[78-L] Alvino Rey and The Kings

[Jeff Sultanof]

At the time (1946) Rey's band had 6 trumpets, 4 trombones, five saxes and
rhythm. This band seems to be forgotten except for an LP of transcriptions
on Hindsight with a fascinating piece by George Handy called Stocking Horse.
Arrangers were Frank Nelson and Billy May. I was surprised when I heard
these sides years ago; they ARE hot, 180 degrees away from the sides he made
for Bluebird. I don't think Capitol will ever do a decent reissue of this
band's output, but the way I understand it, its best music was never
recorded for the label. They signed a lot of big bands they didn't really
know what to do with: Bobby Sherwood, Ray McKinley, Rey, Sam Donahue....I'm
sure there are others.

The instrument Rey played was the pedal-steel guitar. Reportedly he disliked
country and hawaiian music.

Jeff Sultanof

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 6:43 PM, Taylor Bowie <bowiebks at isomedia.com> wrote:

> that must have been one kick-ass group to hear in person.   Some of those
> post-war Capitols are really hot..."Cement Mixer" comes to mind.  The King
> Sisters were stand-outs among all those excellent sister vocal groups...I
> always thought it odd that the most famous and popular of the sister acts
> (Andrews) was not among the better ones in terms of the actual music.
> Perhaps others rank them higher,  but to my ears they don't cut it when
> compared with King,  Dinning,  Boswell,  Clark,  McGuire,  De Marco and
> other sister groups.  I do like 'em better than the Pickens Sisters!
>
>