Sam Marshall
From:
Chandler, AZ USA
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Posted 18 Aug 2007 9:57 am |
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Fender Musical Instruments Corporation held its inaugural Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday, 09 Aug, 2007 (Leo Fender's birthday). I was quite inspired by this gathering where we, the employees, friends and families of FMIC, honored 6 of the great men that have lead Fender over its 60+ years.
Here are some links to our website regarding this wonderful & very emotional event:
http://www.fender.com/hof/
http://www.fender.com/news/index.php?display_article=204
For me and many others, the most inspiring portion of this program was the induction of Freddie Tavares. Dan Smith and Terry Tavares gave very heartfelt speeches about Freddie's career with Fender & his life. The most compelling aspect of these talks was the admiration that everyone had for Freddie. He was truly a wonderful human being who was incredibly intellegent & gifted in many ways, yet quite humble. I know, that for myself, I now have a new mantra regarding my work at Fender - I WANT TO BE MORE LIKE FREDDIE!
Terry Tavares related how his father was always practicing to improve his art, including working diligently on his sight reading. Freddie actually developed arrangements of Bach 2-part inventions on the steel (think of the bar slants this would require!). He also told us that Freddie's famous Looney Tune intro was actually recorded backwards to alleviate an engineering issue with how the volume decayed during the glissando. This was Freddie's idea during that session. Freddie was a consummate sideman on over 500 recordings, plus he recorded and appeared in many movies including the classic "Road" movies with Bob Hope & Bing Crosby.
I would also like to mention that in the past year, under the direction of our CEO, Bill Mendello (who is quite a history buff), FMIC has acquired the original Fender lap steel guitar. I, and many other of my co-workers, have gotten to touch and play this guitar which is the genesis of all that is Fender. FMIC also acquired several K+F guitars predating Doc Kaufman's departure, plus some other historic steels from Fender's pre-CBS history.
Best Regards,
Sam Marshall |
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