[Dixielandjazz] More on Alvino Rey

Don Ingle dingle at baldwin-net.com
Sat Feb 28 07:37:30 PST 2004


As Hispanic as the name sounds, Alvino Rey was not. He was Irish and his real name was Alvin McBurney.
He worked with and married one of the King sisters, a noted all-gal vocal group. He was also an inventor of sorts. Had a foot pedal controlled steel guitar -- and he also rigged up a sonovox gizmo to it that could make the steel guitar utilize the vocal cords in making the soundl like a voice coming out of the guitar.
A real interesting fellow. Like many bands, his was dealt a death blow by the two -- count them -- two recording bans our AFof M imposed - one in the WW II period and one in the late 40;s - the second a coup de grace for many big bands.
He was one hell of a guitar player with or without the gimmicks, and a nice fellow whom I had the chance to meet several times through my dad. Sorry to hear of his passing.
Don Ingle


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