Alvino Rey

Alvino Rey: Studio Band, 1946

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 5, 2011

It's tough to get a fix on Alvino Rey. Many people who are remotely familiar with the big bands of the 1940s think of the steel-guitar playing Rey as a novelty act. He wasn't. Given the enormous size of his orchestras, many assume Rey led a Mickey Mouse band. He didn't. His name wasn't even Alvino Rey—it was Al McBurney. He had changed it in 1929 to catch the rumba craze. He even disliked Hawaiian music—despite his steel guitar's “Island" ...
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