Re: RIP Mr. Rhodes

From: Steve Catanzaro (stevencatanzaro@sprintmail.com)
Date: Wed Jan 03 2001 - 17:33:50 CET

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    Hey Erik;

    Good looking out. Harold died a few days ago. (Haven't seen the obit, can
    someone please post a link?) As some here know, I was vice-president of the
    newly formed Rhodes Music Corp. for a while, and Harold was in really bad
    health ever since I came on board, back in '96. Some interesting facts about
    Harold:

    1. He taught upwards of 150,000 wounded GI's during WWII to build and play
    their own bedside piano. It was a little mini unit they could assemble right
    in their beds. It was the most succesful government music education program
    in history.

    2. He maintained that it was he, and not Leo Fender, who really developed
    the Fender electric guitar.

    3. The Rhodes was the largest selling electric keyboard instrument of all
    time; when it was being mass produced by CBS, Harold got a royalty of 1 cent
    per key. That's between 73-88 cents per unit, and units had wholesale costs
    sometimes over $1,000. Nice of them, wasn't it?

    4. He won a lifetime achievement NARAS (Grammy) award in '96. Luminaries who
    weighed in;

    Josef Zawinul (Weather Report);
    "Harold, before you, my life was hard. You gave me a sound and you gave me a
    life."

    Chick Corea
    "The Rhodes represents the only true advancement to the piano keyboard in
    the 20th century."

    Ray Charles
    "The Rhodes was a musical atom bomb, changing the face of the music
    landscape forever."

    In short, Harold was a great guy. He used to travel with Cannonball Adderly,
    helped young artists like Herbie Hancock and Patrice Rushen, made "how to
    play" piano videos, *and* he installed his own gas pump at his house!

    The Rhodes is a deceptively simple instrument that, like its more
    complicated uncle, the piano, is amazingly resistant to accurate sampling.

    He was not a very good businessman, unfortunately, and the lawsuits between
    his heirs and other interests continue, as I have heard, even to this day.

    Rest in Peace, Harold B. Rhodes!



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