When did Elvis's orchestra shrink?

When did the Joe Guercio Orchestra shrink to just mainly a horn section?

When it went swimming in cold water?

When they were on the road and not playing Vegas or Tahoe

The orchestra never carried strings on the road... only in Vegas/Tahoe as KiwiAlan mentioned. The only exception to that rule was for the MSG shows and the Aloha from Hawaii special.

Video quality is not good on this clip..

Elvis: Joe Guercio and Hilton Orchestra 1977
1 min - Jul 18, 2007 dailymotion.com
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2klpf ... -1977_news

Didn't they have strings for "On Tour," maybe I only thought I saw strings on the movie.

Video quality is not good on this clip..

Elvis: Joe Guercio and Hilton Orchestra 1977
1 min - Jul 18, 2007 dailymotion.com
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2klpf ... -1977_news

Where did that footage come from? A 1920's camera!?!?!?

When did the Joe Guercio Orchestra shrink to just mainly a horn section?

The March '74 tour is when Elvis began playing tour dates with just a horn section. Prior to this, when on the road the orchestra was a combination of some of the Vegas Joe Guercio Orchestra players supplemented by pick-up musicians. And both strings and horns were used.

The first time I noticed the orchestra being significantly pared back was in '75, when the Trilogy flute solo was played with a horn.

The first time I noticed the orchestra being significantly pared back was in '75, when the Trilogy flute solo was played with a horn.

Jeesh yeah, that sucks!

I thought "What the bloody hell is that??!" when i first heard it on the silver box set.

In '76/'77 Joe Guercio used two keyboards for artificial string sound..
You'll see 'em right behind James Burton (busy tuning his guitar!)

When it went swimming in cold water?

Or when it started taking steroids ?

In '76/'77 Joe Guercio used two keyboards for artificial string sound..
You'll see 'em right behind James Burton (busy tuning his guitar!)

Our buddy Stump is in that photo, sitting at the drums. Notice that Tutt's kit is sitting on the floor at stage left.

Briggs would also have contributed a string effect at this gig.

When it went swimming in cold water?

In '76/'77 Joe Guercio used two keyboards for artificial string sound..
You'll see 'em right behind James Burton (busy tuning his guitar!)

I think I remember hearing an artificial flute sound for some of the later "Trilogies" from a synth.

Didn't the orchestra even have it's own guitar player at one time?

So from 74 or 75 on with the orchestra reduced to mainly just horns, were there still timphony drums, anything else?

When did the Joe Guercio Orchestra shrink to just mainly a horn section?

The March '74 tour is when Elvis began playing tour dates with just a horn section. Prior to this, when on the road the orchestra was a combination of some of the Vegas Joe Guercio Orchestra players supplemented by pick-up musicians. And both strings and horns were used.

Strings were not used on the road from Elvis' first tour in September 1970 onward... save the 2 exceptions I mentioned. I believe I first read about that in Charlie's book.

When did the Joe Guercio Orchestra shrink to just mainly a horn section?

The March '74 tour is when Elvis began playing tour dates with just a horn section. Prior to this, when on the road the orchestra was a combination of some of the Vegas Joe Guercio Orchestra players supplemented by pick-up musicians. And both strings and horns were used.

Strings were not used on the road from Elvis' first tour in September 1970 onward... save the 2 exceptions I mentioned. I believe I first read about that in Charlie's book.

Brad, you are correct. I had the Boston show in mind when I made my erroneous statement based on my memory of the import (which I haven't listened to in years and is packed away somewhere). I received the FTD Boston show yesterday and listened to it this morning. There are no strings. You were right, I was wrong!

You were right, I was wrong!

Words rarely written on this message board.

Steve L.

When did the Joe Guercio Orchestra shrink to just mainly a horn section?

The March '74 tour is when Elvis began playing tour dates with just a horn section. Prior to this, when on the road the orchestra was a combination of some of the Vegas Joe Guercio Orchestra players supplemented by pick-up musicians. And both strings and horns were used.

Strings were not used on the road from Elvis' first tour in September 1970 onward... save the 2 exceptions I mentioned. I believe I first read about that in Charlie's book.

Brad, you are correct. I had the Boston show in mind when I made my erroneous statement based on my memory of the import (which I haven't listened to in years and is packed away somewhere). I received the FTD Boston show yesterday and listened to it this morning. There are no strings. You were right, I was wrong!

Thanks Pete... actually I think I was wrong as well... I don't think strings were used during the Houston, TX shows in March 1970 either...

You were right, I was wrong!

Words rarely written on this message board.

Steve L.

BTW... that's just the kind of stand-up guy Pete is!!!

This is an interesting yet somewhat dated thread...but I just saw it,

So in '77 was it - 7 horns and a percussionist? And Bobby Ogdin took care of the synth, right?

This is an interesting yet somewhat dated thread...but I just saw it,

So in '77 was it - 7 horns and a percussionist? And Bobby Ogdin took care of the synth, right?

Nope, Joe Guercio took care of the string sound with his keyboard, check out the picture..

Didn't the TCB Band you the same device that was later used in "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" ?