1. Alvin McBurney, known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an American jazz guitarist and bandleader.
11 Facts About Alvino Rey
1. 2.
Alvino Rey switched from banjo to guitar, then changed his name to Alvino Rey to take advantage of the popularity of Latin music in New York City at the time.
3.
Alvino Rey drew attention to himself and the band when he started playing steel guitar.
4.
The band broke up, and Rey found work at Lockheed as a mechanic.
5.
Rey made frequent appearances on the show performing "The Alvino Rey Talking Guitar" which was in fact a pedal steel.
6.
Alvino Rey played steel guitar in recording sessions with Jack Costanzo, George Cates, Esquivel, and the studio group the Surfmen.
7.
In 2004, after breaking his hip and suffering complications including pneumonia and congestive heart failure, Alvino Rey died at the age of 95 at a rehabilitation center.
8.
In 1939, Alvino Rey invented an early version of a "talk box" device that modified the sound of his electric steel guitar to sound like words.
9.
Around 1959 to 1960, Alvino Rey collaborated with composer Euel Box of PAMS Productions of Dallas to bring his distinctive pedal steel guitar sounds to radio jingles.
10.
Alvino Rey is credited with inspiring the later, ground-breaking "Sonosational" PAMS Jingles Series 18 in 1961 which featured the talking or singing instrument effects of Alvino Rey's "sonovox".
11.
Alvino Rey was the maternal grandfather of American musicians Win Butler and Will Butler, who were both in the band Arcade Fire.