Jesse Helms' Night in Havana

[Billy Burnett]

Jesse Helms' Night in Havana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJFnqDy8VWQ

A Canadian friend of mine.

[flamingdem]

1. Wow, I really enjoyed that

... I was expecting something Dead Kennedy-ish!

[dipsydoodle]

2. Thanks for posting Billy

:thumbsup:

[Judi Lynn]

3. Thanks for the link. Not many guitarists around like that.

When I saw your subject line I immediately thought of Benjamin Treuhaft, who transports used pi-anas to Havana and tunes them up so they work o.k. for Cuban piano students. In a documentary about him they said that termites tear them up in general over many years and a lot of students have to use delapidated instruments.

He got this business going, and had to fight like a wildman to protect it from Lincoln Diaz-Balart's many attempts to destroy it, then he set up his "Helms-Treuhaft Piano Bass-String Factory!"

Cuba-Bound Tuner Has Baby Grand Plans
January 09, 1998|By Maitland Zane, Chronicle Staff Writer

(01-09) 04:00 PST BERKELEY — 1998-01-09 04:00:00 PST BERKELEY -- Ben the Piano Man loves to thumb his nose at the feds. He's the Berkeley tuner who won't stop "sending pianas to Havana."

For flouting the three-decades- old Cuban trade embargo, the Clinton administration got tough with Benjamin L. Treuhaft early last year and threatened him with a $10,000 fine for "trading with the enemy."

He easily beat that rap. The Justice Department caved in and granted him a special license for a "humanitarian project."
Now Treuhaft is out to tweak Uncle Whiskers' nose once again. He is leading a "brigade" of 23 piano tuners and teachers from four countries who will spend a fortnight in Havana this month.

Doing what? Tuning pianos, of course, with a TV crew from ITV in London filming them in action.

Puffing amiably on a smuggled Monte Cristo, one of the most expensive Cuban stogies, Treuhaft said 25 donated pianos are on their way to Cuba by ship from Nova Scotia, courtesy of a Canadian company that loves the stunt and isn't charging him a dime.

Treuhaft said the instruments will have to be fumigated to protect them from a tropical termite known as the comegen, which loves to feast on old Steinways and Knabes.

~snip~
STRINGING THEM ALONG
Republican Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, who introduced legislation in 1995 to tighten the already strict U.S. embargo, is a bete noire of the tuner. To twit the ultraconservativechairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Treuhaft has founded a joint venture with the Cuban government called the Helms-Treuhaft Piano Bass-String Company.

Showing a visitor a hoop of heavy copper wire, he explained that Cuba is rich in copper, but doesn't have the machinery capable of cranking out the "wrapped" wires used for the lowest register of the piano.

Treuhaft is so sanguine about the project that he has invested in a $10,000 German gizmo designed to do the job, and he hopes to test it out next month.

"Cuban workers will spin the wire into strings for Cuban and Latin American pianos," he said. "Investors will be rich beyond their wildest dreams, or at least may see a slight profit within a few years. The name of the factory exploits the name-recognition Jesse Helms has earned. No way we can lose."

More:
http://articles.sfgate.com/1998-01-09/news/17711615_1_piano-tuners-training-tuners-robert-treuhaft

http://www.cubasolidarity.net.nyud.net:8090/ben2.gif



http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com.nyud.net:8090/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/020409/040209_cuba_hmed.grid-6x2.jpg

History of Send a Piana to Havana
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/sphhist.htm

I looked up your video guitarist's Wiki, figuring he would have one, and this is the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Ross_(guitarist)

Thanks for sharing the video.

[Billy Burnett]

4. There seems to be a concentration of amazing guitarists in Ontario.

Here's Don's wife, Brooke Miller ...

Brooke Miller - You Can See Everything (Given The Right Set Of Wings)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az4GnDgedKE

Antoine Dufour - Memories of the Future
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRvRBQTqUKI&feature=related

Andy McKee - Guitar - Drifting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddn4MGaS3N4&feature=channel

Canada is producing some great guitarists. :wow:

[Judi Lynn]

6. Good grief! Amazing. I'm going to leave the next two links 'til later,

after hearing Brooke Miller's first.

Flabbergasted!

What a couple, Billy Burnett.

Thanks.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Yikes. Listened to Antoine Dufour today. There is definitely something strange going on in Ontario!

It's a secret guitar society. Unbelievable.

What are those things they slide under the strings? I've seen them long ago, but can't remember what they are called. I have NEVER seen a musician actually use them that way, making constant changes. Wow.

[Billy Burnett]

9. Hi Judi. It is called a capo.

A standard capo frets all of the strings at the desired position ...



Antoine is using an adjustable capo in that vid. It allows the player to select and change the fretting of individual strings, some while playing.



There are lots of different models of both types.

These Candyrat players also down tune and use slack tunings on their guitars. That, combined with their use of the capo creates extended range on the guitar. Most of them use Canadian made custom built jumbo body guitars on most of their material.

Most all of them are accomplished classical guitarists who've broken the Michael Hedges and William Ackerman mold (two amazing Windham Hill Records artists).


Glad you like them. :hi:

[Judi Lynn]

8. Oh, no! This is getting too scary! Andy McKee! Never have seen anyone tackle a guitar that way.

Looked a another couple of his videos, saw one he did with Don Ross.

This is very mysterious!

Thanks, Billy Burnett, for giving us something additional to ponder!

[Mika]

5. Although he'll deny it....

Billy is (imo) just as good as these players when he wants to be a show off. Plus Billy tears up a banjo. And the bass, and the mandolyn, and and and. A freaking one man band.


LOL

Thanks for the posts. I want to get some of these CDs. Some of this guitar music is so relaxing.

---

[Judi Lynn]

10. Then someone has been too modest! GOOD guitar music is simply a different animal

from the crap we usually hear on popular music.

It's a real achievement, not too common. It probably just LOOKS that way when these people from different lives all end up in the same place together and they ALL are masters! That would be some heady company.

At the time I first saw your "one man band" and the many talents of this guy, it was so unexpected I laughed so hard I nearly cried. You should have posted a warning first!