Profile: Harold B. Rhodes has enjoyed one of the most storied careers in 20th century music. He is acclaimed not just as an inventor of instruments, but as a music educator and an elder statesman of the music industry. Mr. Michael Green, past president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, describes Rhodes as a "Modern Leonardo Da Vinci".

Born in 1910, Rhodes attended Los Angeles Polytechnic High, majoring in architecture. But his real love was music, which he learned standing over the shoulder of greats like Art Tatum and Fats Waller. In the 30's, he began teaching piano, and his reputation as a teacher grew rapidly. He taught stars like Lana Turner and Harpo Marx, opened a chain of teaching studios in major U.S. cities, coast to coast, and had his own radio program, becoming known as "The Piano Teacher of the Air."

During World War II (after the battle of the Bulge), the Air Surgeon General asked Rhodes, by now America's most popular piano teacher, to devise a musical therapy program for convalescing GI's. At a loss to know where to get enough pianos, Rhodes hit upon the brilliant idea of using Air-Force surplus parts from U.S. bombers to make miniature "lap-top" piano kits the troops could build for themselves.

The program, "Make and Play", was the most successful music program the U.S. Government has ever implemented in music. Rhodes (in business suit, in picture) taught over 250,000 GI's during the war, and was commended with a special citation from the Secretary of War. His original manual is still on display in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., entitled "Sit Down and Play"

After the war, Rhodes resumed teaching and continued to experiment with instrument design. In the 50's, he was awarded the first of many patents for his "asymmetric tuning fork."

Leo Fender heard about Rhodes and his theories, and the two men entered into a joint venture. The first instrument built was a "piano bass," a 32 note electric instrument.

In 1965, CBS bought out Leo Fender. Rhodes was finally able to introduce the first Fender Rhodes electric piano, the Suitcase 73. This was the start of the musician's love affair with the Rhodes magic.

It is very rare for a musical instrument to redefine the way music is created, but at is precisely what the Rhodes Electric Piano has done. Julian Colbeck, writing the authoritative Keyfax Omnibus, said that more than any other instrument designer, "Rhodes invented a sound, indeed a mood. Now that's fame"

Before the Rhodes, pianists had to be content remaining in the background of jazz and rock ensembles. They simply could not compete with the volume put out by a screaming rhythm section of drums, bass, horns, and electric guitars. Rhodes's elegant solution was to not only amplify the piano, but to completely revolutionize the piano action itself. The result was a totally unique instrument, which, as Ray Charles testified, had the effect of "an atom bomb on the musical landscape. Everything was changed forever."

Perhaps the first great musician to recognize the instrument's potential was the legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. It was Davis, always searching for hip new sounds, who insisted his keyboardists play the Rhodes instead of the traditional piano. In doing so, the coolest man in jazz made the Rhodes the coolest keyboard instrument in the world.

By 1967, the new sound was lighting up the airwaves. Joseph Zawinul's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" became a huge instrumental hit, and soon legendary jazz musicians like Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock were using the electric keyboard to bring the piano into the foreground of their arrangements. The whole world heard the Rhodes on records like The Beatles's "Let It Be," Marvin Gaye's "Heard It Through the Grapevine," Stevie Wonder's "You Are The Sunshine of My Life," and Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are."

Soon, legions of jazz, rock, and pop musicians were hurrying to get the Rhodes sound into their own music. Practically every hit record of the 70's featured a Rhodes piano. The Rhodes piano was endorsed by almost every significant keyboardist, and became the biggest selling professional electric piano of all time.

Show less