When Merle Travis complained to his friend, Paul A. Bigsby, about the shoddy quality of the Kaufman vibrato arm on his Gibson L-10 guitar, Bigsby set out to build a solution. What he came up with is what is now commonly known as "a Bigsby." Synonymous with Gretsch guitars, you can also retrofit one of these musically expressive units on a Les Paul, a Telecaster or just about any other guitar you can think of. The Bigsby vibrato arm allows the player to raise or lower the pitch of the strings by about a half step, producing an almost pedal steel-like expressive quality as you may apply vibrato to an entire chord as opposed to just a single note.
Hand made Les Paul knock off by HML Guitars with a Bigsby B7 model: In his youth, Bigsby worked as a pattern maker in various SoCal machinery plants. There he learned to hand craft molds used to produce the steel parts for various engines and shop tools. With this skill set, he was able to design and construct his new vibrato unit from scratch. As shop foreman of the Crocker Motorcycle Company, legend has it Bigsby initially used a motorcycle spring as the main point of flex under the vibrato arm.
Modern Gretsch 6120 DSW:
Here is a video showing how these vibrato units are made. Good to see that there is still a fair amount of hands on work done to create these units. The molds used today are the same Bigbsy initially made in the 1950s! The great inventor nailed the design the first time through for a vibrato unit which today is still very popular. In fact, Bigsby stopped building his custom electric Spanish, lap & pedal steel guitars in the late 50's to focus on the booming demand for his vibratos.
I've got a Bigsby on my Gretsch and couldn't imagine playing guitar without one!
Sometimes... maybe every time, it is a great thing to meet one of your heroes.
I met Billy Cox.
Billy played bass with Jimi Hendrix. They met in the early 1960's when the two were serving in the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, KY. Hendrix joined the service as an alternative to the two year jail sentence he was looking at after being arrested for stealing a car in his hometown of Seattle. He made 26 jumps before being discharged after breaking an ankle. We can only imagine what sort of affect these parachute jumps had on the music Hendrix went on to record.
below: Hendrix (left top) Billy Cox (front n' center) The King Casuals, Memphis, TN - sometime 1962?
The pair played together in a number of R&B bands on the chitlin' circuit until Hendrix finally moved to New York City in 1964. He continued to play with a variety of soul and R&B acts such as the Isley Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, King Curtis, Curtis Knight and Little Richard. Below is the earliest know video of Hendrix backing up Buddy and Stacey in 1965: (note the young left-handed guitarist on the far left side)
Hendrix reached international super stardom with the release of Are You Experienced? in May of 1967. After two years of hard touring and hard living, Hendrix sought some true friendship and a musical partner in his chaotic world. He recruited Billy to play bass, replacing Noel Redding, in 1969. That summer, the two spent some time at a rented house in upstate New York with Mitch Mitchell on drums as well as musicians Juma Sultan, Jerry Velez and Larry Lee. The loosely organized group jammed day and night, working up new material. Although a veteran of the blues and R&B scene (he toured with many national acts, most notably Freddie King), Billy had never played to an audience as large as the one at his first gig with Hendrix in August of 1969: Woodstock.
Billy was Hendrix's bass player from that point on. From the moment he joined the band, he was a major influence in the development of the music Hendrix would write in the later stages of his career... and when I say 'later stages,' I mean the last 18 months. Hendrix's meteoric rise to fame began in the fall of 1966 and was he was dead in September of 1970. Billy was an essential part to the development of such riff heavy songs as 'Izabella,' 'Who Knows,' 'Machine Gun' and 'Freedom.'
I met Billy one morning while working at Rudy's Music Stop in NYC. Some guy was hanging out front of the store at 10:25am as we were opening. Usually if someone is hanging out that early they're about to waste your time. As it turns out, this fella just wanted a Boss OC-2 Octave pedal. Ok... no big deal, quick sale. I grabbed the last one from the stockroom downstairs, ran up behind the counter and wrote up the bill of sale. It was then that I finally took a solid look at my customer.
It's Billy Cox.
Holy crap.
Gulp. I smile and trying to play it cool say, "Don't I know you from somewhere?" He smiles, extends his hand and simply says, "Billy Cox."
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" says my brain. I mumbled something about what a great influence he's been and what an honor it is to meet him. "Um... that'll be $119.95 please."
It made my day.
Billy, Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell - The Cry of Love Tour '70:
Band of Gypsys, NYE '69/'70:
I was on cloud 9 for a week. No one else at the shop recognized Billy. He struck me as a really sweet and humble guy. Lucky me. After the death of Hendrix's drummers, Mitch Mitchell and Buddy Miles last year, Billy Cox is the last living core musician to have played with the gifted guitarist.
I've been doing a birthday party/show since I turned 21 and played Stash's Cafe in New London, CT with my two bands at the time, G Qua: a band playing original-yet-standard fair liberal arts college jam/funk, and The Fuzz: a trio where I got to play all my fave Hendrix and Stevie tunes. It was a great night, the first time I ever performed with Carolyn (we did two Lou Ann Barton songs) The fella playing drums in G Qua, Matt Kane, picked a fight with a biker gang with predictable results.
Fast forward nine years and I'm still at it. For my 30th, we took over Ellis Bar in Park Slope, a cool little neighborhood spot serving tasty south western tapas literally 100 feet from our front door. Boss Tweed rocked for about an hour and after a quick set and costume change, Los Beardos Raviolis made its debut. Los Beardos Raviolis is an instrumental surf rock combo comprised of devilishly talented musicians possessing epic scope and ambition... plus they wear sombreros and 14" false beards. There even had electrified dancing maraca girls! Momma...! My good buddy, DJ Grand Pah!, was on hand to spin vinyl all night and the bar handed out free tacos at midnight... how can you beat that?! Thanks to Rylan and Amanda for the pics: My buddy Warren Malone sat in for a few tunes: Hector even made it out!
Behold... ~Los Beardos Raviolis~
A rockin' good time! Thanks everyone for making it such a hoot!
Whit Smith is an incredible guitarist and singer whose work can be heard on high display with Texas trio "Hotclub of Cowtown." Blending Django style gypsy jazz and great chordal rhythm work a la Freddie Green with more than just a touch of Jimmy Bryant Western Swing jazz finesse, Whit shows you how it's done. Here's is version of "Polka Dots & Moonbeams."
Ah, the brilliant, simple and elegant egg. In the classic Batman television series that aired from 1966-1968, Adam West had many an arch nemesis to contend with but perhaps none was as feared as Egghead, played by none other than horror movie legend, Vincent Price. Egghead possessed a cunning intellect and claimed to be the most brilliant criminal in the world. As one of only two villains from the series to deduce Batman's true identity... it's tough to disagree with him. In the kitchen, no one will dispute the delicious genius of the egg. 'Round these parts, eggs are a way of life, a passion and reason/means to celebrate. There's no end to what you can do to an egg, and I don't just mean the damage potential most Mischief Night pranksters rely on. I'm talking breakfast here, people, and today I came up with something pretty tasty.
Ok, let's assume you love mango chutney as much as I do: Let's also hope that it hasn't taken you nearly 30 years to discover this delicious spreadable wonderstuff. Regardless, I thought infusing my standard morning egg with some zesty middle eastern/Indian flavor would be tasty as all get out... and I was right.
So:
1. toast up a slice of your favorite local Spanish bakery health bread 2. fry an egg (go organic) 3. spread some avocado on that crispy toast 4. smear some plain yogurt on top of the avocado 5. lay out your fried egg on top of those creamy layers 6. top it off with a dollop of mango chutney sauce
bam.
"G, have you lost your mind here?" Possibly... but this is the kinda of coo coo culinary ingenuity that makes you stand up and say, "I will not go quietly into my day! I will not settle for a boring brunch!" And why should you? Life's too short to not enjoy a tasty egg here and there.
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