https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du2MJRndB4YHowar
Here’s an orginal composition by Howard Heitmeyer. It has a little of the “Godfather Theme” in the melody. Beside HH’s many arrangements, he has done lots of original pieces. Richard Stover will be at this summer’s GFA doing a talk on Heitmeyer’s arranging. Howard will be 95 this coming October. He is still teaching and arranging in North Hollywood.
Here’s another original by Heitmeyer. Strings By Mail sells a lot of HH’s PD arrangements.
Very nice piece and very well done! May we all still be able to teach and write things when we are 95!
I’m convinced, Howard’s music arranging and playing has kept him sharp as a tack. He even plays once a month in some pie shop. Hope he makes it past 100. Fewer and fewer WWII Vets left with us.
It’s even more awesome to know he’s a WWII Vet. I hope he makes it past 100 too and is still playing.
I posted this to the Strings By Mail Stover article. Thought I would share it with all on our forum.
Paul McGuffin……………….
Just as Richard, I met Howard in the mid 1960’s at Jose Oribe’s Inglewood Guitar Studio. At that time, I was a flamenco player. Now, my dear friend Ted Owens (LA Guitarits)calls it “Barnyard Flamenco.” I had one advantage over 99.99% of the other flamenco players of that time. Being a trumpet player, I could read music. Naturally, I had a B-flat ear and still do. My first real gig was 1968, a lounge on Sepulveda, Blvd. in El Segundo, Calif. I was about 28 years old at that time. I soon found out, a little barnyard flamenco goes a long was with an El Segundo audience. I could play a few of my own pop arrangements. Shall I say, basic cowboy chords with a melody line on top. I soon found myself at Howard’s studio seeking out his pop and Latin arrangements. He gave me some of his standards, Shadow Of Your Smile, Theme From A Man And A Woman, A Taste Of Honey. My next trip over, I brought him a piano arrangement of a jazz standard, Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most. He flat sight read it off the piano score. I was floored, to say the least. Since those mid 60’s years, Howard and I have been great friends. I have collected his arrangements for many years. I am now 74, retired from the SP/UP Railroad. I have had the same weekend fine dining restaurant gig now for over 14 years. I play over 35 of Howard’s arrangements. Last I counted, I have performed in over 30 restaurants. Shall I say, I could NEVER have done this without Howard’s help and all his music. He has been a true blessing to me in all my years of playing. About five years ago, the late Bob Torres and I combined all our HH arrangements a gave them (copies) to Larry Kuhns. Larry started a HH restoration program where he puts all the handwritten copies to a computer music writing program. Many more people have also shared their HH arrangements with Larry. Besides Howard’s sight reading ability, it is amazing how he has the ability to write out an arrangement, right on the spot, skewed to a players ability. I’m sure there are hundreds of what we all call “one of a kind” Heitmeyer arrangements floating around out there that no one has ever seen except for the recipient.
Paul McGuffin, Green Valley, Arizona
Heitmeyer is very underrated. Great arranger and his originals are beautiful too. His arrangement of the 2nd movement of the Aranjuez is fun to play!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx7t2UqvN7E
Here’s Los Angeles guitarist and teacher Ted Owens playing HH’s solo arrangement of “Concerto De Aranjuez.” IMO, Ted plays it a little too fast. But, that tends to happen in a live performance.
Wouldn’t consider Howard Heitmeyer as “underrated” by any stretch of the imagination. He is very well known among the higher or older echelon (for a lack of a better term) in the guitar world. It’s just that know one ever takes the time to write much or even interview Howard, much less publish any of his arrangements. Mel Bay had the chance some years ago and passed. The publication are too focused on younger players, skewed to the University types, etc. This is why the masses don’t know of him. The Internet has do more to introduce HH to everyone much more than any publication, GFA people included.
I know! No one, not know one. Just one of the bad features of this forum. You can’t go back in and add to or even correct a typo. I guess the Adm. has his or her reasons.
On Veojam website we have Italian guitarist who seems to be in close relation to Howard Heitmeyer. He even wrote of foundation plan to preserve the music produced and arranged for guitar by Howard Heitmeyer.
This is his last video uploaded with Heitmeyer’s arrangement of “The Shadows of Your Smile” song
https://www.veojam.com/watch/1489375551
You can find more of Heitmeyer’s works posted by same user.
The Italian guitarist, Claudio, is very good. He seems able to learn the arrangements fast. But there is something about his videos that bug me. They’re very “in your face.” He also plays very hard, gripping and plucking both. Maybe if he moved the camera back it would help.
Agree with you. Videos are not that great in both, picture and sound. He called himself “Sunday guitarist”, so probably he doesn’t have enough time to play with it and maybe not enough budget to invest into good recording equipment. But still I like some of his works and I’m glad he joined our website.
Larry Kuhns, in Ohio, has restored over 650 of HH’s handwritten arrangements onto a music writing program. I think it’s called TabEdit. I have many of Howard’s original handwritten ones. I just dug out his them from “Summer Of ’42” (The Summer Knows). Actually, I have two different ones in the key of E-minor. I took the best of both. David Leisner plays this arrangement in his concerts.
On a side note, any of you learning the theme from “The Summer of 42,” (The Summer Knows), make sure you have the latest revision from Larry Kuhns dated Rev.3/21/2012. There have been several revisions sent out by him. Larry has included the alternate intro from the original 1972 arrangement Howard did and a few alternate measures, all on page three. I play the older intro and changes on the that page. Howard always says, if you don’t like his fingering, by all means, do what works for you.
PM
No, they’re not for sale. Stringsbymail.com sellls many of Howard’s PD arrangements.
Richard Stover (Barrios fame) and Howard Heitmeyer at the 2017 GFA Convention
