|
| |
The London Sirens Sound - Django
Flees for France
 It was while the
Quintet was
playing in London that Britain declared war on Germany. Django left everything
in his hotel room to get back to his family in France while Stephane decided to
remain in England throughout the war (His way of resigning the QHCF). They would not record together again for
another 7 years. Each had a distinctive career and each made wonderful music
when separated, but they never reached the same amazing popularity that they had
when they played together. Grappelli made some fantastic sides with various
British jazzmen including guitarists Noel 'Chappie' D'Amato also credited as
a
reeds man/vocalist, and Jack Llewellyn, pianist George Shearing and singer
Beryl
Davis among others. occupied France was a dangerous place for Gypsies -there has
been a question about whether or not Django was a Nazi collaborator. Simply put, he
had to play his guitar and perform his music to stay alive, as did other
artists like Edith Piaf and Maurice Chevalier. If Django hadn't played his
guitar, he would have been just another Gypsy to be rounded up and sent to
Auschwitz. the 1940 recording of "'Nuages' struck a chord throughout France.
This soft, bittersweet tune was easy to whistle, speaking to Parisians in these
gray days of ration cards, curfews, and blackouts. The melody was laconic, at
once sad and mournful, yet also evoking a dreamy nostalgia for the way things
were, a mnemonic password inspiring a remembrance of things past as real as
Proust's Madeleine
Sunday Sept 3rd 1939 - At 11:15 AM The
Prime Minister interrupted the regular radio broadcasts to announce that Britain
and Germany were at war. At 11:27 AM London's air raid sirens began to wail. It
was only a test, but unlike the many tests that had been conducted before, this
one struck home - the country really was at war. Sandbags were hastily filled to
protect important buildings, gas masks became required equipment for civilians,
the nightly blackout became a way of life and children were herded aboard
evacuation trains to escape the danger of the city.
Similarly the French issued
an ultimatum, which was presented in Berlin at 1230, saying France would be at
war unless a 17.00 deadline for the troops' withdrawal was adhered to.
But then of course that was the first day of the phoney war and nothing happened
for a year as far as blitzes were concerned.
Hatchett's Restaurant -
Piccadilly 1703~1978
The Swingette
The site of
the White Horse Cellars, once the starting-point of the mail-coaches to the West
of England, is now occupied by Hatchett's Restaurant.
The White Horse Inn which stood on the site of the present Nos. 170–171
Piccadilly had no connection with coaching inns or offices known as the Old White
Horse Cellar, the New White Horse Cellar, Hatchett's, or the
Gloucester Coffee
House, all of which were in that part of Piccadilly
Hatchett's Restaurant, formerly
called the New White Horse Cellar. After the resuscitation of stage-coaching in
1886, Hatchett's was a favourite starting-place, but is now little patronized.
The New White Horse Cellar was named after the White Horse Cellar (No. 55) on
the south side, so called from the crest of the House of Hanover, which existed
in 1720, and was widely renowned as a coaching centre.
Abraham Hatchett first made
the Cellar famous, both as a boozing den and a coach-office, and removed it to
the opposite side of the street "Hatchett's Hotel and White Horse Cellar"
The Swingtette was the resident band at the highly
popular Hatchett's Restaurant in Piccadilly, which was second only
The
Cafe de Paris as a venue for dining and dancing. The Swingtette selections are
pleasant enough but lack the drive and swing of the ones featuring smaller
groups. This is polite society music and comes complete with novelty
arrangements and, at times, an almost cloying sweetness in the style of
phrasing. Grappelli manages to overcome this background and plays throughout
with Gallic charm and enthusiasm. The other members of the orchestra provide
adequate solos when required and Beryl Davis is a pleasant vocalist in a manner
characteristic of this era. The Novachord, played by Arthur Young, is obviously
a forbear of today's electronic keyboards and is quite entertaining in small
doses! Young was undoubtedly one of the finest jazz pianists in the country at
that time
Hatchett’s Swingtette 1939 – 1941
In the autumn of 1939, Scottish jazz pianist Arthur
Young formed a band to play at Hatchett’s Restaurant in London’s West End.
Its members were Jack Llewellyn and
Noel “Chappie” d’Amato (guitars),
Bill Shakespear (trumpet), Dennis Moonan (clarinet, tenor saxophone and viola),
Frank Baron (second pianist), George Senior (string bass),
Tony Spurgin (drums),
Beryl Davis (vocals) and a violinist.
The Quintette du Hot Club de France, which had
brought together the geniuses of Reinhardt and Grappelli, had been on tour in
England at the time. With war imminent, Reinhardt had fled
to France and was followed by all other members of the band except Grappelli.
As the unoccupied Grappelli was strolling down Bond Street, Young
approached him and invited him to join his band. Hatchett’s Swingtette had now
acquired a brilliant jazz violinist.
The group’s musical style was what
Max Jones has
described as “polite swing for dancing”. Notwithstanding the
presence of Grappelli, Hatchett’s Swingtette had to take account of their
audience and avoided “hot” jazz, which would have been unwelcome at the time in
the West End.
The Swingtette soon secured a recording contract
with Decca and cut four numbers, including Scatter Brain,
Ting-a-Ling and Alexander’s Ragtime Band, in December 1939.
In September 1940 Arthur Young was injured in an air raid
and did not return to Hatchett’s. There is disagreement as to whether Grappelli
or Dennis Moonan took over leadership of The Swingtette. In
any case, a new pianist was needed to replace Young.
Grappelli had heard the young George Shearing play and considered him a genius.
Shearing was invited to join The Swingtette and brought a new dimension
to the group’s music.
George Shearing - My first ever professional job was in a pub
the Mason's Arms in Lambeth
169 Battersea Park Road, opposite Battersea
Park Station.
I got 25 bob a week, and had a box on top of the piano for any extra gratuities.
From there I went to work with a friend of the family who was a semi-pro
bandleader. I was playing accordion with his band and, after a time he got to
realise and accept that I could memorise most of the stock arrangements. And in
a lot of cases, instead of employing, say, three saxophones and one trumpet, he
would employ the saxophones and use me on accordion. Or employ me as an extra
man, so that I would share the lead with the trumpet. Then, when he had
augmented bands at Masonic dinners and such I'd play accordion
features like "Light Cavalry" and the "Zampa Overture." After that I joined
Claude Bampton's All-Blind Band, which was sponsored by the
National Institution For The Blind, as it was then called. I'd been gradually
getting to know more about jazz and now in this band we were playing
arrangements such as Jimmy Lunceford's "Stratosphere' and Ellington's "Caravan".
Also Raymond Scott's "Toy Trumpet" I think. The way it worked: there were a
couple of really go-ahead guys in the band, who would take these scores off
records or have them dictated to them. In fact, your Leslie Evans
was one of the guys who used to dictate the orchestrations to the blind people.
Arthur Young was a REALLY gifted
player, but poorly represented as a soloist. There's a solo Regal Zonophone
disc of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes backed with
The Continental,
to conjure with. But much of his recorded solo output is actually DUO, with the
equally poorly-represented, Reginald Foresythe, whose solo Columbia shellac
of St. Louis Blues / Because It's You just
makes you hungry for more.
Arthur Young Piano, Scotland 31/12/04 to 15/07/65
Residencies
Hatchett's Swingtette, dir Arthur Young Oct '39-Sep '40
Reginald Foresythe & his New Music Sep '40
George Shearing & his Trio Nov '40
Hatchett's Swingtette, dir Dennis Moonan Nov '40- 1942
Hatchett's Swingette;
Stéphane Grappelli; violin,
Jack Llewellyn; Arthur Young (Piano); Noel "Chappie" d'Amato - guitars; Stan Andrews; Dennis Moonan
clar -sax
and Frank Baro
Alan Clare was also a late addition as Pianist -
Joe Deniz and
Ike Isaacs
also filled in on Guitar.
Jack Llewellyn played with Hatchett’s Swingtette until being called up in
1941.
Twenty-two of the Swingtette’s recordings (including the tracks named above)
were re-issued in 1992 by Pavilion Records Limited on the CD Hatchett’s
Swingtette, and all but five of these were cut during Jack’s period with the
group.
Financial success
Hatchett’s was a fashionable venue in the pre-war period,
attracting a well-heeled clientèle. Jack
Llewellyn seems to have been well rewarded financially as a result of his
professional success. There
is reason to believe that he had bought his own house by 1939, when he was only
25.
Hi, from Miami, Florida.
I just found your website as I was looking up information about Hatchetts. I
worked at Hatchetts from 1969 to 1975 and its
owner at that time, the late John J. Marks was a very close
friend. I know that site at 67a Piccadilly has gone through
many changes since John sold Hatchetts in the late 1970’s or
his lease ran out and the site came up for redevelopment so the name
Hatchetts died with his departure. The history of the place going all
the way back to 1703 when it was Hatchetts Hotel
is familiar to me along with its White Horse Cellars and
Dickens’ Pickwick Papers connection.
When John Marks acquired the property in late 1966 I
believe it was still the old Hatchetts, very much run down and in a bad state of
disrepair. John brought in architect Lucas Mellinger (now
deceased) turned it into a nightclub and restaurant and it reopened in
1968 still known as Hatchetts. There is a lot of
history even connected to that era. You might be interested to know that we had
Stephane Grappelli make an appearance there in 1973
some 30 years after he had last played there. He remembered the old place well.
Unfortunately there are no photographs in existence, architectural or
otherwise, of what the place looked like immediately before or after its
1960’s transformation. There was a Hammer Films movie
made in 1968 with Vincent Price and Peter Cushing
called “Scream and Scream Again” (not a very memorable film but
you can still order it on DVD) with sequences shot in Hatchett's
Playground with its underlit glass dance floor and silver walls
(originally the White Horse Cellars).
I would be interested to hear more about Hatchetts during WW2 and see any
photos of that period. I have copied John J. Marks’ son on this email
Best regards,
Clive Evenden
|
PAUL
VERNON CHESTER
