New from Hank

[JimN]

Some of us have been listening to Django for over fifty years...

[MeBHank]

Not everybody's cup of tea, because it's a sound and style not usually associated with Hank, but I quite like it. Because I have been listening also to blues music during the last 20 years or so, I have come to appreciate extensive improvisation on guitars and gypsy jazz music is well-suited for that.

Gypsy jazz is a difficult style to master. Not only is the picking technique unique but you also need a high level of musical knowledge and the ability to think quickly. The danger, as with other styles of guitar music, is that it can become purely a technical exercise. It can blind you with so many notes that it doesn't mean anything melodically.

That's why, as I mature as a player and my ear matures as a listener, I have come to appreciate Hank even more than I did when I was a teenager (if that's possible!). Hank admits himself that he's not the fastest player; he's extremely humble when talking about his own ability. But given the option of listening to the current leading gypsy players or to Hank Marvin and his group, for me, it's Hank every day of the week. He makes it mean something. He takes you on a melodic journey. I listen to 'Django's Castle' and I can't help but smile and laugh my way through the entire album. I've never come across another player who can grip you with melody like Hank can.

You mention blues. Some blues players can express set melodies well but when they break into improvisation they lose you. Gary Moore was like that for me. He tore out your soul with the core piece and helped you soar as a listener. When he improvised, however, he blitzed you with passages which included too many frantic notes. He punctuated those passages with long, bent, notes which, to me, just seemed to give respite from all the musical scribbling.

One player I appreciate is David Gilmour: he slowly, measuredly. passionately takes you on a journey and makes every passage count. I rate him so very highly because he makes so much happen in what is a very freeform style. His melodic exploration is pure and honest. He builds and releases tension wonderfully. He knows when to play and when not to play. The beauty of Gilmour's melodic style, too, from a guitarist's point of view means that you can use his ideas but at the same time make a piece very much your own - more than you can with a Shadows-style arrangement.

But not one guitarist can do what Hank does, IMO. Forget the 'Godfather of Delay' moniker. He is the all-time Master of Melody. I said for years I'd love to hear Hank show us what he's capable of outside of the confines of set melodies. And then we got 'Django's Castle'. Goodness me, the man is a genius. The album was and is a delight. I absolutely cannot wait for 'Foolin' with the Feds'!

[winkrich]

Well said MeBHank! I couldn't agree more. Thanks for the insightful comment.

[Fenderman]

Not really my cup of tea i'm afraid. I'd buy a new electric album though or maybe a Guitar Player 2 would be good but i can't see him making any new pop albums.

[iefje]

Not really my cup of tea i'm afraid. I'd buy a new electric album though or maybe a Guitar Player 2 would be good but i can't see him making any new pop albums.

Well, it's always possible of course. I thought Hank would not record music anymore after the Cliff Richard & The Shadows reunion tour of 2009/2010 or even after his own final tour of 2002, but he did.

[shadowriter]

Not really my cup of tea i'm afraid. I'd buy a new electric album though or maybe a Guitar Player 2 would be good but i can't see him making any new pop albums.

We can live in hope

[iefje]

Is there any news about the new album?

[Didier]

For Hank, it wouldn't be a diffucult task to make a new "electric" album, the only difficulty is to find tunes good enough for that. But does Hank still have enough motivation for that ? I doubt it...

Didier

[iefje]

For Hank, it wouldn't be a diffucult task to make a new "electric" album, the only difficulty is to find tunes good enough for that. But does Hank still have enough motivation for that ? I doubt it...

Didier

As Brian Bennett said twenty years ago during the final tour interview "There's nothing to prove", so Hank doesn't really have to do it, but only if he wants to and I would surely buy it.

[abstamaria]

Observing my friends, including a cousin who has played jazz guitar in the US since the 70s, I have concluded that musicians are often drawn to music that the general listening public will not understand or appreciate. That is especially true, I feel, for genres like gypsy jazz and free-form jazz. They are an acquired taste for most and will appeal always only to a limited audience. That may hold even for the members here.

The style of the 19-year-old Hank, the music made available then for to the Shads to play, and That Sound all combined with the times to create those hits, in my view. A young Hank, as proficient as he is now, playing gypsy jazz then or even in his later post-1963 style, might not have made the charts. Indispensable as he was, it was not just Hank, but the combination – the unique, accidental formula set against the music that teenagers listened to in those early years – that was critical for their band’s success.

A new album by Hank, even on an electric, might not appeal to the general public. Popular music has evolved much since the 60s and has musicians as Zia, James Blunt, and many others, so different, edgier, perhaps more sophisticated than the sweet, simple late 1950s teen love songs that was the canvas for Apache and the Shadows hits. The sound of the Shadows was starling then, but perhaps not so now.

Members here might not buy Hank’s gypsy jazz albums simply because Hank plays or is very good there (which he is). What drew them before was Hank with the Shadows, and gypsy jazz is an entirely new, unfamiliar genre. If true, that must be saddening for Hank. A musician and an artist, I can understand fully Hank’s desire not to be tied down and to explore.

I hope Hank or Bruce never reads this. My thoughts only, born out of ignorance mostly. My apologies to Hank fans, of which I am one.

Andy