I have to admit that up until ten years ago, I had no idea that (a) Hank Marvin was still active (b) he has been based in Perth for more than three decades now, and (c) he had – mostly – moved on from rock’n’roll to gypsy swing, which basically qualifies him as a prominent member of the Australian Jazz community.
As someone who’s spent at least a decade of my life being obsessed with Django Reinhardt and the jazz manouche idiom he single-handedly created in the ’30s, and which is still growing and thriving to this day, I should have known that. After all, Hank Marvin is the original ‘guitar hero’ — before Clapton was ‘God’, Marvin separated the waters from the waters, defining the sound of rock guitar (at least in the UK) and influenced pretty much everyone who came after him. This guy now playing gypsy swing? This is huge!
I have been looking for an opportunity to see him perform since. That opportunity came last night, when Hank Marvin and his quartet (featuring Nunzio Mondia on accordion, Gary Taylor on rhythm guitar, and Pete Jeavons on bass) played at the iconic MEMO Music Hall in St Kilda.
“You are very brave to come here tonight,” Marvin quipped, welcoming the audience to a performance infused with light hearted banter, explaining they were part of a “social experiment.”
“Don’t worry, the doors will be unlocked — eventually,” he added, before leading the band to perform a jovial rendition of ‘Honeysuckle Rose’. I don’t know why he felt the need to explain that their approach to gypsy swing and jazz was in a “more structured way”, attributing this to their classical, folk, and pop background. Was it false modesty?
Could it be that a guitar master with the chops and experience of Hank Marvin suffers from some sort of imposter syndrome, when it comes to jazz?
To me it didn’t make any sense — particularly given the energy, candor, enthusiasm and great sense of humor applied to his take on the material, including Duke Ellington anthems ‘Caravan’ and ‘It don’t mean a thing (if it ain’t got the swing)’, Django anthems ‘Swing Guitars’, ‘Manoir de mes reves’, ‘Si tu savais’, and ‘Belleville’, and tunes by the likes of George Gershwin and Irving Berlin.
An early highlight was a gypsy swing version of ‘Nivram’ (an anagram of Marvin), a tune from the Shadows debut album, featuring a labyrinth of twists and turns in Nunzio Mondia’s solo, and an equally impassioned bass solo by Pete Jeavons.
My personal favourite was ‘Foolin’ with the Feds‘, the title track of his latest album, a loose and playful take on the Shadows’ seminal hit ‘F.B.I.’ allowing Marvin to revisit his musical journey, and showcase the full range of his guitar skillset, acquired through decades of dedication, devotion, and love.
It’s very obvious that he loves what he does, what he’s been doing for a lifetime, and this love spreads through his fingers, his guitar’s body, the PA system and wraps the listener in a heartwarming embrace.
This was deeply felt when he played Dorado Schmidt’s ‘Bossa Dorado’, one of the most beautiful contemporary jazz manouche tunes; what started as a dramatic performance of a very romantic, mid-tempo composition, ended up with Marvin playfully making a series of references, from ‘Paint it Black’ to ‘Apache’ to ‘Hey Jude’ — and maybe I missed a couple or more.
Even from his early rock’n’roll days, Hank Marvin has always been a very elegant, debonair player — more Chet Atkins than Link Wray, so to speak — and remains suave to this day. It’s this element that made his take on rock’n’roll accessible and irresistible in the ’60s, and it is the same that makes his take on gypsy jazz accessible and irresistible today.
There’s a famous portrait of Django Reinhardt by Jean Cocteau, a combination of drawing and words titled ‘Django, fils de l’ air’ (son of the air); I was reminded of that last night, listening to Hank Marvin’s airy, breezy playing, supported by Gary Taylor’s robust rhythm guitar stylings — after all, what is gypsy swing, without the density of a rhythm guitar, replacing the drums?
At 83, Hank Marvin sounds youthful as ever. Is it ageist to say this? Should it come as a surprise, for an artist of his calibre? After all, he’s been doing this — at this level of excellence — for so long, it’s not what he does any more, it’s who he is. His nervous system is probably made out of guitar strings.
The night ended on a high note, with a fiery performance of Chick Corea’s ‘Spain’ (including the now mandatory intro of Joaquin Rodrigo’s ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’); after that, Hank Marvin informed the audience that “the doors are now unlocked” — although few people left. Most queued patiently for an hour, waiting to meet the man, shake his hand, take a photo with him, and thank him for the music.
SEE HANK MARVIN GYPSY JAZZ THIS AFTERNOON AT MEMO MUSIC HALL
