-shaped instruments, a la National. There was even an early solidbody violin-shaped bass.
The 995 was just different enough from the Höfner 500/1 “Beatle bass” to conjure its own mystique. Like the 500/1, it was a short-scale, two-pickup instrument. Unlike the 500/1, it was equipped with the sort of cheesy appointments often associated with Italian-made instruments.
One of the 995’s most intriguing aesthetic features is the square protuberance on its headstock. With its gothic E logo, it certainly was eye-catching compared to other headstocks and logos of the era – and certainly did not give off a rock-and-roll vibe! The bound rosewood fretboard on the one shown here has 21 frets, and joins the body at the 16th (Lo Duca literature claimed the fretboard was ebony). The hyper-slim bolt-on neck has five-piece laminate construction – maple with rosewood stringers. It measures 1 3/8″ wide at the nut, and there’s a zero fret. The serial number is embossed on the neck plate.
The Oliviero Pigini company also made Vox guitars and basses in the same era, and this Eko has the same truss rod adjustment system (at the end of the neck) as the Vox Saturn Bass (VG, May, 2010). The different-sized dot markers on the fretboard are also found on the Saturn.
The body is 13″ wide and 2 3/4″ deep. It has an arched spruce top, birdseye maple back and sides, and three-layer binding (white/black/white) on the edge. Its Dura-Glos finish is called Honey Brown. Electronics include two height-adjustable pickups with staple-type polepieces. A Lo Duca Brothers catalog refers to them as having “double polarity,” inferring they’re humbuckers.
The four-position pickup toggle has a standard three-way operation plus an “off” position. Control knobs are master Volume and master Tone. Hardware includes budget-grade tuners, a harp-shaped tailpiece, and a bridge that once again invites comparison to Vox. Like the Saturn Bass, it has adjustable saddles for height and intonation under the snap-on cover. The base of the bridge is rosewood.
The pickguard is made from clear plastic with the gold logo screenprinted on the underside followed by the application of brown paint. The oversized white finger rest is also plastic.
The 995’s popularity means that variants of the bass will be encountered, including examples that have a standard three-way pickup toggle switch instead of the four-position rotary switch seen here. Alternate tuners will be encountered, as will white or black pickguards, and black pickups.
Eko also made hollowbody violin-shaped guitars, marketing them as the 395 series, which included a six-string with a trapeze tailpiece, a six-string with a vibrato, and a 12-string model.
In the late ’60s, the frontline endorsers for Eko’s 395 and 995 instruments were the Grass Roots (“Temptation Eyes,” “Let’s Live for Today,” etc.), and the band appeared in an ad to promote the models. In the same era, left-handed bassist Doug Lubahn (VG, February ’10) played a flipped-over 995 (strung “righty”) with his own band, Clear Light, and used the instrument as the in-studio bassist for the Doors on songs such as “You’re Lost Little Girl,” “People Are Strange,” and “I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind,” among others.
“The Eko had a beautifully-rounded sound if you played it with a pick,” Lubahn recalled in his interview. “If you plucked with fingers, though, it didn’t sound so hot!” More recently, Les Claypool (of Primus) has been seen plunking on a vintage 995.
Eko must have been doing something right with the 995, considering its popularity in its time. It wasn’t the fanciest “Beatle bass” wanna-be, but it wasn’t the worst of the genre, either. When they see it, many a babyboomer player will nod their head and mutter, “Yeah, I remember those…”
This article originally appeared in VG February 2011 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Jimi and Bob Hendrix after they had seen Marlon Brando in "The Wild One."
Experience Hendrix, L.L.C. has announced the sudden passing of Robert (“Bob”) F. Hendrix, the company’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
As first cousin to Jimi Hendrix, Bob Hendrix came to the support of Jimi’s father, James “Al” Hendrix and his daughter, Janie, in 1995 to help form Seattle-based Experience Hendrix, L.L.C. and Authentic Hendrix, LLC; the companies that manage the late guitarist’s music legacy. Since that time, Bob has been actively involved in day-to-day business operations recently holding the positions as the company’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to joining the Hendrix family companies,. Hendrix was Vice President and General Merchandise Manager at Price Costco. He is survived by his wife, Sharon, two sons, a step-daughter, sister, brother, several grandchildren, and other relatives.
JohnPizzarelli is preparing to release his latest recording, Double Exposure. The 13-song set is a collection of tunes bygreat pop songwriters framed within traditional jazz arrangements. The album opens with the upbeat and uptempo “I Feel Fine/Sidewinder,” a trackwhich Pizzarelli describes as “Lennon and McCartney meet Lee Morgan.” Double Exposure draws from a pool of pop songwriters from the past five decades: Lennon and McCartney, Neil Young, James Taylor, Leiber and Stoller, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell and others. Woven into the compositions are threads of jazz borrowed from figures like Wes Montgomery, Billy Strayhorn, Thad Jones and John Coltrane.
The Palladium Ballroom, Dallas, will play host March 4 to Benefit Bugs, a musical event and auction to help guitarist Bugs Henderson with medical expenses relating to cancer treatment.
The Höfner Club 40 Limited Edition is based on the ’60s version of the guitar. It uses a Höfner Toaster single-coil pickup and has a nitrocellulose sunburst finish, tortoiseshell control panel, and the retro-style tailpiece. See more at 
Black Stone Cherry will premier its video for “In My Blood” today, exclusively on Yahoo. The documentary-style video follows PFC Randy Hirneisen, a 20-year-old tanker with U.S. Army Europe, on his journey from his deployment in Afghanistan to his redeployment back to his assignment in Germany and finally to his arrival home in Augusta, Georgia where his wife, Cindy Torres, introduces him to his two-month-old son. To celebrate Hirneisen’s homecoming on January 16, B.S.C. participated in a surprise party for the soldier with his family and friends in Augusta.
The Beatles’ appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in February of 1964 is often referred to as the most important event in the history of rock music, having inspired thousands (millions?) of teenagers to play in a band.
