Remembering the great Freddie Tavares

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

Freddie Tavares

One can fully appreciate why the Fender guitar company chose to celebrate 40 years of the famed Stratocaster by honouring this genial Hawaiian, through making 150 superlative guitars as a limited edition series of the Freddie Tavares 'Aloha’ Stratocaster - Link to auction on eBay.

Born on Maui Island, Hawaii, February 18th 1913, Frederick Theodore Tavares was of Portuguese, Hawaiian, Chinese, English, Tahitian-Samoan lineage of which he would later wittingly say "the Portuguese makes me stubborn; Chinese makes me smart; English makes me high-class; Hawaiian gives me the music; Tahitian gives me the beat - I couldn't ask for more.”
Freddie learnt to sing and harmonize whilst briefly attending Kamehameha Boys School as a boarding student from age 5, his love of music probably being born through this schools emphasis on music and singing.

When his eldest brother Nils left Maui to study law at Michigan University, he gave 12 year old Freddie his guitar with the brotherly advice that if he could play guitar he would never be lonely, nor would he lack friends. Freddie mastered the instrument, applying his own theory and techniques and at age 15 became rhythm guitarist in Mary Kunewa's orchestra on Maui. On completing his schooling he moved to O'ahu, playing guitar in Larry Bellis’ dance orchestra at the Alexander Young hotel three nights weekly whilst working as a jobber for American Factors during the day.

When Harry Owens took over leadership of the dance orchestra of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Waikiki in 1934 and sought an electric steel guitar player, he interviewed Freddie Tavares on the recommendation of Bob Cutter - one of the orchestra's soloists who had previously been Larry Bellis’ vocalist. Owens, very impressed by the 21 year old’s serious attitude to music and his confident “I could easily learn to play one” answer to Owen's question "can you play steel guitar?" gave Freddie the orchestrated arrangements for two songs, with two weeks to learn to play the steel guitar parts.

Freddie declined all opportunities to record as a solo artist, saying he was a team member striving to be the best possible sideman.

Freddie purchased a Rickenbacker 'Fry Pan’ also some piano and violin studies - using the exercises from these as his foundation for learning to play steel guitar. (Freddie would continue to play Bach piano inventions on steel guitar for an hour daily throughout his musical career, to give him dexterity and flexibility in his playing and be a consummate sight reader of music).

On his first night with Harry Owens Royal Hawaiians, Freddie played the steel guitar parts on two songs 'Song of the Islands’ and ‘Imi Au la Oe’ after which Owens and the other orchestra members gave him a standing ovation. Thus Freddie’s professional career was established and his smooth, lyrical steel guitar playing with perfect pitch, timing and rhythm quickly earned him the stage name Freddie ‘Kaulana’ (meaning 'famous’) Tavares from Harry Owens. During his 13 years with the Royal Hawaiians he was one of the most important members, his steel guitar being the backbone of most of the musical arrangements.

The orchestra travelled throughout the States, playing engagements at the Hotel St. Francis in San Francisco, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and Beverly Wilshire hotel in the L.A. area, and on tour in New York, Memphis, Chicago, Colorado, Texas, Seattle and Vancouver B.C. Many of their Hotel St. Francis shows were broadcast live on coast to coast radio. They made movies; radio transcriptions for C.P. McGregor's transcription service and for A.F.R.S; recorded for Decca, Columbia and Capitol Records. In the two month period February 1st through March 1938, the orchestra worked on the Paramount movie 'Cocoanut Grove’; played the Beverly Wilshire Hotel at nights; recorded 150 selections for Decca; made a batch of electric transcriptions for C.P. McGregor; guested on Bing Crosby's radio-show 'Kraft Music Hall’ and appeared with Claudette Colbert on the 'Hollywood Hotel’ radio-show.

According to his wife, Freddie Tavares bought a 6 string Black & White bakelite Rickenbacker steel guitar as soon as the model came on the market in July 1935, (serial number 003) removing the left front white cover to store his bar and picks (thumb and 3 finger) inside between dance sets. He used C6th tuning for Hapa-Haole and more modern Hawaiian songs, raising the A to B flat for a C 7th tuning when playing older Hawaiian songs. He also designed and built his own tube amplifiers and casings, building a second amp into each enclosure as a spare in case the main unit blew during a set.

Wives and children accompanied musicians of the Royal Hawaiians to San Francisco for their annual summer residencies at Hotel St. Francis. Deeming transferring his two growing sons from their Anaheim home and school to school in San Francisco each summer too disruptive for the boys, Freddie tended his notice to Owens in 1945. Loath to lose him, Owens upped his pay. Freddie capitulated to pay increases for a further two years then said “no more” recommending Eddie Bush as his replacement and thoroughly familiarizing Eddie with the orchestra's steel guitar and vocal arrangements.

To further his music career, Freddie had moved from Hawaii to Anaheim, near Hollywood, in 1942 to freelance as a session musician - one of his '42 sessions being to play the zippy steel guitar glissando on the famed Looney Tunes logo which still heralds cartoon time on TV and cinema screens worldwide. His experience of playing steel guitar in an orchestra and his ability to sight read music and orchestral arrangements unhesitatingly, made him highly sought after by movie musical arrangers and record producers, also for radio and TV work.

From 1949 through '53 Freddie played steel guitar almost nightly with country singer/ fiddle player Wade Ray and his Ozark Mountain Boys at the club Cowtown in LA. Wade Ray recollects, "Fiddle is the awfullest darned instrument to amplify, but Freddie figured out a way to do it and he made me an amplifier that I treasured, and he also made amplifiers for the rest of the band. That five years at Cowtown has to be the highlight of my whole career and Freddie Tavares was a very, very big part of the whole thing. He wrote all the music arrangements and did all the electric work. We were only a four piece band but with Freddie's harmonies on steel guitar we sounded like a nine piece orchestra. He played so pretty, so smooth and sweet. At intermissions, instead of having something to eat and drink he would go out back and run scales. He was a very clever man and completely self taught in everything he did". Freddie also played on radio broadcasts with this group and on their early records for Victor.

The Magnatone Guitar Company presented Freddie with a custom made steel guitar in a promotional deal in '49. Made to Freddie's specifications, this instrument had 9 strings to increase chord variations. This was the only steel guitar that Freddie ever stood at to play. He had large hands and would control the swell with his little finger curled around the volume control - continuing to use this method when he later played pedal steel.

Freddie's steel bars were specially made for him, cut straight across at both ends to give a better sight line for accurate positioning. When playing novelty numbers such as 'Put Another Nickel In ' and 'Old Piano Roll Blues' at Cow town, Freddie used a bar that he had carved out of a solid piece of wood to emulate perfectly the sound of a honky-tonk piano.

In early 1953 Noel Boggs introduced Freddie to Leo Fender who, at that time, was interested in building amplifiers. Fender realized he had found a man of exceptional abilities in Freddie Tavares. He understood electronics, could make technical drawings and was a consummate musician, playing acoustic, bass and steel guitars as well as ukulele. He hired Freddie as assistant engineer to himself and on Freddie’s second day of employment he started to create, with Leo Fender, a product that was to become the leading and most wanted instrument in guitar history - the Stratocaster. Until his retirement from the Fender Guitar Company in 1985, Freddie Tavares participated in the design and development of every guitar and amplifier made by the company and field tested the proto types before they hit the production line. He was renowned as the world's leading technical authority of the Jazz Bass and collaborated with Leo Fender to invent the split-finger mechanism for the Fender 1000 pedal steel guitar - later playing this model pedal steel.

Freddie continued his music career and session work whilst with Fenders. He was a founding member and long time treasurer of the Polynesian Society in California and derived great pleasure and satisfaction from playing rhythm, Stratocaster and steel guitars, also ukulele, on recordings of Hawaiian songs and Island medleys with his fellow Hawaiian musicians Danny Stewart, Sam Koki, Joe Keawe, Sammy Kaapuni, Harry Baty, Bernie Kaai Lewis, Vince Akina, his brother Ernest Tavares and other prominent West Coast based Hawaiians.
When a talented young bass player, Vince Akina was forming a group to perform Hawaiian and Tahitian songs with dancers on a casual basis in '54, Freddie and Ernest Tavares made up the trio. The South Sea Islanders performed all over Southern California for 15 years - mostly on the country-club circuit and for luaus - and were renowned for their professionalism and the versatility of their interesting and fascinating programmes. For 5 years they played once weekly at the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel, LA - on the Hawaiian night, when they played through the dinner hour as opening act for Freddy Martin's Big Band, and other big names.

Freddies radio and TV work included shows with Red Skelton, Roy Rogers and Spike Jones, and the series ‘I Love Irma' and 'Hawaiian Eye’.

He played steel guitar with Foy Willing & Riders Of The Purple Sage on their weekly radio show 'All Star Western Theatre’ which was broadcast on all major networks in the late '40s, and featured such notable guests as Tex Ritter, Jimmy Wakely, Eddie Dean and Eddy Arnold. Douglas Green, historian for the Country Music Foundation, wrote of Riders Of The Purple Sage, "mainstay of the instrumental group was Johnny Paul, a New Yorker who played spectacular swing fiddle. The other instrumental standout was a superb Hawaiian steel guitar player, Freddie Tavares. His rich toned, harmonic and romantic style was far more Hawaiian than swing (although he took a few ‘hot’ solos,) but it blended beautifully with the vocals which were, of course, the mainstay of the 'Riders sound."

Freddie Tavares’ recording credits read like a Who's Who and included Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, The Andrew Sisters, Deanna Durban, Gordon McCrae, Sue Thompson, Jimmy Dalton, Elvis Presley, Spike Jones& The City Slickers, Tennessee Ernie Ford (on Mule Train) Tex Williams, Margaret Whiting & Jimmy Wakely, Andy Parker & The Plainsmen, Sons Of The Pioneers, The Polynesians, Paradise Islanders, The Outriggers, South Sea Islanders, The Bonaires, Martin Denny ,Wade Ray and Dick Kestner.

He recorded with the orchestras of Henri Mancini, Bud Dant, Steve Lawrence, Ray Andrade, Lawrence Welk, George Liberace, Axel Stordahl, William Kealoha, Ray Conniff, George Poole, 101 Strings and also Juan Garcia Esquivel's Big Band.

Some movies for which he played on the soundtrack or made sound effects on steel guitar for, were: 'The Perils Of Pauline’ 'Devil At 4 O'clock’ 'Diamond Head’ 'Gidget Goes Hawaiian’ 'Three Stooges Go Around’ 'Move Over Darling’ 'Tora Tora Tora’ 'Donovans Reef ‘ 'In Harms Way’ 'Irma La Douce’ 'It's A Date’ 'None But The Brave' 'Blue Hawaii’ 'Cocoanut Grove’ 'Tahiti Nights’ ‘Mr. Roberts’ and 'Song Of The islands’.

Freddie Tavares was an uncompromising perfectionist and this was reflected in the standard of excellence he achieved in his music career. He was also a friendly, compassionate, kind and generous man with a keen sense of humour, who enjoyed surprising and delighting family and friends with very witty songs he had written especially for and often about them.

During his retirement, Freddie would take backing tapes he had made, a small amplifier, his Fender pedal steel guitar, Stratocaster and a ukulele to entertain those in nursing and retirement homes, and the veterans hospital, with his beautiful singing and music. Likewise, he entertained family and friends with Hawaiian melodies and songs when he and his wife spent each Christmas holiday in their native Hawaii. When Freddie played at Jerry Byrd's 1985 Ho'olaule'a in Hawaii, he jokingly told the audience he had had to retire in order to practise for the event, but his faultless playing and eloquent oration, at age 72, earned him the respect of everyone, and an invitation to return in '86.
Freddie Tavares passed away in Anaheim, California on July 24th 1990, age 77 years. During his funeral service in Hawaii, his brother-in-law Walter Mo'okini sang and Jerry Byrd, Barney Isaacs and Alan Akaka played steel guitar tributes. Freddie was laid to rest in Nuuana cemetery, Oahu.

So many friends attended his beautiful memorial service in Anaheim, there was standing room only.

Freddie Tavares will go down in the annals of steel guitar history as one of the great masters. His highly individual, hauntingly beautiful lyrical style perfectly encapsulated the spirit of his beloved Hawaii - Isles of Paradise.

Don Kona Woods · From: Hawaiian Kama'aina

Ron,
Thanks for putting this nice review about Freddie Tavares on the Forum.

He was an extremely talent man with such a wide variety of skills.

I enjoyed reading every bit of it. Cool

Aloha,

Don

Bill McCloskey · Posted 25 Apr 2010 4:33 am

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

Steel/guitarist Walter Mookini, a wonderful person who played with all the local notables and for many years at the Halekulani, married into the Tavares family around 1950. Freddie came to Hawaii with an 8 string Fender steel and Pro amp as gifts for his new brother-in-law.

George Keoki Lake · From: Edmonton, AB., Canada

WOW ! Mahalo Ron for posting this wonderful story of Freddie Tavares. I had always admired Freddie mostly from his Harry Owens days, never dreaming I would ever meet him. However I attended the 1985 bash and,(though very briefly), I did meet and spoke with him after his performance. Until recently, I was unaware it was Freddie who played with Spike Jones...always wondering who played that crazy ending on Spike's Hawaiian War Chant...pure genius !! He had a great career, everything from Hawaiian, pop through to comedy. Of course, the Stratocaster will always remain as a lasting legacy of his genius.

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

Leo and Freddie previously teamed up on the design of the Jazzmaster guitar, Fender's top of the line even after the Strat came on. Without Freddie, Fender would have been a much different company all these years and maybe not even around today.

Jerry's steel hoolauleas were so good, having a mix of all the world's living greats with a few good young'uns to promote the instrument. We need him today!

Ray Montee · From: Portland, Oregon (deceased)

Ron might you have any snapshots of Freddie?

I've heard his name mentioned for years but to my knowledge, I've never seen a likeness of him.

Anyone else?

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

This is Freddie, Alvino Rey with a prototype steel, and Don Randall looking on:

More about his Fender work, much in his own words - Link to Google Books.

Mitch Drumm · From: Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake

Ray:

Here is Freddie on standard guitar, with brother Ernie on steel:

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

Here's another take on Freddie and his brother, Ernest.

The brother's Tavares share a remarkable history that began in far away Maui, and would eventually influence the course of a variety of musical styles.
Born in Paia on Feb. 18, 1913, Freddie's blended heritage of Portuguese, Hawaiian, Chinese, English and Tahitian-Samoan led him to once announce: "The Portuguese makes me stubborn, Chinese makes me smart, English makes me high-class, Hawaiian gives me the music and Tahitian gives me the beat. I couldn't ask for more."
Educated at Kamehameha Boys School, by 15 he was playing rhythm guitar with the Mary Kunewa Orchestra on Maui. After moving to Oahu, he was hired by legendary band leader Harry Owens in 1934, playing electric steel guitar at Waikiki's famous Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Performing with the Harry Owens Royal Hawaiians, it was Freddie who played the steel guitar heard on the first broadcast of "Hawaii Calls" in 1935. The show initially reached the West Coast by shortwave radio, and at its height, it was heard on more than 750 stations around the globe. To further his music career, Freddie moved to Anaheim, Calif., and on one of his first studio sessions he played the well known steel glissando at the opening of the iconic Looney Tunes cartoons. From 1949 through 1953, Freddie played almost nightly with the country band Wade Ray and his Ozark Mountain Boys at the L.A. club Cowtown. To improve his dexterity, he was known for playing Bach's piano inventions on steel guitar.
Then in early 1953 he met Leo Fender, who hired Freddie as an assistant engineer based on his consummate musical skills. He played steel, electric and acoustic guitar, bass, ukulele, and his knowledge of electronics and technical drawing was superior. Among a few of his many accomplishments, Freddie was the first musician to play the Fender Precision Bass (the first successfully marketed electric bass), he backed Elvis on ukulele in "Blue Hawaii," he was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. "I met Leo Fender about March of 1953. Leo said "we need a new guitar". The first real project I had was to put the Stratocaster on the drawing board." Until his retirement from Fender in 1985, Freddie participated in the design and development of every guitar and amplifier made by the company, and field tested the prototypes before they hit the production line. He was also renowned as the world's leading technical authority of the Fender Jazz Bass and collaborated with Fender to invent the split-finger mechanism for the Fender 1000 pedal steel guitar. It was his work helping develop the Stratocaster that led to his acclaim in the world of electric guitars, eventually making the Strat the most played guitar in history. First launched in 1954, the Strat was adopted eventually by country players looking for an edge, to Rock guitar gods. It was a Strat that Buddy Holly played on "Ed Sullivan" in 1957, it was a Strat that Dylan employed at his historic "electric" debut at the Newport Folk Fest, and a Strat is favored by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. When Jimi Hendrix stunned millions with his guitar virtuosity from his American debut at Monterey to The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock, he was probably unaware that his Stratocaster was originally developed with the help of a humble musician from Hawaii, Frederick Tavares. "I would challenge anybody to come up with a better design for a guitar. It's about as close to being perfect as any electric guitar can be." Eric Clapton on the Stratocaster. Amazing fortune, considering what Freddie had to say about it's origins; "There was nothing special or theoretical about that design, it was just hit or miss, trial and error." 50's Western star Bill Carson, who worked with Leo early on and helped promote the guitars, said about Freddie; "In my opinion he was the greatest man in both musical talent and personal integrity that I worked with at Fender." Freddie's Fender design proved to be the most popular and most imitated electric guitar of all time. To honor his many contributions, in 1994 Fender released the Freddie Tavares 'Aloha' Stratocaster, the metal body emblazoned with Hawaiian scenery graphics. While working at the Fender company, Freddie became a founding member of the Polynesian Society in California and recorded with many fellow Hawaiian musicians including Sam Koki, Joe Keawe, Sammy Kaapuni, Bernie Kaai Lewis, Vince Akina, also including Freddie's brother, Ernest. With Akina, the brothers toured as The South Sea Islanders trio, often playing the "Hawaiian night" at the Coconut Grove at L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel to star filled crowds. Around this time, he flew back to Oahu for his sister's wedding to local musician and teacher, Walter Mo'okini. As gifts for Walter, Freddie brought along a new Fender Super amp and a new Deluxe 8 steel, which Walter played exclusively til he retired at the turn of the century. Freddie's varied credits include performing on radio and TV shows with Red Skelton, Roy Rogers and Spike Jones; and he played steel guitar with Foy Willing and the Riders of the Purple Sage on the popular radio show "All Star Western Theatre." Other famous artists he recorded with included Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, the Andrews Sisters, Henry Mancini, Lawrence Welk, Tennessee Ernie Ford and Martin Denny.
Among the movies he played on were "Tora Tora Tora," "Donovan's Reef," "In Harm's Way, "Irma La Douce," "Gidget Goes Hawaiian," "Tahiti Nights" and "Song Of The Islands." And his TV credits ranged from "The Lawrence Welk Show" and "Magnum PI" to "Hawaii Five-0" and "Fantasy Island."
During his retirement years, Freddie would often take his Fender pedal steel guitar, Stratocaster and an ukulele to entertain folks in retirement homes and veterans hospitals.
Freddie died in 1990 at the age of 77. Laid to rest in Nuuana Cemetery, Jerry Byrd, Barney Isaacs and Alan Akaka all played steel guitar tributes at his funeral. "Freddie was a constant inexhaustible source of knowledge, humor and true human kindness," brother Bill Tavares recalled. "His legacy will live on, with the guitars he designed, the music he created and the love that he shared so freely."
In 1995, Freddie was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame, as one of the great masters.

Brother Ernest Arriga Tavares was equally as talented. A versatile multi-instrumentalist, he played steel guitar, lead guitar, bass, ukulele, flute, clarinet, saxophone, piano, organ, and Hawaiian and Tahitian percussion. Born on Maui on April 29, 1911, Ernest began his career as a performer and arranger with the Harry Owens Royal Hawaiian Orchestra. He played sax, flute and clarinet for seven years with the legendary orchestra, while Freddie played steel guitar. Both brothers were heard playing with Owens on the soundtrack to the movie "Coconut Grove," and on the Oscar-winning Owens' composition "Sweet Leilani." He later played with the Spike Jones Orchestra during the time they recorded The Hawaiian War Chant. Leading artists he recorded with included Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, and Alfred Apaka. A talented singer, songwriter, arranger, conductor and choreographer, Ernie shared his brother's aptitude for engineering and invention. He's credited with developing the pedal device that led to the pedal steel guitar, thus giving the direct Hawaiian connection to the beginning's of all forms of steel guitar now common. An article in the Honolulu Star Advertiser in 1947 announced: "Ernest Tavares introduced his newly developed steel guitar. The new guitar invention makes intricate chord progressions more simple due to the use of a harp tuning principle." Some years later, a Maui News story about his revue show that played in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe proclaimed: "A show of your own is every performer's dream, especially so with Ernie, for his Hawaiian heritage finally rebelled against listening to any more stereotyped pseudo-Hawaiian entertainment such as one often encounters on the West Coast. The answer for Ernie was to leave the studio with his fabulous steel guitar, which he made himself by the way, in pursuit of his dream." And a review of his "Hawaiian Hullabaloo" show in Variety praised: "Tavares has taken Hawaiian music, which had become jaded through exploitation and injected new life into it to produce an entirely new sound that is delighting audiences." Ernie also loved jazz, and played sax and clarinet in a jazz band that regularly appeared at another legendary
showroom, the Hollywood Palladium. And a passion for classical music led him to study the works of Wagner, Grieg, Ravel, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky. After his death in 1986, his ashes were laid to rest in the Tavares family graveyard at the Po'okela Church. "Ernest was a phenomenal musician," brother Freddie recalled, "He also sang beautifully and was a fine arranger and song writer."
Hawaii's Sen. Daniel Akaka recently paid tribute to the brothers in Washington, D.C., with an announcement entered into the Congressional Record (Volume 157, Number 49) on April 6. "Mr. President, I congratulate Hawaiian music legends Frederick 'Freddie' and Ernest Tavares for receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts in recognition of their contributions to the music industry. I am honored to recognize Freddie and Ernest for their numerous and invaluable accomplishments in the music business. Although both brothers are no longer with us, I extend my aloha and sincere thanks to the Tavares family for keeping the legacy of Freddie and Ernest Tavares alive."

Their many talents and innovations had a great impact on the music industry that continue today. They made Hawaii proud, and should alsways be remembered.

David Matzenik · From: Cairns, on the Coral Sea

I can't add anything to Ron's account apart from this picture. Freddie looking like Clark Kent. I remember when I first saw a strat, Freddie's design. There was no other guitar remotely comparable, a real piece of 1950s sculpture, like an F86 Sabre.

_________________
Don't go in the water after lunch. You'll get a cramp and drown. - Mother.

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

Nice addition, David. You'd never suspect the mind behind those specs, eh?

Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

thanks so much for this info. i enjoyed learning more about freddie!

Russ Cudney · From: Sonoma, California, USA

Like this +1!
_________________
1958 D8 Stringmaster, 1958 T8 Stringmaster, 1955 Q8 Stringmaster (in basket), 1949 Gibson BR9, 1953 Silvertone, 1957 Harmony H4 (yeah the cool black pearloid one), 1947 National Princess, 1969 Shobud S10 3X1

Mike Anderson · From: British Columbia, Canada

Thanks Ron and David for all the great Freddie Tavares info! I vividly remember when I first saw "Tora Tora Tora" in its first run at the theaters, and that great moment when the Japanese pilots manage to tune their shortwave into a Hawaiian station. You hear some gorgeous steel playing, and one of the pilots says "So this is the sound of Hawaii!"

I have a deluxe edition of that movie now on DVD and never tire of it.

Billy Tonnesen · From: R.I.P., Buena Park, California

It seems to me I recall in reading a biography of Joaquin Murphy, that he took some lessons from Freddie Traveres in a Hawaiian Studio in Hollywood, Ca.

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

That'd be an interesting connection, Billy, as that studio was possibly the well known Ernie Ball's where JM studied under Bill Sargent, I believe. By then he was able to mimic all the great Hawaiian players well enuf to trick the top pros as they came into the store thinking McIntire or Hoopii were in town, so somebody showed him the real deal and who could do it better than Freddie?

Rick Stratton · From: Tujunga, California, USA

Here's another pic for the thread a friend sent me of Freddie (2nd from left w/aloha shirt) with Leo and Clint Walker!

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

Is that LBJ on Clint's left?!

Geoff Cline · From: Southwest France

VERY cool thread all. Thanks. Here is Freddie's signature on my '53 Stringmaster D-8 (26" scale):

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

Very cool pic, Geoff! I kept that one too.

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

More on Freddie;
When Harry Owens took over leadership of the dance orchestra of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Waikiki in 1934 and sought an electric steel guitar player, he interviewed Freddie Tavares on the recommendation of Bob Cutter - one of the orchestra's soloists who had previously been Larry Bellis’ vocalist. Owens, very impressed by the 21 year old’s serious attitude to music and his confident “I could easily learn to play one” answer to Owen's question "can you play steel guitar?" gave him the orchestrated arrangements for two songs, with two weeks to learn to play the steel guitar parts. Freddie declined all opportunities to record as a solo artist, saying he was a team member striving to be the best possible sideman. He would continue to play Bach piano inventions on steel guitar for an hour daily throughout his musical career, to give him dexterity and flexibility in his playing and be a consummate sight reader of music. On his first night with Harry Owens Royal Hawaiians, Freddie played the steel guitar parts on two songs 'Song of the Islands’ and ‘Imi Au la Oe’ after which Owens and the other orchestra members gave him a standing ovation. Thus Freddie’s professional career was established and his smooth, lyrical steel guitar playing with perfect pitch, timing and rhythm quickly earned him the stage name Freddie ‘Kaulana’ (meaning 'famous’) Tavares from Harry Owens. During his 13 years with the Royal Hawaiians he was one of the most important members, his steel guitar being the backbone of most of the musical arrangements. The orchestra travelled throughout the States, playing engagements at the Hotel St. Francis in San Francisco, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and Beverly Wilshire hotel in the L.A. area, and on tour in New York, Memphis, Chicago, Colorado, Texas, Seattle and Vancouver B.C. Many of their Hotel St. Francis shows were broadcast live on coast to coast radio. They made movies; radio transcriptions for C.P. McGregor's transcription service and for A.F.R.S; recorded for Decca, Columbia and Capitol Records. In the two month period February 1st through March 1938, the orchestra worked on the Paramount movie 'Cocoanut Grove’; played the Beverly Wilshire Hotel at nights; recorded 150 selections for Decca; made a batch of electric transcriptions for C.P. McGregor; guested on Bing Crosby's radio-show 'Kraft Music Hall’ and appeared with Claudette Colbert on the 'Hollywood Hotel’ radio-show. According to his wife, Freddie Tavares bought a 6 string Black & White bakelite Rickenbacker steel guitar as soon as the model came on the market in July 1935, (serial number 003) removing the left front white cover to store his bar and picks (thumb and 3 finger) inside between dance sets. He used C6th tuning for Hapa-Haole and more modern Hawaiian songs, raising the A to B flat for a C 7th tuning when playing older Hawaiian songs. He also designed and built his own tube amplifiers and casings, building a second amp into each enclosure as a spare in case the main unit blew during a set. Wives and children accompanied musicians of the Royal Hawaiians to San Francisco for their annual summer residencies at Hotel St. Francis. Deeming transferring his two growing sons from their Anaheim home and school to school in San Francisco each summer too disruptive for the boys, Freddie tended his notice to Owens in 1945. Loath to lose him, Owens upped his pay. Freddie capitulated to pay increases for a further two years then said “no more” recommending Eddie Bush as his replacement and thoroughly familiarizing Eddie with the orchestra's steel guitar and vocal arrangements. To further his music career, Freddie had moved from Hawaii to Anaheim, near Hollywood, in 1942 to freelance as a session musician - one of his '42 sessions being to play the zippy steel guitar glissando on the famed Looney Tunes logo which still heralds cartoon time on TV and cinema screens worldwide. His experience of playing steel guitar in an orchestra and his ability to sight read music and orchestral arrangements unhesitatingly, made him highly sought after by movie musical arrangers and record producers, also for radio and TV work. From 1949 through '53 Freddie played steel guitar almost nightly with country singer/ fiddle player Wade Ray and his Ozark Mountain Boys at the club Cowtown in LA. Wade Ray recollects, "Fiddle is the awfullest darned instrument to amplify, but Freddie figured out a way to do it and he made me an amplifier that I treasured, and he also made amplifiers for the rest of the band. That five years at Cowtown has to be the highlight of my whole career and Freddie Tavares was a very, very big part of the whole thing. He wrote all the music arrangements and did all the electric work. We were only a four piece band but with Freddie's harmonies on steel guitar we sounded like a nine piece orchestra. He played so pretty, so smooth and sweet. At intermissions, instead of having something to eat and drink he would go out back and run scales. He was a very clever man and completely self taught in everything he did". Freddie also played on radio broadcasts with this group and on their early records for Victor. The Magnatone Guitar Company presented Freddie with a custom made steel guitar in a promotional deal in '49. Made to Freddie's specifications, this instrument had 9 strings to increase chord variations. This was the only steel guitar that Freddie ever stood at to play. He had large hands and would control the swell with his little finger curled around the volume control - continuing to use this method when he later played pedal steel. Freddie's steel bars were specially made for him, cut straight across at both ends to give a better sight line for accurate positioning. When playing novelty numbers such as 'Put Another Nickel In ' and 'Old Piano Roll Blues' at Cow town, Freddie used a bar that he had carved out of a solid piece of wood to emulate perfectly the sound of a honky-tonk piano. In early 1953 Noel Boggs introduced Freddie to Leo Fender who, at that time, was interested in building amplifiers. Fender realized he had found a man of exceptional abilities in Freddie Tavares. He understood electronics, could make technical drawings and was a consummate musician, playing acoustic, bass and steel guitars as well as ukulele. He hired Freddie as assistant engineer to himself and on Freddie’s second day of employment he started to create, with Leo Fender, a product that was to become the leading and most wanted instrument in guitar history - the Stratocaster. Until his retirement from the Fender Guitar Company in 1985, Freddie Tavares participated in the design and development of every guitar and amplifier made by the company and field tested the proto types before they hit the production line. He was renowned as the world's leading technical authority of the Jazz Bass and collaborated with Leo Fender to invent the split-finger mechanism for the Fender 1000 pedal steel guitar - later playing this model pedal steel. Freddie continued his music career and session work whilst with Fenders. He was a founding member and long time treasurer of the Polynesian Society in California and derived great pleasure and satisfaction from playing rhythm, Stratocaster and steel guitars, also ukulele, on recordings of Hawaiian songs and Island medleys with his fellow Hawaiian musicians Danny Stewart, Sam Koki, Joe Keawe, Sammy Kaapuni, Harry Baty, Bernie Kaai Lewis, Vince Akina, his brother Ernest Tavares and other prominent West Coast based Hawaiians. When a talented young bass player, Vince Akina was forming a group to perform Hawaiian and Tahitian songs with dancers on a casual basis in '54, Freddie and Ernest Tavares made up the trio. The South Sea Islanders performed all over Southern California for 15 years - mostly on the country-club circuit and for luaus - and were renowned for their professionalism and the versatility of their interesting and fascinating programmes. For 5 years they played once weekly at the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel, LA - on the Hawaiian night, when they played through the dinner hour as opening act for Freddy Martin's Big Band, and other big names. Freddies radio and TV work included shows with Red Skelton, Roy Rogers and Spike Jones, and the series ‘I Love Irma' and 'Hawaiian Eye’. He played steel guitar with Foy Willing & Riders Of The Purple Sage on their weekly radio show 'All Star Western Theatre’ which was broadcast on all major networks in the late '40s, and featured such notable guests as Tex Ritter, Jimmy Wakely, Eddie Dean and Eddy Arnold. Douglas Green, historian for the Country Music Foundation, wrote of Riders Of The Purple Sage, "mainstay of the instrumental group was Johnny Paul, a New Yorker who played spectacular swing fiddle. The other instrumental standout was a superb Hawaiian steel guitar player, Freddie Tavares. His rich toned, harmonic and romantic style was far more Hawaiian than swing (although he took a few ‘hot’ solos,) but it blended beautifully with the vocals which were, of course, the mainstay of the 'Riders sound". Freddie Tavares’ recording credits read like a Who's Who and included Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, The Andrew Sisters, Deanna Durban, Gordon McCrae, Sue Thompson, Jimmy Dalton, Elvis Presley, Spike Jones& The City Slickers, Tennessee Ernie Ford (on Mule Train) Tex Williams, Margaret Whiting & Jimmy Wakely, Andy Parker & The Plainsmen, Sons Of The Pioneers, The Polynesians, Paradise Islanders, The Outriggers, South Sea Islanders, The Bonaires, Martin Denny ,Wade Ray and Dick Kestner. He recorded with the orchestras of Henri Mancini, Bud Dant, Steve Lawrence, Ray Andrade, Lawrence Welk, George Liberace, Axel Stordahl, William Kealoha, Ray Conniff, George Poole, 101 Strings and also Juan Garcia Esquivel's Big Band. Some movies for which he played on the soundtrack or made sound effects on steel guitar for: 'The Perils Of Pauline’ 'Devil At 4 O'clock’ 'Diamond Head’ 'Gidget Goes Hawaiian’, even 'Three Stooges Go Around’ 'Move Over Darling’ 'Tora Tora Tora’ 'Donovans Reef ‘ 'In Harms Way’ 'Irma La Douce’ 'It's A Date’ 'None But The Brave' 'Blue Hawaii’ 'Cocoanut Grove’ 'Tahiti Nights’ ‘Mr. Roberts’ and 'Song Of The islands’. Freddie Tavares was an uncompromising perfectionist and this was reflected in the standard of excellence he achieved in his music career. He was also a friendly, compassionate, kind and generous man with a keen sense of humour, who enjoyed surprising and delighting family and friends with very witty songs he had written especially for and often about them.
During his retirement, Freddie would take backing tapes he had made, a small amplifier, his Fender pedal steel guitar, Stratocaster and a ukulele to entertain those in nursing and retirement homes, and the veterans hospital, with his beautiful singing and music. Likewise, he entertained family and friends with Hawaiian melodies and songs when he and his wife spent each Christmas holiday in their native Hawaii. When Freddie played at Jerry Byrd's 1985 Ho'olaule'a in Hawaii, he jokingly told the audience he had had to retire in order to practise for the event, but his faultless playing and eloquent oration, at age 72, earned him the respect of everyone, and an invitation to return in '86.
Freddie Tavares passed away in Anaheim, California on July 24th 1990, age 77 years. During his funeral service in Hawaii, his brother-in-law Walter Mo'okini sang and Jerry Byrd, Barney Isaacs and Alan Akaka played steel guitar tributes. Freddie was laid to rest in Nuuana cemetery, Oahu.

Bill Creller · From: Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)

Great BIO on Freddie Ron.....thanks Smile

The story mentioned Donovan's Reef.. I was told that "uncle Barney" played on that movie (?)

Ron Whitfield · From: Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA

Without listening a 2nd time I've gone wobbly on who it was, but their styles are different enuf that it would probably be immediately obvious. I like Reef for seeing John Ford's 'Araner' in all her classic glory. I sailed her all over these islands in the 70s.

Steve Knight · From: NC

Just bumping this old thread with a link to some pictures of a Freddie Tavares Strat that just listed online. It's not mine, but I wish it was!

https://davesguitar.com/products/fender-custom-shop/freddie-tavares-commemorative-aloha-strat-95/

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