Nokie Edwards Memorial a Fond Farewell to Ventures Guitar Hero

Published by Stephen K. Peeples
Stephen K. Peeples website
In April 16, 2018

...[ Pastor Andre Veluzat and his son Pastor Paul Veluzat hosted a memorial for Nokie Edwards, legendary lead guitarist with The Ventures, Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and longtime family friend, at the Village Church in Newhall, Santa Clarita, California, on Saturday, April 14, 2018.

Attending were Edwards' devoted wife of 31 years, Judy, and dozens of family members and friends who paid their final respects to a man who has had a huge infruence as a musician on fans worldwide, from his early days with The Ventures until his death on March 12, 2018. ]...

...[ Nokie Edwards and the Melody Ranch Connection

The local Santa Clarita Valley connection is the Veluzat family, owners of the historic and world-famous "Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio" a half-hour north of Hollywood in Newhall. Andre, Renaud and their father Paul bought the studio and its old-West Main Street set from legendary singing cowboy Gene Autry in 1990. ]... 

Read the continuation of the full article on journalist Stephen K. Peeples's page:
http://stephenkpeeples.com/news-and-reviews/nokie-edwards-memorial-a-fond-farewell-to-rock-guitar-hero/#.WtYpStQhJHY

After which Nokie will return to Yuma and be cremated and returned to other locations.

Sharing the full video of "The Ventures' Nokie Edwards Memorial in Village Church, Santa Clarita, Newhall, California, April 14, 2018, saturday.

Uploaded by Stephen Peeples (YouTube channel)
April 15, 2018
The Ventures' Nokie Edwards - Memorial in Santa Clarita, 04-14-18
https://youtu.be/lUoQEm4y5zQ

Video length: 2h11m07s

YouTube (Stephen Peeples)

Message from Judy Edwards

" To Nokie's Family, Fan Family and Friends...

Nokie' passing has been a great loss around the world. He is mourned by us all.

My heart has broken to the point I don't think anything can put it back together again. The doctors and nurses at Yuma Regional Hospital worked very hard to get Nokie back to good health so I could bring him home. The infections and other health issues overtook his body. His immune system was just not strong enough any longer.

I am conforted by knowing Nokie is standing and walking by God's side, he is no longer in pain. Nokie is playing in Heaven's big band now with all his pickin' family and friends (so many to mention) that went before him.

Before his passing, we talked about doing a final tour for him, just one more time. He asked me if I thought he could make it to go out and play, even if it was only one or two songs with his HitchHiker band. He said they could do the rest and he would shake hands and sign autographs for the fan family. Of couse I said... If you are up for it, I will do anything to help.

The day after Nokie's passing early in the morning, I sat straight up in bed, I knew he was there with me. Getting up around 4 AM, my sister getting up shortly after me, I told her I know what I have to do... "A Celebration of Life Memorial Tour"... This is what Nokie wants. A way for the family, fan family and friends to say, "I'll see you later." His music will live on in all of us. His legacy will live on in history forever.

My man was one soft touch on the guitar and a great joke and story teller, plus you can add magician... The Japanese people would say, "Nokie magic!"

Thank you all for the condolence cards, emails, the flowers and all the prayers.

Love to all,

Judy Edwards "

Source: Nokie Edwards Official website - http://www.nokieedwards.com

Thank you Nokie Edwards...

(Published on March 13, 2018)

" Thank you Nokie Edwards for creating a legion of electric guitar enthusiasts with his fingering and his magnificent technique in playing the songs. 

It will be forever in our minds and in our hearts. 

Rest in Peace. "

March 12, 2018

RV

Nole Floyd "Nokie" Edwards, who died Monday (March 12, 2018) at age 82 following an infection he'd been fighting since undergoing hip surgery in December 2017.

Below the message of Don Wilson posted on the M&I Company website:
http://www.mandicompany.co.jp/TheVentures.html

"Nokie Edwards has left us now. I have lost a dear friend and companion.

Never to hear his laughter or conversation again.

His guitar is silenced forever, accept for the great legacy he has left us.

His guitar playing was incomparable.

No one could truly copy his style. It was his and his alone.

I had never heard him say a bad word about anyone.That's the kind of person he was.

The world of music has lost a wonderful person and an outstanding musician.

He has touched so many people's heart with his music and personality.

He was like a brother to me. More after all these many years together, on stage and off.

I will miss you my partner, my pal, and wonderful buddy.

God bless you and may you rest in peace.

I have tears in my eyes as I say goodbye forever.

I love you my dearest friend." 

Don Wilson

 
Nokie Edwards  play "Vincent"

YouTube (Surf on Guitar)

Message of Bob Spalding posted on the Facebook page:

Bob Spalding

March 13, 2018

"Nokie Edwards was a unique individual, He was a gifted musician with a gentle soul, His playing could charm anyone, as it did throughout his life.

I had the good fortune to work with Nokie on many occasions with The Ventures and through other recording projects. We did several winter tours of Japan together, as well as many tours across the US and Canada. It was always a joyful experience to watch fans that adored him as they experienced his unique style of playing in person. To stand on stage with him, and see it all first hand, night after night, was truly an honor. Not to mention a dream come true.

We guitar players wanted to emulate him as much as we could, but in the end we just couldn't. There was and forever will be only one Nokie Edwards. However much we try, and will keep on trying, we will always fall short. I know that Nokie would be proud of us for trying.

Nokie is now playing with his friends Chet and Les in another place. His singular style will live on forever. Not only in the many recordings he made over the years, but in the hearts and memories of every person he touched with his inimitable style and quiet charm.

Nokie, we love you and thank you for your priceless contribution to the world of music and to our lives.

We will miss you always."

Bob Spalding

The Ventures

ooo0O0ooo

Below some articles that have been posted on websites:

The Ventures Official Website
Posted on March 12, 2018

...[ Nokie has been part of the Ventures' history for almost 6 decades and helped to shape the early Ventures' sound and the success of their career. He was an innovator and one of greats on guitar, so much so that he influenced many young players over the course of his career.]...

http://theventures.com/rip-nokie-edwards-may-9-1935-march-12-2018/

Los Angeles Times
By Randy Lewis
Mar 12, 2018 7:15PM

...[ For any kid who picked up an electric guitar in the 1960s, it never took long before they'd take a stab at trying to play "Walk Don't Run", the genre-defining surf-rock hit from 1960 popularized by the Ventures, which used that reverb-soaked recording as a launch pad to become the most successful instrumental group in rock history.]...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-nokie-edwards-ventures-obituary-20180312-story.html

The Washington Post
By Terence McArdie
March 13
...[ "I believe in simplicity", Mr. Edwards once told the San Antonio Express-News. "If you have a melodic line, people will like it. If you can have a hit." ]...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/nokie-edwards-influential-lead-guitarist-of-the-ventures-dies-at-82/2018/03/13/00cd3cae-26c8-11e8-b79d-f3d931db7f68_story.html?utm_term=.bc035d74e351

Billboard
By Lars Brandle
3/13/2018

...[ Born into a musical family on May 9, 1935 in Lahoma, Oklahoma, Edwards was playing stringed instruments at age 5. The band got its start in Tacoma, Washington in 1958 when core members Bob Bogle (initially on lead guitar) and Don Wilson (rhythm) came together with Edwards and drummer Howie Johnson. Early on, Edwards played bass before switching to lead with the new group, which was known as the impacts and then Versatones, before they agreed on the Ventures.]...

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/obituary/8241255/nokie-edwards-lead-guitarist-the-ventures-obit

RollingStone
By Elias Leight
3/13/2018
...[ Edward's guitar work influenced a generation of players, including John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, who inducted the group into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "It is my honor to introduce the Ventures," Fogerty said in 2008, "and every guitar player on this planet knows what I'm talking about." ]...
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/nokie-edwards-the-ventures-lead-guitarist-dead-at-82-w517837

Guitar Player
By Damian Fanelli
Mar 13, 2018
...[ Although surf rock had its moment in the early Sixties (prior to the arrival of the Beatles in the U.S.), the Ventures were able to hang on and adapt to most of rock's frequent mood swings, releasing more than three dozen albums in the Sixties and Seventies. Although Edwards left the band in 1968, he returned in 1973 and stuck around till 1984. Regardless, he often appeared (and toured) with the Ventures for the next three decades; he even toured Japan with the band in 2012. ]...
https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/nokie-edwards-influential-ventures-guitarist-dies-at-82

Premier Guitar Magazine
By Jol Dantzig
March 13, 2018
...[ It was the power and tone of Edwards' guitar, slightly distorced and dripping with lush reverb, that gave the bands its signature sound and driving appeal. ]...
...[ Although musicologists might argue that Edwards' country-fueled and steel-guitar influenced licks owed more to country than pop or rock, there is no deying that Edwards' twangy tone, wang-bar glides, and staccato riffing paved the way for the California surf bands of the 1960s. The Beach Boys often cited the Ventures as an influence. ]...
https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/27116-nokie-edwards-19352018

The Vintage Guitar Magazine
Newswire
By Deke Dickerson
March, 2018
...[ Tracks like "Journey To The Stars", "Diamond Head", "Slaughter On 10th Avenue", "Walk Don't Run'64", "Driving Guitars", "Bumble Bee Twist", "The 2.000 Pound Bee", "Ginza Lights", "House Of Rising Sun", "Caravan" and "Surf Rider" (the latter an Edwards composition that decades later was featured on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack) set the bar hight, and secured Edwards' legacy as one of the greatest expoents of guitar instrumental music. The Ventures' Play Guitar With... series of instructional albums also proved highly influential to thousands of kids in the '60s. ]...
https://www.vintageguitar.com/30188/nokie-edwards-ventures-guitarist-bassist-passes/

The Indian Country Today
By Vincent Schilling
March 14, 2018
...[ Nole Floyd 'Nokie' Edwards, Cherokee, the lead guitarist for over six decades for the iconic and wildly successful instrumental 'surf-style' rock and roll group 'The Ventures', which known for such musical hits... ]...
https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/people/cherokee-rock-roll-hall-famer-ventures-guitarist-nokie-edwards-died-82/

Native American Music Association & Awards
News
March, 2018
...[ Nokie won Best Instrumental Recording at the 12th Annual Native American Music Awards for his solo instrumental effort, Hitchin' A Ride. He was also honored with a Hall of Fame Induction by the Native American Music Association at the 13th Annual Awards ceremony in 2011 and performed. ]...
https://www.nativeamericanmusicawards.com/news

The New York Times
By Richard Sandomir
March 16, 2018
...[ Mr. Edwards's seemingly effortless picking produced a palpitating sound that captured the vibe of the ocean a few years before the Beach Boys began singing about California girls.
The Ventures were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.
"Although musicologists might ague that Edwards's country-fueled and steel-guitar-influenced licks owe more to country than pop or rock," the guitar designer Jol Dantzig wrote in an appreciation of Mr. Edwards on the Premier Guitar website, "there is no denying that Edwards's twangy tone, wang-bar glides and staccato riffing paved the way for the California surf bands of the 1960s." ]...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/obituaries/nokie-edwards-whose-guitar-drove-the-ventures-is-dead-at-82.html

G1 - Globo.com (Brazil)
Por France Presse
13/03/2018 - 19h26
[ Banda instrumental faz parte do Hall da Fama do Rock e foi uma das mais influentes da música pop pré-Beatles. ]...
https://g1.globo.com/pop-arte/noticia/nokie-edwards-guitarrista-da-banda-de-surf-rock-the-ventures-morre-aos-82-anos.ghtml

Nokie Edwards play "It Doesn't Matter Anymore"

Nokie Edwards & Gary Crook - "Quando, Quando, Quando"

"Victoria Station" - Nokie Edwards & The WI band 

Nokie Edwards play "Bulldog" - The Ventures (1965)

Nokie Edwards Style - The Ventures "Bulldog" (2003) (Hitchhiker Guitar)

Nokie Edwards & VenturesMania! "Surf Rider" (Redondo Beach Pier - Aug. 11, 2012)

billboard: Remembering Nokie Edwards 10 Essential Songs from The Ventures

Sharing an article posted on the billboard website in memory of Great Nokie Edwards:

3/14/2018 by Ron Hart - 7:06PM

[ Even if you can't claim yourself to be a fan on a proper level, chances are you dig surf rock, the instrumental strain of Southern California music culture that pioneered the use of the various effects provided to them by their Fender guitars and amplifiers while taking cues from Buck Owens, Chet Atkins and Ravi Shankar to create the soundtrack for surf and skate culture on the lower West Coast. And while there was a literal barrel full of surf bands to emerge from the scene in the early early 1960s, only one group stood like giants amongst the rest: The Ventures. ]...

...[ But Nokie, one of the great Native American rock icons, never let the soul of the band get swept away in a sea of cheese. Instead The Ventures surfed its waves straight into the hearts of guitar scholars across the generations. Surf music continues to maintain a presence in the periphery of the American consciousness through reruns of the '66 Batman series, its heavy use in Pulp Fiction and -- perhaps most prominently -- the incidental music featured on SpongeBob SquarePants. But it was the uncompromising inventiveness by which Nokie Edwards employed that still makes surf music such an inspirational touchstone for each new generation of rock bands, the latest of which includes such exciting young acts as La Luz, Dead Coast and The Buttertones barrel riding through the guitarist's legacy of innovation and daring. ]...

...[ "The 2000 Pound Bee Parts 1 & 2"

Though they made music that repped SoCal surf culture, The Ventures originated in Tacoma, Washington, the same town that gave us The Sonics. But before their hometown homeboys would revolutionize guitar rock in 1965 with Here Come The Sonics, Nokie took the FUZZ PEDAL (click for details) for a test run in 1962 with this aptly named instrumental. If you are looking for the true ground zero for grunge, don't look beyond the "Bee." ]...

YouTube (BananasPhoster)

Continue reading the full article on the billboard website: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8247406/nokie-edwards-10-essential-songs-the-ventures

Walk Don't Run Medley - Cover of each instrument

In THE VENTURES group are four musicians, being three guitarists: Rhythm, Bass and Lead Guitarist and Drums. Where each instrument in the band has the fundamental role in the execution of the song.
Watch the guitars and drum cover videos with the "Walk Don't Run Medley" (Walk Don't Run - Perfidia - Lullaby Of The Leaves - Walk Don't Run).

RHYTHM GUITAR - The Ventures cover

(YouTube: Yu Ishikawa)

BASS GUITAR - The Ventures cover

(YouTube: The HolidayVentures)

LEAD GUITAR - The Ventures cover

(YouTube: suaragitar)

DRUMS - The Ventures cover

(YouTube: Yu Ishikawa)

MUSICAL SCORE - MIDI

(Play only in YouTube channel)

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44jIrmfx6D8

(YouTube sakata-ssw)

Bob Bogle was born on this date

Robert Lenard Bogle (Bob Bogle) born near Wagoner, Oklahoma in January 16, 1934. Died June 14, 2009 (aged 75) in Vancouver, Washington.

Bogle was the first lead guitarist of the group. Playing a Fender Jazzmaster and virtuously using the vibrato arm.

By Matt Schudel - Washington Post Staff Writer (Wednesday, June 17, 2009):

...[Bob Bogle , 75, whose driving, twanging electric guitar made the group he co-founded, THE VENTURES, the most successful instrumental band in rock-and-roll history, and whose recordings of "Walk, Don't Run" and "Hawaii Five-O" propelled the group to the top of the charts in the 1960s, ...]

...[Mr. Bogle was working as a bricklayer and had, by his own admission, little experience in music when he played lead guitar on The Ventures' first big hit, "Walk, Don't Run", in 1960. The record sold more than 2 millions copies, rose to No. 2 on the pop charts (behind Elvis Presley's "It's Now or Never") and secured The Ventures' place in music history.]...

...[At the height of The Beatles' international fame in the mid-1960s, The Ventures outsold the Beatles in Japan and remained huge stars abroad for decades. They sold more than 100 million records worldwide.]...

* Continue reading this article on the Washington Post website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/AR2009061603246.html

BOGLE'S LEGACY WAS HIS MUSIC

By Tom Vogt, Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter:

...[Wilson said he's run into succeeding generations of rock'n'rollers who credit The Ventures with getting then started.

"Tom Hamilton, the bass player with Aerosmith, told me our 'Play Guitar With The Ventures' album is how he learned to play. Joe Perry, their lead guitarist, said, 'I won a Grammy, and if it wasn't for The Ventures, it might never have happened.'"]...

* Full article on The Columbian website: http://www.columbian.com/news/2009/jun/20/bogles-legacy-was-his-music/

Walk, Don't Run - The Ventures

Bob Bogle (lead guitar), Don Wilson (rhythm guitar), Nokie Edwards (bass guitar) and Howie Johnson (drums)

The Ventures - Bob Bogle Medley (1993)

Bob Medley: Perfidia / Bumble Bee / Besame Mucho / Rap City / The Letter / Comin' Home Baby / Journey To The Stars / Walk Don't Run
Gerry play: Yozora No Hoshi / My Bonnie Lies

Source: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bogle