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Topic: Steel Guitar at Lake Garda, Italy |
Kay Das
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Don McGregor
From:
Memphis, Tennessee
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Posted 14 Aug 2009 4:53 am |
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I think I've been hypnotized!
Very tasteful playing, and phrasing like exquisite poetry.
I especially love Cozy.
Thank you. |
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Patrick Thirsk
From:
Lancashire U.K.
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Posted 15 Aug 2009 3:55 am
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| Nice playing there Kay. What area of Lake Garda do they play in? My wife and I go regularly to that resort, but so far only been to the north end of the lake around Riva, and not seen or heard them there. |
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Don Kona Woods
From:
Hawaiian Kama'aina
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Posted 15 Aug 2009 8:57 am
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Kay,
That aquamarine lap steel guitar sure gets around alot. One moment it is in that part of the world and another moment it is in another part of the world.
How is it, that you are able to travel so much with that instrument? I'm jealous.
I would be interested to know how you got to Lake Garda and how you were able to play your steel there. The story here may be the most interesting part. Let's hear about it.
I traveled once by Lake Garda. It was beautiful, but the whole area is magnificent.
Thanks for posting your travels and musical renditions.
Aloha, 
Don |
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Kay Das
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 16 Aug 2009 12:00 am
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Grateful for the appreciation, Don, Patrick and Don "Kona"...
Lake Garda is a second home to me as my wife, Adriana, hails from there and it has been our summer destination for thirty five years now no matter which part of the world we lived in. We live in Sirmione, which is at the southern end of the Lake. Riva is at the North. Cisano, where I Falchi featured steel guitar on 29 July, is on the east coast, very close to Bardolino, city where a famous wine comes from. The Lake has a variety of wines, as it has mountains to the west and north, lower hills to the east, and plains to the south. The Lugana grape grows in the south, near Sirmione, which has a famous castle. Another famous wine from the region is the Valpolicella
"I Falchi" play regularly at various destinations at the Lake around the summer months and they style themselves after The Shadows, who are immensely popular, especially with the baby-boomer age group, in the UK, Europe, and Australia. The Internet is wonderful in the way it bridges distances and I know Danilo (the lead guitartist ) over a period of time. I have collaborated with artists and have several collaborations and recordings by virtue of this connectivity (CD "Shadows on Steel"). That said, there are even a couple of luthiers there that make lap steels, and they have featured in this forum before.
Yes, that acquamarine lap steel that Bob Littleton built me has now accumulated a few frequent flyer miles, and the flight case bears testimony to this. It is forever surprising to me how many people have never seen a lap steel but love its sound. One of my close family acquaintances at Lake Garda has just formed a 20-piece Big Band, playing Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey stuff and it is my hope to record steel guitar with them one day, if they will have me!
Some pics of Lake Garda...
Here is the wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Garda
Publicity poster of " I Falchi"..Spot the guitar neck and the Fender allegiance
sirmione...famous for its castle...
bardolino..pretty port town..cisano is to the right of picture
gargnano on the west coast where we visit a cousin often
Kay |
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Matt Elsen
From:
Deer Harbor, Orcas Island, WA
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Posted 16 Aug 2009 9:42 am
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Great playing, Kay. Thank you for the clips.
I get to Sirmione every other year in the Springtime when I go to VinItaly (the huge Italian wine trade fair) in Verona for business. Stunningly beautiful and quite picturesque. It's really one of the most delightful spots on earth. You're a very lucky man.
Would love to hook up with you there sometime.
Best,
Matt Elsen |
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Kay Das
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 20 Aug 2009 10:37 pm
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Matt,
Apologies for this late acknowledgment...the day job has me busy...
Yes, Lake Garda is a lovely part of the world and it would be great to meet up. E-mail me when you next travel there. Sirmione is particularly nice and we often take walks to the castle and the springs or to sample an ice-cream. We also know Verona well, that is where my better half went to University. I once saw a stunning performance of Aida at the Arena.
Kay |
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Don McGregor
From:
Memphis, Tennessee
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Posted 21 Aug 2009 3:10 am
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I have always wanted to see Verona. My greatest hero of wood inlay, Fra Giovanni de Verona, an architect and artist from around 1500 A.D. did some of his finest work there during the peak of intarsia inlay popularity. Verona holds many examples of his work, including several panels in the church of Santa Maria in Organo, Verona. I have only seen photographs of these pieces, but Giovanni's attention to detail, and meticulously correct portrayal of complex geometric shapes, fascinates me. I wonder if there were ever any musical instruments featuring Fra Giovanni's artwork? He certainly could have built a stunning lute.
You are lucky, Kay, to get to spend time in such beautiful as well as historically lush country.
Keep up the fine work, and thank you again for sharing your musical travels with us. |
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Kay Das
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 26 Aug 2009 9:02 pm
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This is great: from steel guitar to travelogue to wines to wood carvings...! Turns out that Fra Giovanni da Verona did have some musical outputs. He could even have been a luthier in his spare time, seemed to know a thing or two about musical instruments! See below,
Kay
1. One of a number of panels illustrating musical instruments. This one shows a harp and three duct cylindrical duct-flutes, one shows only three finger-holes, one shows at least six, another is unclear.
2. The open doors of a cupboard reveal two shawms and two flared-bell recorders
3.The open doors of a cupboard reveal music and instruments on shelves, including lute, cittern, and two pipes, one of which is a duct-flute (flageolet or recorder). |
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Don McGregor
From:
Memphis, Tennessee
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Posted 27 Aug 2009 3:44 am
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Kay! Thank you!
It is easy to see how you find such inspiration there.
My wife has been to Italy once long ago with her family, but I have only stepped across the pond in books and movies. To know that you have actually stood close, and seen this art for yourself, to me is incredible.
Years ago, Scientific American had an article about the mathematics behind true perspective drawing using a three point system. It had always bothered me that, though I knew that things should be drawn smaller the farther away I wished them to appear, I didn't know at what rate they should appear to diminish with distance. Extrapolating their methods, basically by measuring the distances and relationships between compass points on actual sketches done by both Fra Giovanni and Leonardo DaVinci, mathematicians were able to figure out how they managed to create images of polyhedral forms such as dodecahedrons, icosahedrons, toruses, and mazzochios, so mathematically correct in their perspetive. The article was even able to explain it to me, though it took me several weeks to comprehend it well enough to draw a polyheral torus like the one appearing to lie in on the bottom shelf of one of Fra Giovanni's "open" cabinets. I remember the extended effort made my head hurt, and I probably couldn't draw one now without another week or so of studying the article again. Anyway, it was my first introduction to the inlay art of Verona, and I've been fascinated by it ever since.
Here is a web page about some of Fra Giovanni's intarsia inlay.
Thank you once again, for bringing us a taste of Italy, both aural and visual.
Here is a link to a page about Fra Giovanni's inlay work:
http://tinyurl.com/ksnp83 |
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seldomfed
From:
Colorado
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Posted 27 Aug 2009 1:03 pm
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Hi Kay,
Nice job!! Great tunes. What a beautiful place to play steel. Hope to see you again soon,
Chris
_________________
Chris Kennison
Rhythm Cats - steel, guitar, banjo, dobro
Gold Canyon, AZ
www.rhythmcatsshow.com
www.seldomfed.com |
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Kay Das
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 2 Sep 2009 11:02 pm
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Chris,
I will be at Joliet, will you make it? Yes, had fun in Italy. Pic is after the show when we were still fooling around and a few people came up close and personal to see what the steel guitar was all about.
Kay
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Bob Reani
From:
Como - Italy
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Posted 10 Jan 2010 2:19 am
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Ciao Kay, spero non sia un problema scrivere in italiano, mi affascina molto scovare compaesani con la stessa passione.
Che ne pensi di un bell'incontro fra i laghi in primavera?  |
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Kay Das
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 17 Jan 2010 7:24 am
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Ciao Bob,
Niente problema leggere il tuo e-mail in italiano, parlo un pò l'italiano e seguo la musica italiana pop e classica. mi piace in particolare la musica di Zucchero, Celentano, Antonello Venditti.. ecc ecc ed ho registrato alcuni loro brani con steel guitar. La mia ragazza, mia moglie, è dal Lago di Garda. Si, sarabbe bello incontrare tra i laghi in...giugno... teniamoci in contatto.
Continuando il doscorso sul steel guitar in Italia...cambiando lingua per gli altri "ascoltatori"...
You may know the San Remo Festival to be the focal point in Italy for the introduction of new artistes and new hits. Recently, a Betty Boop caricatured artiste, whose nom-de-plume is Arisa, recorded a very popular hit with a tune called "Sincerità", which of course translates to "Sincerity".
What is interesting about this tune is that the backing includes..... a lap steel guitar, and you will recognize it to the right of picture. Maurizio Filardo, a noted guitarist in Italy, accompanies with the lap steel. Reviews of the arrangement for this tune praise the backing, and particularly its minimalist style.
Note the grand setting and number of young people. This may be a drop in the musical ocean here but raises the possibility that steel guitar could be re-incarnated in Italy almost 50 years after Santo and Johnny did it with Sleepwalk and their follow-up instrumental releases here. A new genre for the decade? In my steel guitar travels here recently I have found some new rising interest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko88PpCuduw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYpakHZ4yaQ&feature=related
Kay |
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