Ik kwam in een programma schema uit 1964 de naam Wout Steenhuis tegen.
Het zei mij niets. Ik denk een soort sponsor kwartiertje. Toch maar een even gezocht en zie daar.
Wout Steenhuis
Wout Steenhuis hailed from The Hague, Holland and was a member of The
Dutch Resistance Movement during the last war. His activities with the
movement caught up with him and he was imprisoned in the Amersfoort
Concentration Camp. Whilst there he made his escape enroute to
execution. In May 1945 during fighting with Germans he was shot in the
right arm. After a few operations the arm was once again suitable for
playing the guitar, which he did as a member of the Dutch Swing
College Orchestra. He came to England in 1948 followed shortly after
by his fiance whom he married later that year. Encouraged by his wife
he sent some of his recordings to the B.B.C. and very soon he made his
debut broadcast in 'Guitar Club'. After that Wout appeared on several
radio programmes - Breakfast Special, Open House, Charlie Chester and
Easy Beat to name just a few.One of the unique features of Wout's
playing was that of his multi-tracking system whereby he played all
the fretted instruments heard on record and on stage. All the backing
instruments were recorded seperately at his home studio and then put
together. In addition to using this system on record Wout also
featured it with great success on TV, radio and on stage. His
repertoire ranged from Hawaiian to pop, from jazz to vocal. In 1963 he
signed a recording contract with Denis Preston of Landsdowne Recording
Studios and all his recordings then appeared on Columbia, Studio 2 and
EMI labels. In 1962-63 he appeared on Southern TV in the series 'Three
of a Kind' and 'Their Kind of Music' along with that popular duo
Dorita Y Pepe.The sound by which most people associate Wout with is
that of his home made 'Jelmer' Hawaiian guitar which can be heard on
the majority of his recordings. On earlier albums Wout was backed by
The Kontikis - a name given to his own backing of multi-tracked
instruments. On later albums however, due to the expansion of
orchestration, it became a lengthy and laborious job to play all the
instruments himself so the Kontikis were made up of session musicians
such as Herbie Flowers / Tony Campo (bass), Alan Parker / Dick Abel
(guitar) and Clem Cattini / Barry Morgan (drums). Wout of course still
played the main melody parts himself (i.e. Hawaiian guitar, solo
guitar and ukelele).
On stage Wout used his multi-track backing to the fullest whilst
playing lead 'live'. For his stage act he used the 'Jelmer' Hawaiian
guitar, Burns Black Bison, HH Amplification, Sennheiser microphones
and a Revox A77 tape recorder.
Wout has several Hawaiian albums to his credit, along with a couple
recorded in the jazz idiom namely 'Wout' and 'Bird in the Park'
released in 1969 and 1970 respectively. In addition to being a guitar
virtuoso he was also a prolific composer and under the pen name of
Jelmer is credited for such titles as Hawaiian Chimes, Blue Dolphin,
Malihini March, Bora Bora, Lazy Guitar and Aroha Hawaii. The latter he
sings in Maori. Wout and his music have travelled the world whilst
appearing as resident guitarist on board the Queen Elizabeth II,
visiting places like Bermuda, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Sri
Lanka, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, Fiji and Hawaii.
Apart from being a solo artist, Wout has backed singers Johnny
Christian and Keely Ford and also the vocal group The
Wedgwoods.January 1978 saw the release of 'What's New' EMI EMC3220 and
featured a variety of guitar sounds and arrangements and Wout was
backed by a small group. Tracks such as Mr. Tambourine Man, Green
Green Grass of Home, House of the Rising Sun and Harper Valley PTA
first heard a decade earlier were all given a new lease of life in the
talented hands of Wout.
In October 1981 Warwick Records released 'Hawaiian Paradise' WW5106 a
compilation of Wout's previous recordings with new arrangements plus a
few new titles. Included free with this album was 'Hawaiian Christmas'
HXS 100 which featured a selection of festive tunes. This
two-for-the-price-of-one album reached No.28 in the album charts
during December.After a long absence from the recording scene came the
brilliant 'Hawaiian Country' Valentine VAL8052 released in February
1983. This album contained a selection of C & W tunes played on the
Hawaiian guitar and backed by a group of musicians in the shape of
Dick Abel (lead/12 string guitar), Colin Green (rhythm guitar), Dave
Richmond (bass), Cliff Hall (keyboards), Barry Morgan (drums), Frank
Ricotti (tuned percussion/L.A. Percussion), Keith Nelson (banjo),
Harry Pitch and Judd Lander (harmonica) plus vocal backing from Norma
Winstone, Jean Gilbert and Tracy Miller. Wout of course played
Hawaiian, lead and rhythm guitar.
Wout Steenhuis passed away on Tuesday 9th July 1985 but left behind a
legacy of music to enjoy and savour.
En dit is wat op de Tube te zien is................