|
| |
Ade (Adrian) Holland - Jazz Guitarist and Luthier 1943 -
.jpg) 
Above is a Picture of Ade Holland a fine exponent of Manouche Swing
taken in the early 1960,s (only a short period after Django's death) in Corby
with his original
1930's Maccaferri's - not one but two - Petite and Grande Bouche. Life was far from simple
then.
Ade now lives in Reading and is available for teaching both Jazz Guitar and Manouche
Swing Techniques - he now wishes he had kept both Macca's instead of almost
giving them away.
I bought the Oval Hole #281 from Selmers
in Charing Cross Rd. on 7th Aug 1963 for
£126. and sold it for £325 on 2nd August
1971 to a guitarist called Stan Adleman, tho' he
was known as Stan Gordon....(I still have the receipts). Years later I did
several gigs with tenor saxist Clem Adleman and didn't twig until a few years
ago that they were brothers! I've lost touch with both of them now and
there doesn't seem to be any sign on the internet although I remember Clem once
telling me that his brother still had the Mac and he thought that it had had a
new fingerboard. - Ade
 Ade Holland born
in Llanberis, North Wales at the foot of Snowdon
were the railway starts, attended Dolbadarn school in the
village then, Bryn'refail Grammar School in Llanrug
before going into music exile in Corby
Northants. A fluent Welsh Speaker now a
Reading based exponent of Manouche Swing.
Above is an picture
taken in the early 1960's (only a short period after
Django's death) while living in Corby with his original 1930's Maccaferri's.-
DSCF0195.
The
oval hole guitar is a converted Eddie Freeman Special
tenor guitar which Ade
used as his working guitar and his
Maccaferri
D hole, model #281 dated 13/03/1934.
Life was far for simple then.- but
did nearly matched the eerie image echoing through time with this artistic
advert of Django in a similar pose
 .
Early Associations
Ade's first guitar with endorsed bridge logo 'AH' was made mainly from tea chest
plywood by his father
who was himself a well respected pianist and
musician. Ade's Early influences were Bert Weedon, Les Bennetts, and Hank
Marvin, ....Hank still has a wonderful touch
and feel to his playing
- Dig that 14" TV!
His father is seen here holding an example of
a Plastic Mac Guitar - Mario Maccaferris venture into injection moulding and
plastic guitars
 George
Parry also from Snowdonia, North Wales.....he's now
an excellent Luthier, of Gypsy Guitars! He first started reproducing them
in the 60's after taking copies, measurements and photos of both Ade's original
Selmer Maccaferri and his converted
Eddie Freeman Special (shown in the b&w
left) this shot is the earliest of George perhaps contemplating making one.
The two main four string models offered then by Selmer
included a regular tenor guitar, with a 23 inch scale
length, tuned CGDA, and the
Eddie Freeman Special, with a larger body and a longer scale length, using a
re-entrant CGDA tuning. The Eddie Freeman Special had been designed by English
tenor banjoist Eddie Freeman to have a
better sonority for rhythm guitar work than the normal tenor guitar with
its very high A string. However, it was still
tuned CGDA so that it could still be played by tenor banjoists. The Eddie
Freeman Special was based on the six string model and it had a larger six string
body and a six string scale length of 25.25 inches, rather than the tenor's
smaller body and normal 23 inch scale length. The CGDA tuning used was
re-entrant with the C and D tuned in the same octave and the G and the A tuned
in the same octave, lowering the overall tone. The tuning and scale length give
this very unusual four string guitar a sonority that is very close to that of
the six string guitar, compared to a regular tenor guitar.
 Unfortunately, this guitar was not
commercially successful in the 1930s due to concerted resistance by the British
six string guitar fraternity, particularly Ivor
Mairants. Many were subsequently converted to much more valuable six string
models because of the Django Reinhardt connection. Originals of
the Eddie Freeman Special are now very rare and are consequently highly
valuable.
The
In the colour shot are George sitting Centre (Ade knew him then
in the 60's as Cec.) and showing off 2 of his guitars.
The one he's playing is left handed! and Ade sitting Right had the Eddie
Freeman Mac - sitting Left was George's brother Eric.
Ades Parisienne Anecdote
 In 1990 I went with my son Nathan to the Django Reinhardt
Festival in Samois-Sur-Sene near Fontainebleau about 40 miles south of Paris. I read
that Django’s guitar was in the Paris Conservatoire, so a train to Paris was on
the agenda. We bought our tickets which covered the Metro as well, on
entering the centre of Paris we thought it would be a good idea to get a taxi to
the Conservatoire. The cab driver said which Conservatoire? There are 16
conservatoires in Paris!! After choosing one only to find they had never
heard of Django let alone his guitar!! We called into a small hotel to ask for
advice; the receptionist phoned every conservatoire in Paris for us only to find
that his guitar had recently been taken away by Django’s son Babik! That
receptionist was wonderful, she didn’t charge us a penny (or a franc) for all
she did, a fine example, and to anyone who don’t like the French……she was great.
After a day roaming round the music shops we decided to make our way back, and
at the last metro station that took us to the overland train station, the
machine swallowed our tickets! Thinking no more of it we jumped on the
train which started to pull away, after a short while I spotted an armed guard
at the far end of the carriage checking the tickets! Ironically my son
gave me the same
 advice as Ian did years before in Maidenhead…….pretend that you
are asleep!!! I looked behind and there was another guard checking tickets
starting from the other end! We were doomed! The Bastille
beckoned or worse still the Guillotine!! We happened to be sitting right in
the middle of the carriage and as the two of them met we were the last to be
checked, fate took a hand as the family opposite us didn’t have any tickets
either! So they carted them out of the carriage and didn’t come back, goodness
knows what happened to them, but on our part it was totally un-intentional, the
tickets we bought which included the metro stops did not include a return fair.
Perhaps Django was smiling down on us that day after all
 The now Mature Craftsmen pose as both players
and Luthiers displaying the Macca copies (1 Left Handed).
Recently, modern
Maccaferri-style Luthiers, such as the late David Hodson
in the UK and Shelley Park in Canada, as well
as others, have started building the four string model again due
to demand from their customers. Many have now been made and they
are becoming more widely played. They are considered to have a
beautiful sound and offer a very broad range of tuning
possibilities including CGDA, GDAE, DGBE, CGBD, DGBD and ADGB.
As the six string
guitar eventually became more popular in bands in the
1930s and 1940s, tenor guitars became much less played,
although some tenor guitar models had been made in very large
numbers throughout this period and are now still common. Tenor
guitars came to prominence again in the 1950s and 1960s,
possibly due to the effects of the Dixieland Jazz
revival and the folk music boom. At this time, they were made by
makers such as Epiphone, Gibson, Guild and Gretsch
as archtop acoustics and/or electrics, as well as a range of
flat top models by Martin.
 Martin
Taylor, Ade Holland, & Tom Anderson
Wallingford’s Corn Exchange was packed with an enthusiastic audience for a
jazz and blues night starring internationally acclaimed guitarist Martin Taylor.
The first half of the show featured local group The Fat Chance, whose
style and infectious enthusiasm had the audience shouting for more. Their 45
minutes just flew. The Fat Chance comprises Adrian Holland (guitar),
Saffron Young (double bass), Geoff Hawkins (saxes) and Tom Anderson (guitar)
In the second half, Taylor displayed his incredible skills, including the “three
guitarists in one” technique which became a favourite with audiences worldwide.
Martin’s has been to many exotic places where he has amazed jazz lovers —
and that now includes Wallingford. The Corn Exchange, with its excellent sound
qualities and intimate atmosphere was the perfect venue for this musical
evening, Jim Cane -
Feb 1995
Martin Taylor with FAT
CHANCE in support
Fat Chance
'variation' Geoff Hawkins - reeds and Flute, young Phil Berry on Contrabass, Tom
Anderson - vocals & Rhythm Guitar,
Ade Holland Seated with Maccaferri
Review by
Chris Harris
After all these years one doesn’t expect originality of small jazz
combos. Yet Adrian Holland’s Fat Chance seemed to me to
achieve it. Bass, two guitars, and more often than not the soaring of a soprano
saxophone on top. The result was an extraordinary combination standard
‘mainstream’ infrastructure with a vibrant, highly modern solo voice. I found
this irresistible. The band certainly sent plenty of excitement across
footlights. Maybe ‘Ornithology’ didn’t quite suit the line up,
failing to soar and tending to chug, though it sounded fine when it became
‘How High the Moon’ and the traded fours at the end were great.
Otherwise, a simply inspiring set - great variety of tunes including a
Brazillian thing towards the end, for which Mr Hawkins
got his flute out), Saphon Young’s unfailingly swinging bass
playing, contrasted the equally inventive guitar playing by Adrian
and Tom Anderson. Which leaves Geoff Hawkins.
Versatile or what? Vibrato-drenched tenor playing on balIads like
‘September in the Rain’ one minute, then dazzling hard-toned
wall-of-sound soprano the next. Wonderful stuff.
Having toured
America with Grappelli, starred in Nashville and so on, Martin
Taylor doesn’t need some Wallingford hack to rave about him. He’s
the ultimate virtuoso of course, and yes, it was understandable (and really
rather thrilling!) when he showed off the ‘bass, rhythm, tune,
improvisation. all at once’ trick on ‘I got Rhythm'. He
told us that his early influences were pianists including Fats
WaIler, though the one I thought of instantly he began his first
selection was Bill Evans. The same quiet bits, the same
intense exploration of the tunes possibilities. (This may be partly because
I thought he opened with ‘Here’s That Rainy Day’).
Technique is fine. But Martin Taylor gave us much more. One never lost the
sense of a man in love with his instrument, feeling privileged and happy to
playing it - whether re-inventing Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Somewhere’,
enhancing ‘Taking a Chance on Love’ with a subtle new
arrangement, or swinging like Brian Lara’s bat on ‘Cherokee’.
Perhaps this rhythmic gift what struck me most. Although playing solo he
almost seemed to have the drive and shifting accents of a great jazz drummer
behind him. Maybe playing jazz, with its technical demands allied to
limitless chances for self-expression delivers the ultimate creative
buzz? We could ask Martin Taylor ……….
Tom Anderson, the joint solo voice in Fat Chance,
was born in Edinburgh. He started playing the guitar at the
age of 9, influenced by Hank Marvin, and acquired the blues from listening
to masters like John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. Tom went on to play the
blues rock scene around the Scottish Capital and the West Coast, and moved
to Southern England in 1985. Having joined various rep. and
production theatre companies he has been much in demand on the English
Theatre circuit. Tom, a guest artist at the ‘92 Edinburgh Five Band
Blues Festival, is a brilliant musician with roots firmly planted in blues
and soul, present influences include Robben Ford and Albert Lee.
Ade & Diz Disley Encounters
 When
I lived in Corby, I remember Diz Disley was booked to play at the Nag's Head
in the old village, having played there myself on a few occasions, I asked
him if I could sit in. Diz , at the time was doing his solo folk club
thing but called me on during the second set. It must have gone ok as
he invited me to his next gig in Market Harboro', I turned up feeling quite
nervous, however I felt a lot worse after the interval when he announced me
as "boy wonder" ! after the first number I got up to go and he told me
in no uncertain terms to "sit down" so I ended up doing all the second set
with him, he then invited me to do a concert with him on the following
Saturday in Leicester. At the time I was a member of quite
a successful local band called "The Midnighters" run by two brothers, Pat
and John Casey, and I had a gig with them on the same night so I had to
decline his offer, Diz was not the type to accept such a futile excuse so I
remember him saying to me "this is not a pub gig dear boy, it's a Concert in
a Theatre, it's your big chance" ! Sadly it was a chance I missed, as
much as I wanted to do it I felt I had to honour the first gig with the
boys. When he was in the area Diz called on me a few times after that,
he had a big influence on my playing and certainly kept you on your toes,
- playing with Diz was a great experience. - Ade Holland
Below Ade
playing his Petite Bouche Maccaferri and his 1963
Gibson awaits his caress
 
 Django's
Modele Jazz #503
Ade's Parisienne
Anecdote................
In 1990 I went with my son Nathan to the
Django Reinhardt Festival in Samois-Sur-Seine near
Fontainebleau about 40 miles south of Paris. I read that Django’s
guitar was in the Paris Conservatoire, so a train to Paris was on the
agenda. We bought our tickets which covered the metro as well, on entering
the centre of Paris we thought it would be a good idea to get a taxi to the
Conservatoire. The cab driver said which Conservatoire?
There are 16 conservatoires in Paris!! After choosing one only to find
they had never heard of Django let alone his guitar!! We called into a small
hotel to ask for advice; the receptionist phoned every conservatoire in Paris
for us only to find that his guitar had recently been taken away by Django’s son
Babik! That receptionist was wonderful, she didn’t charge
us a penny (or a franc) for all she did, a fine example, and to anyone who don’t
like the French - she was great. After a day roaming round the music shops
we decided to make our way back, and at the last metro station that took us to
the overland train station, the machine swallowed our tickets! Thinking no
more of it we jumped on the train which started to pull away, after a short
while I spotted an armed guard at the far end of the carriage
checking the tickets! Ironically my son gave me the same advice as
Ian did years before in Maidenhead - pretend that you
are asleep! I looked behind and there was another guard checking tickets
starting from the other end! We were doomed! - the Bastille
beckoned - or worse still the Guillotine! We happened to
be sitting right in the middle of the carriage and as the two of them met we
were the last to be checked - fate took a hand as the family opposite us
didn’t have any tickets either! They carted them out of the carriage and didn’t
come back, goodness knows what happened to them, but on our part it was totally
un-intentional, the tickets we bought which included the metro stops did not
include a return fare. Perhaps Django was smiling down on us
that day after all.
YouTube
- Shadow of Your Smile - Ade Doodlin'
Ade now lives in
Reading and is available for teaching both Jazz Guitar and Manouche Swing
Techniques - his swing music skills may also be experienced at various gigs in
the Thames Valley and Chilterns zone -
Email Ade Holland
)0118
9507610 mobile 07711 030 391
|
