February 3rd, 1959 is known as The Day The Music Died. Dion Dimucci, who was Buddy Holly’s good friend calls it The Day The Music Exploded. I will explain.
Holly did not like Bradley's control of the music, selection of the songs, and the confinement of the session. He opted to travel to Clovis, New Mexico and signed with record producer Norman Petty, who had a recent hit with a song called Party Doll.
Petty recorded a few song with Holly, along with a drummer, and string bass player, and dubbed the group, “The Crickets” at the suggestion of Jerry Allison. His contract with Holly included giving Buddy total creative control. Petty then sent their demo to Brunswick Records.
That recording That’ll Be The Day, turned out to be a big hit. It was followed up by Peggy Sue.
Buddy Holly and The Crickets included Jerry Allison on stand up bass, and Joe B. Mauldin on drums made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. This increased the groups demand.
Holly really liked New York City, with its clubs, and music, and busy life. He decided to make it his home. He befriended Dion, and some other popular artists. Buddy met and fell in love with Maria Elena Santiago, who worked for a music publishing company. Within a few months he married her and the two settled into a Greenwich Village apartment.
In 1958, Buddy Holly and The Crickets were touring the United States, playing concerts, and dance party venues, and making television appearances. Tommy Allsup was hired to play lead guitar. So the trio became a rock quartet of two guitars, a bass, and drums.
Dion tells the story of Holly and his group, Dion and The Belmonts, Richie Valens, J.P. Richardson aka The Big Bopper, and other supporting musicians, all traveling in a rented yellow school bus throughout the coldest regions of the Midwestern states, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Iowa during the coldest months of the year.
The tour started on January 15 of 1959 and was set to last for 24 days, doing 24 concerts, and ending in February.
In his video, Dion say that though the the trip was fun, everyone was freezing. The drafty bus did not provide much if any heat. Holly’s drummer, Carl Bunch, had to be hospitalized for frostbite. Most of the performers were used to warmer climates and were not prepared to deal with the sub freezing weather. 17 year old Richie Valens’ mother even mailed a winter coat to him.
Holly had been taking flight lessons while living in New York. Around January 31st he decided to charter a plane to make the 400 or so mile trip to Clear Lake Iowa.
The trip was to be after their February 2nd concert. It was after midnight, in blizzard conditions when the four seat Beechcraft Bonanza took off. The 21 year old pilot hired to fly them was not certified to fly with instruments only.Within nine minutes all were dead.
Dion Dimucci said he could have been on the plane, but gave his seat to Richie Valens, who was cold and sick.
After hearing the events the next day in a hotel lobby, Dion said he was crushed by this tragedy, and would not talk about it for years. The video I am attaching is long, but in it he tells the story as he remembers it.
Other versions have surfaced in which Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup lose the coin toss to determine who will go on the plane. In my opinion, it really doesn’t matter anymore.
The point that Dion brings out, by saying this is The Day The Music Exploded, is that after this terrible event, countless bands, usually featuring two guitars, a bass, and drums seemed to pop up everywhere. Holly had set the template. John Mellencamp once said, "Listen to the first three Beatles albums. Take the vocals off, and it is The Crickets."
Look at the Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Hollies (name sound familiar?), and all the other 1960’s groups of the 1960’s. Before leaving on the plane, Holly told Dion Dimucci to “guard my Stratocaster like you guard your balls.” And Dion did just that. He said most of the players owned new 1958 Fender Stratocasters, and they were proud to play them, and took great care of them.
In 1955 Holly purchased a brand new Fender Stratocaster from the Adair Music Company in Lubbock, Texas. His guitar teacher, Clyde Hankins, let him play one, and young Holly was quite impressed.
The only thing different about this Strat was perhaps the neck. The 1954 through 1957 Stratocasters had a very pronounced “V” shaped neck. By 1958 the neck had more of a “C” shape. Like his early model, this one also had a two tone sunburst finish, a maple neck, and a white pickguard.
Holly owned other guitars, that he used for writing and playing at home. He owned a 1942 Gibson J-45 with the banner on the headstock. This guitar was enclosed in a hand-tooled leather cover. It was offered at an auction at Christies for $450.000 to $550.000 USD.
Harold Bradley passed away last week at age 93. According to Guitar Player magazine and other sources, he is among the most recorded guitarists in history. He was the younger brother of the pioneering record producer Owen Bradley, Mr. Bradley also served for decades as the de facto leader of leader of Nashville’s A-Team, the elite circle of first-call session musicians immortalized in the Lovin’ Spoonful’s 1966 Top 10 hit “Nashville Cats.”
For anyone unfamiliar with the history of the Nashville recording industry, piano player and visionary Owen Bradley decided that Nashville needed it’s own recording facility to keep the mostly Southern Country Music players from going to Syd Nathan’s King Records in Cincinnati Ohio.
Around 1950, Owen Bradley purchased an Army surplus Quonset hut that he attached to the back of his home in Nashville. This was known as the Quonset Hut Studios, and became the birthplace of the Nashville Sound.
Owen enlisted the best players in town to provide the instrumental music for some of the greatest stars of the day. Harold Bradley was Owen’s brother, and became his partner in this venture. Harold took up the tenor banjo at an early age, but his big brother Owen convinced him to learn to play guitar.
Through the years Harold Bradley was admired among his peers, and given the honorary title, Dean of The Session Players,
Harold Bradley never formally took guitar lessons until the age of 35. Earlier in life he had been in college, but had to major in Bass, since the school had no guitar instructor.
Chet Atkins introduced Harold to a classical guitar instructor named Bunyan Webb.
During his college years Bradley moonlighted at the Grand Ole Opry, playing guitar for such artists as Pee Wee King, Eddy Arnold, and Bradley Kincaid.
His first recording session was in 1946 at at studio in Chicago with Pee Wee King and The Golden West Cowboys. He began his session work in Nashville in 1950 at Nashville’s first recording studio; Castle Records.
Bradley also recording hits with Brenda Lee (I’m Sorry), Hank Williams, John Anderson (Swingin’), Buddy Holly, Burle Ives (Holly Jolly Christmas),The Everly Brothers, Roger Miller (King Of The Road), Eddy Arnold (Make The World Go Away), Conway Twitty (Hello Darlin’), Loretta Lynn (Coal Miner’s Daughter), Jim Ed Brown (Pop A Top), and many more.
He also played on sessions for Bob Dylan on Nashville Skyline, Joan Baez, and The Byrds.
He was known for his use of the Danelectro six string bass guitar, that added the “Tic-Tac” bass sound to many recordings.
Harold Bradley went on to develop the RCA Studio A, which was another major facility in Nashville, (Ironically RCA’s Studio B was the first of RCA’s studios.)
Bradley was a member of an elite group of players known as the A Team. His friend, Lloyd Green, a noted pedal steel player, is quoted as saying, “When this group of players, the original A Team, came along, that was a light-year leap in the sound and technical ability of the musicians and Harold was right in the middle of all that,”
Green said. "In addition to his musical accomplishments, Bradley was a successful business man, studio manager and music industry advocate. He was the first president of the Nashville chapter of the recording academy and later led the local chapter of the musicians union. He joined the union as a teenager after playing a gig at a club on Demonbreun Avenue called the White Horse. Later in his career, Bradley became a prominent advocate for musicians. “
Under Bradley, the union advocated for fair wages, pension funds and other benefits for working musicians. While he was a fierce advocate for his fellow musicians, Bradley also helped plant the seeds for perhaps the world's most famous music business district, Music Row.
“He and his older brother Owen were versatile visionaries who played a huge role in developing the culture of respect for creators that helped Nashville to become Music City USA. Harold Bradley was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006, becoming the first session musician to earn that honor.
I recently learned that Höfner Guitars has just introduced The Zane Carney Jazzica Model guitar. For anyone not familiar with Höfner, this is the German company that is probably most recognized for it's "Paul McCartney" 500/1 Violin bass guitar.
Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG, better known as the Hofner Company, has been manufacturing stringed musical instruments for over 100 years, and was founded by Karl Höfner.
Höfner was originally apprenticed to Anton Schaller, who made violins, violas, cellos and double bass instruments. In 1887 Karl Höfner founded his workshop in Schönbach, to build his own instruments under his name. He established quite a reputation throughout Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and other European countries.
After the first World War Karl's sons, Josef and Walter came into the family business and began exporting of Höfner stringed instruments into new markets. It was not until the 1930’s that the company ventured into building guitars.
During World War II, production was limited, and Höfner was conscripted to make transport crates and shoe soles for the German army At the end of the war, the Czech and German speaking population of Schönbach were expropriated due to the division of the spoils of war. The result was that the company, due to its location, was at the time, recognized by the Communist Czech state, was acquired by the Czech government.
Because of this situation the Höfner family decided to apply for a leave and in 1948 started the the business from the ground up by relocating to Möhrendorf, Bavaria. It was a struggle to resume the business as supplies were very scarce due to the war.
Walter and Josef Höfner began working on a way to build a new factory and find houses in which their craftsmen could live.
After extensive negotiations with political leaders, in 1949 Höfner was able to relocate to the small village of Bubenreuth and once again begin violin making in this municipality. Their business was resumed by 1950.
It was during this era that many of the company’s best known guitars were created. These included The President, The Committee and the model 500/1 bass guitar. It was also during the 1950’s that Rock n’ Roll exploded on the scene.
This unforeseen change caused guitar production to swell to 50% of Höfner’s overall business In the 1950s and 1960s, To accommodate the demand, Höfner instruments partnered with Selmer of London for distribution. The companies guitars were considerably more accessible to budding European, and British musicians than American-made guitars, which were expensive if obtainable at all.
This gave Höfners a place in history as the "starter" instruments of several well known 1960s musicians.
Höfner built another production site in the town of Haguenau to escape the room shortage in Bubenreuth. although also the complex was expanded in Bubenreuth three times. Later in 1961 import restrictions on goods imported from the USA were relaxed and American guitar manufacturers began to take hold in Britain and Europe. Unfortunately this did take away some business from Höfner.
Another complicating factor that reduced the demand for European guitars was the proliferation of low priced Asian instruments into the music market.
Gerhilde Höfner Benker, Karl's granddaughter, and her husband Christian Benker did their best to keep the company competitive, but by 1991 Höfner was sold to the British company Boosey and Hawkes.
In the Boosey and Hawkes portfolio, there were already a number of musical instrument manufacturers including the viol bow manufacturer Paesold. By 1995 the two companies merged under the Höfner name.
As mentioned, Höfner had already introduced a number of archtop guitars as early as the 1930. By the 1950’s the line up included The President,The Committee,The Senator,The Congress, The Verithin, The Ambassador, and others. Some came in both acoustic, as well as electric versions. At present, all high end Höfner guitars are still made by skilled craftsmen in Hagenau, Bavaria, Germany.
The Höfner Jazzica was not offered until 1989. The design of this guitar resulted from the work of Klaus Schïller who started at the Höfner factory in 1986. Mr. Schïller is still with Höfner and is now the company's Chief Executive Officer.
The Jazzica model was revolutionary in archtop design when it first appeared in early 1989, perhaps due to its highly tapered body which provided ease of playing the guitar.
Additionally, the rounded jointing of the neck to the body at the 16th fret aided access to the fingerboard. The "slash" or “S” type soundholes and stunning finishes, violin varnish, or polyester, were also quite eye catching.
A carved solid European spruce top was used. The original models featured a Shadow Attila Zoller floating pickup, which was mounted off the bodies top by attaching it to the end of the fingerboard, This pickup provided the correct low end acoustic properties desired by most Jazz guitar players
In 1991, the Jazzica Special model was introduced with a standard blonde finish, This instrument provided with binding around the rear body edge. The original Jazzica had no binding on the body back, presumably as this would not have fitted in aesthetically with the dark gloss finishes chosen for it and the overall style of the guitar.
Next the Jazzica Custom model was offered and had a single Jazzica Höfner pickup, and an ornate headstock design. A blonde finish was standard on the Custom, but it was also available in brown sunburst, and violin varnish finishes. This guitar included an ebony pickguard.
A 24-fret fingerboard with a 25.5" scale has been used on the Jazzica throughout its production run. The bound fretboard is made of ebony wood, as is the headstock veneer on the later models. The inlays are mother-of-pearl split bock style. The pickguard/scratchplate is a carved block of ebony, and the same wood is used for the violin style tailpiece, as well as the machine head buttons.
One unique item is included with this guitar. These are “S” shaped,sound hole plugs that slip into the sound holes in order to reduce feedback when playing the guitar at high amplified volumes.
And though the Jazzica was not present in Hofner Catalogs after 2008, thanks to Höfner’s relationship with guitarist Zane Carney, it is once again being made available, and at the remarkable price of $2000 USD, with a deluxe flight case. Considering this is pretty much a hand-built instrument, it is a great deal.
For those who haven’t heard of Zane Carney, he grew up in a very musical family, and learned to sing, and play guitar. He has played guitar for Johnny Lang. John Mayer, Avril Lavange, among others. Zane fronted the original house band for U2’s Broadway production, “Spiderman, Turn Off The Dark”, which featured his brother, Reeve, in the title roll.
His band was called Carney, and included his brother. I left out the fact that at age 8, Zane was a child actor, appearing in the CBS show Dave’s World, and the 1998 movie, My Giant.
Zane seemed to migrate to Jazz style guitars since the start of his career. In 2004 he was given a Höfner New President by the company for artistic consideration.
Zane stated that while touring the Hofner factory, his eyes caught sight of a Jazzica model that was on display. He was told the Jazzica was only produced in limited quantities. He asked if he could buy that guitar, and of course they gladly sold it to him.
He began making a few modifications to his new instrument. He contacted luthier John Buscarino and asked if he built any floating pickups that would enhance mid-range sounds.
Zane replaced the stock Höfner humbucker with a Buscarino floating pickup. He also had the back of the neck sanded down, as he prefers the feel of bare wood.
Zane generally uses the sound hole plug on the lower “S” hole to help reduce feedback, but since the upper hole is not blocked it enhances the instruments acoustic feel when he is practicing.
He says what stands out on this guitar is the tapered body, which goes from about a 4” depth at the heel of the guitar, to a depth of 2 1/2” at the upper section of the body.
The instruments top is AAA grade European Spruce, and the sides and back are flamed maple. The head stock is a Höfner vintage style. As mentioned, the machine heads come with ebony buttons. The jumbo nickel-silver frets are hand slotted instead of done on a machine. The floating ebony bridge is compensated for the B string, to aid in intonation. As an archtop guitar, this instrument has a floating bridge, so the neck is pitched at an angle. This guitar has an ebony violin style tailpiece.
In 2019 Höfner announced that it is producing the Zane Carney Jazzica model. The guitar is a fully hollow archtop model with a hand carved European Spruce top. It can be ordered “relic’d” to match Zane’s personal instrument, or with the original brown-burst finish.
The Buscarino pickup is pre-installed in the United States by Eric Chazz, who also tapers down the original ebony pickguard for enhanced playing.
Included in the price is a flight-ready hardshell case with a built in humidifier. The instrument comes with a certificate of authentication, and the model sticker inside the sound hole has Zane’s signature. The guitar is available from Zane’s web site, www.zanecarney.com/.
Click on the links under the pictures for sources. Click on the links in the text for further information.
