HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOE VENTO! Today, Joe celebrates his birthday. Joe is somewhere in his late 80's or early 90's, only his hairdresser knows for sure. Featured when the Three Suns played the nightclubs and State Fairs in the late 50's and 60's and well as the accordionist on "Three Suns in Japan", Joe still plays lounges in Vegas. Check his website www.joevento.com On his birthday (12/16/2015), Joe Vento leading the Joe Vento Big Band! So many people wrote in, that Joe has decided that he WILL come down to his Birthday Celebration & Holiday Concert. The time tonight is at 6:30 PM until about 8:45 PM. Las Hadas Restaurant 9048 Balboa Blvd. Northridge (Just South of Nordhoff across from Target)

The Three Suns featured in video game! Millions of this game have been sold. Expected to sell as many as 25 Million copies. One song by the Three Suns (oddly enough with Artie Dunn singing lead vocal with the Sun Maids singing backup and as far as I know never reissued track) entitled "Worry Worry Worry" Interesting 40's and 50's music in this post nuclear war game (combined with some newer music composed for the game) that might make younger video game players Three Suns fans. Here's a list of the older songs in this video game: http://www.idigitaltimes.com/fallout-4-soundtrack-list-heres-23-songs-youre-likely-hear-commonwealth-454276

Joe Vento

I have been absent from blogging for a while but there are couple things that came up recently I would like to mention.  First off, Joe Vento who was involved in the Three Suns for many years after Morty Nevins retired from touring has received a lot of press of late including the Column One on the front page of the Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-c1-vegas-piano-man-20131231-dto,0,2493843.htmlstory#axzz2pH1f9qN9

   Personally, I don't believe Joe is 95 years old but who knows.

Secondly, I watched "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" over the holidays.    During one sequence with Randy Quaid's character the song "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" plays.    It consists of an Accordion and Tuba.    This sounds somewhat close to Charles Albertine's arrangement on "Ding Dong Daddy Christmas" album of the Three Suns.   Unlike many of the songs on the soundtrack, this was a recording made especially for the movie so I wonder if it was created for the movie because somehow producers couldn't get the rights or RCA couldn't find a master tape or similar reasons. It's a shame the filmmakers didn't use the original recording for whatever reason so that the legacy of the Three Suns could live on.

Marshall Crenshaw to Salute Al Nevins of the Three Suns

Sorry I was out of the Blogsphere orbit for a few weeks, but I am back with some interesting news.

Marshall Crenshaw will be appearing in New York at the Irdium on October 29,30 and 31 to salute some early perfomers that played the Les Paul guitar including one of the founding Three Suns, Al Nevins.
The band includes keyboard/accordion player Charlie Giordano, so this should be good.



Please see the article here:

http://broadwayworld.com/article/Marshall-Crenshaw-Confirms-Run-at-the-Iridium-1029-31-20111005

One of the Three Suns in Sunny Southern California

One of the touring members of the Three Suns, Joe Vento played the accordion and piano in the Three Suns for many years.   Another website dedicated to the Three Suns has credited Joe Vento for only a few years of service in the Three Suns, but I have found independent documentation to show Joe was possibly more involved as touring member than anyone else besides original member Artie Dunn (organ) after Morty Nevins (accordion) and Al Nevins (guitar) hung up their tour gear.

Joe was also on the tour with Del Casher (guitar) who was highlighted in the last two posts and Artie Dunn  who went on a wildly successful tour of Japan and the Philippines to promote the album "The Three Suns in Japan" that Joe, Del and Artie recorded.

Joe will be playing this Sunday August 28th from 5PM to 8PM at the Las Hadas restaurant at 4098 Balboa Blvd. in Northridge.   Joe will be conducting a band of about 18 fine musicians in the "Joe Vento Big Band."
Joe usually plays nightly from 6PM at the Zeffirino Restaurant at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas.

Here's Joe's website:   http://www.joevento.com/

About 47 years ago today, the Three Suns played the Chase County Fair in Nebraska.   http://www.imperialrepublican.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3115:past-fair-entertainers&catid=36:news&Itemid=76

From last week's column about Del Casher, network radio personality Doug McIntyre added, "Del recorded my first and second demo reels for Talk Radio and is a great guy and a wonderful musician."   Here's Del Casher's website:   http://www.delcasher.com/

Wah Wah Pedal Pusher

Last week's post created a few questions.  One question is "It might be a good idea to include a link ....for those unaware of what" is the wah wah pedal.  The second question was mine, "Why is Del Casher asking for recognition now?"

I searched online and found a documentary on the wah wah pedal called "Cry Baby The Pedal That Rocked The World."    The video was released this year.  You can watch the whole documentary here at their website:   http://www.crybabydoc.com/    Don't worry about the babydoc part.  This website is about the Wah Wah pedal (Cry Baby is a brand name wah wah pedal) and not a dictator.

You can learn all about the history of the wah wah pedal in this documentary.   However, in the NY Times article of 8/6/2011 linked to in last week's blog:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/business/del-casher-and-the-story-of-the-wah-wah-pedal.html?_r=1  the author Amy Wallace writes "But guitars take two hands to play — you can’t be fiddling with knobs during a solo. So Mr. Casher says he asked Mr. Plunkett whether the knob could be put into a pedal instead. In at least one interview, however, Mr. Plunkett has said that this was his own idea. (I could not reach Mr. Plunkett for comment.)"

One such interview with Mr. Plunkett is in this documentary  "Cry Baby The Pedal That Rocked The World."  In fact, even though Del Casher is interviewed in this documentary there is no mention from Del that it was his idea to use a pedal for guitar players.    I would imagine that Del would have mentioned it was his idea for the pedal on camera and director deleted Del's pedal comment to avoid contrroversy.   You would think that a controversy would be good for a documentary.   However, this documentary has an executive producer of Jimmy Dunlop.    Dunlop makes the Cry Baby Pedal.   See:  http://www.jimdunlop.com/products   

So Del's reason for an interview in the NY Times is apparently trying to give his side of the story that was most likely edited out of this documentary.  Even though this is an entertaining documentary and I recommend watching it,  this documentary made me want to buy a wah wah pedal which may be partially the purpose of this video.  I also found it rather odd that the NY Times author didn't mention the video in her column.

Del Casher in New York Times

Hi! This is my first blog so forgive me for any shortcomings. The purpose of this blog is to share information about the Three Suns.

The Three Suns were formed in 1939 by brothers Al Nevins (guitar) and Morty Nevins (accordion) and their cousin Artie Dunn (vocals and organ). By the mid to late 50's, Al and Morty stopped touring but kept recording and Artie Dunn toured with other guitar and accordion players.

Del Casher was one of the traveling members of The Three Suns around 1958-1959. Along with accordionist Joe Vento and original member Artie Dunn, Del was a member of The Three Suns on their very successful tour of Japan in 1959 and recorded with Dunn and Vento as The Three Suns on the album "The Three Suns In Japan" which was made exclusively for the Japanese market. Del went on to have a fine career as a guitarist on records, TV and movies and even was involved in the invention of the wah-wah pedal.

Here is an article about Del Casher which appeared in Sunday's New York Times about his involvement with the invention of the wah-wah pedal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/business/del-casher-and-the-story-of-the-wah-wah-pedal.html