1992 - From Liverpool to Samois: Into the wide world of Gypsy/Jazz

Although 1991 was a landmark year in terms of discovering Django Reinhardt, and moving away from playing rock guitar; it was really 1992 in which my life began broaden out in a big way; as it absorbed the impact of that discovery. I carried on buying as my Django records as I could find, and also the first records of Bireli Lagrene.
This would be the year in which I met new people on a 'new' music scene, both locally, nationally, and internationally. My travels would take me from Mansfield, to Nottingham, to Liverpool, London, France and Holland.

As the year began, most of my time was spent learning and practising this 'new' gypsy/jazz music. John Buzza and I had got a small set of tunes together, and began to think about where we could perform this music in public; and indeed whether there would be any interest in a town like Mansfield. I also began to think about expanding to a full band, and the obvious thing to do was to try to find a violin player who might be interested in taking the role of Stephane Grappelli, so to speak.
I spoke to another busker who I knew, and he told me that he knew of a violinist who lived in his local village of Blidworth, who played Irish Folk music on a regular buskers 'jam' night which took place on Tuesday nights at the Market Inn, in Mansfield. John Buzza and I decided we would go down and see if we could play a few tunes.
The Market Inn was not really a pub that I knew well, as it was not part the local rock scene; so I wasn't sure what to expect. Upon entry we were met with a very full and loud room. There was a band called 'Landlord's Shout' playing an energetic, full-on brand of Irish Folk music, not dissimilar to The Pogues in its raucous, drunken vibe.
I had no idea how our music would be received in this atmosphere of drinking music, but the response was tremendously accepting and appreciative. After a few drinks, I positioned myself to speak to the violin player in the band, whose name was Pete Warwick, and mentioned that I was looking for a violinist to form a Hot Club style band. He was already aware of Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. It turns out that his partner's father was a big fan, and he had even been to see Grappelli play live in concert.
Pete and Jo, and indeed all the people we met that night, were very friendly to us, and we became regulars on Tuesday nights at the Market. I gave some tapes of Django and Stephane to Pete, and a meet up was arranged for us to have a jam at their house in Blidworth. The jam went very well, and it turned out that although Pete's primary love was folk music; he was quite an experienced musician in other styles too, and had even played guitar in an experimental modern jazz group for a short while; along with someone who went on to be the bass player in Swing '91.
In the meantime to all this, I found out at that the Django guitarist from Liverpool; Gary Potter; who'd featured in the previously mentioned 'Django Legacy' documentary; was playing a gig in Nottingham. John and I went to the gig, which proved to a night of amazing music on the level of a virtuoso from Gary Potter. Gary was a very friendly character, and it also turned out the rhythm guitarist was Ian Cruickshank, who was one of people involved in making the 'Django Legacy' documentary. Ian was very appreciative of our enthusiasm for the gig, and for the music of Gypsy/Jazz in general; and we ventured to other Gary Potter gigs, as well as to see Ian's own band. Not only did he send me some tapes of some of lesser known Django Reinhardt music, but he was very supportive of the efforts I was making to play Gypsy/Jazz, and I went to one of his guitar workshops.
When we were chatting over a pint after the gig, I expressed an interest in going to the annual Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival at Samois-sur-Seine in France. Gary and Ian told me that they were playing on the bill that year, and there was a coach trip being organised which was leaving from the Atlantic Inn at Liverpool. This was the pub which Gary was featured playing at in the 'Django Legacy; documentary; and Ian gave me the phone number of the guy who was organising the trip.
To cut a long story slightly shorter; at the end of June that year, John and I, along with my friend Martin Brown, went to the Atlantic Inn at Liverpool, and after the pub closed, we boarded to coach to go to the Samois festival, for what would be the first of several times over the next few years. During the course of all this, I made some good friends from Liverpool, and it would be the first of many visits over the next 10 years; the first of which would be new years eve of this year, playing on stage at the Atlantic Inn, and staying over for a few days with Steve and Joan Cronin for the first on many times to come.

Playing at the Atlantic Inn, Liverpool, New Year's Eve 1992.

My first Samois festival was an incredible experience. We arrived at our hotel in Fontainebleau exhausted from the overnight coach trip and tumbled into bed for a few hours before walking along the Seine into the picturesque village. As we entered the village, we could hear the strains of music and in the lamplit dusk we could see in the distance, a band playing on a bandstand opposite a cafe on the banks of the Seine. This turned out to be Babik Reinhardt playing outside his father's old haunt, which was a bar called Chez Fernand, where Django would hang out and compose ideas for some of his latter music on the piano in the bar.  It was the first of many listening pleasures over our long weekend in Samois, which would usually start with a morning jam on the lawn of the hotel. This was where my first jam with Gary Potter took place, and many other aspiring jazz guitarists from Liverpool and other places.

Jamming with Gary Potter and various friends at the Fimotel, Fontainebleu in June 1992.

Aside from the action on the main stage, there was lots of jam sessions happening all over the village in the various bars, camp sites, and the festival site itself, where one of the prominent French luthiers had a tent set up to display and sell his guitars. I still had my Yamaha APX guitar at this stage, but this was where I first encountered the legendary 'Maccaferri' style guitars as played by Django himself, which almost everyone seemed to be using. These loud, and piercing acoustic guitars of a particular design was integral to the Django Reinhardt sound, and I knew that at some point soon I would have to get one these specialist type of guitars.
But for now I was making the most of what I'd got, jamming with as many people as I could, and learning and picking up what I could from watching others play. The Dupont guitar tent was the place where many fantastic jams took place between visiting musicians in the higher echelons of the gypsy/jazz scene. I was particularly blown away by the young Jimmy Rosenberg who featured in the 'Django Legacy' documentary at just 10 years of age. Jimmy had now just turned 12, and was already forging a reputation as one of the dominant players of the genre. I was fortunate to witness several of his jams with the likes of Gary Potter and Romane. Jimmy himself seemed particularly in awe of Gary Potter's playing; which incorporated many of influences outside of the gypsy/jazz genre; most notably; country guitar.

I met another young guitarist called Mike Jones, who was another player who'd been influenced by the 'Django Legacy' documentary. I went to stay with him on the outskirts of London later that year, and I found myself back at the 100 Club, where 4 years earlier I gone to see Huw Lloyd-Langton play, along with my friend Jim Ward. This time I was watching Gary Potter, and Ian Cruickshank, with a guest appearance from the notable British guitarist Jeff Green, who at one time had toured with Stephane Grappelli.
The trip to Samois led to another foray into the wider world of gypsy/jazz later that summer. Once again, John Buzza and myself, along with the Liverpool lads, including Gary Potter; along with Mike Jones and my friend Martin Brown; went to another annual Django festival; this time in Rijswiik, in Holland. By now, Jimmy Rosenberg was playing on the main stage with his own band the Gypsy Kids, and I saw the now 26 year old Bireli Lagrene perform live for the first time, with an astounding solo jazz guitar set. Once again there was plenty of jamming involved, almost from the moment that we set foot on the ferry, in what became an all night long jam session with various people dropping in and out, including Gary Potter who was once again on the bill at the festival.

Jamming on the ferry to Holland with Mike Jones and other friends, in September 1992.

Meeting Jimmy Rosenberg at Rijswiik, Holland, in September 1992.

Meanwhile back in the UK, 'Swing 91' was still in the process of augmenting to a full quartet. Things had been going well with Pete Warwick on violin, and that summer, Jon Buzza and I, along with my old friend and bass player Jim Ward; went to Pete and Jo's annual field party in Blidworth. I had ideas of bringing Jim along with us into the position of bass player for Swing 91, but it didn't really gel. However, we had a jam with the previously mentioned bass player friend of Pete's, and immediately there was a chemistry. Jim Ward knew that I would've liked to have had him in the band, as we had always had strong musical bond since the days of 'Stoney Road' 7 years earlier. But on witnessing this jam; Jim piped up and said; 'That's your bass player right there!' He was of course talking about John Coulson; and this jam would lead to a musical partnership and friendship that would last for over 26 years. Swing 91 had indeed found its bass player, and quickly developed into  a fully-fledged quartet.
The jam at Pete and Jo's party led to practice sessions, which in turn led to live performances as the Market Inn. The next obvious step was to record a demo tape; which we did once again at the Bandwagon studios.

We soon bagged our first residency at a new pub in Mansfield called the 'Early Doors', and we did our first gig in Nottingham at the 'Britannia', which attracted attention from Django fans and musicians on the Nottingham jazz scene. Word began to spread, and before long people from Nottingham were coming to Mansfield to see us at the Market Inn. These included musicians I would regularly work with in the future, such as Barry Taylor and Matt Palmer.
Barry Taylor was immensely helpful to me in obtaining my first Maccaferri style guitar. He brought one of his guitars to the Market for me to try out.
He eventually sold this guitar to John Buzza, and also he brought another Maccaferri type guitar from Foulds music shop in Derby, and simply presented it to me, saying that I could pay him back for it as and when I pleased, in as small or large amounts as suited me. Thanks to his immense generosity, by the end of 1992 I had my first Maccaferri guitar; and Swing '91 was now a quartet. I could not have been more pleased with how things were going, and in the following year we would make much bigger inroads into the Nottingham jazz scene.