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Jack Duarte - John Wilson Duarte - 1919 to 2004
 Guitarist, Composer & Author
John William Duarte (born 2 October 1919 in Sheffield; died 23 December
2004) was a British composer, guitarist and writer.
Quite
commonly referred to as 'Jack', started his musical life as a jazz guitarist in
the early 50's. Many of his compositions are indeed full of jazz chords.
John Duarte is
definitely one of the great UK pioneers. His deep love for the guitar comes out
in his diverse catalogue. He rates right up there, and probably will be
rediscovered again and again. His
music is tailor made for the fingerboard of the guitar.
Compositions;
Canzona from
Suite Piemontese op.46
Ritual Dance and
Spring Dance from Tout En Ronde op.57
 Jack Duarte's
only Teacher Terry Usher (left) and
Roy Plummer in the 50's -
mystery 3rd Guitarist - Curly Clayton or Jack?
Duarte's music hasn't yet caught on with guitarists.
Duarte is not an unknown figure, he's quite well known from his
friendship with Segovia, his Bach interpretations and other arrangements,
articles and many other guitar related aspects.
He is rather "formula-driven" in his writing. He'll frequently have a
three-movement work, with a fast opener, a slow evocative piece in a different
key in 2nd place, and end it all with a rousing 6/8 or 9/8 third movement. The
pattern worked for English Suite Op. 31, and was reused in Sonatinette Op. 35,
Sonatina Lirica O;. 48, Tout en Ronde Op. 57, English Suite #2, and several
others.
There's
a more overtly jazz feel to his works, as previously mentioned, he's a master at
modulation, where he can slip in a key change halfway through a passage and lead
one, sometimes unnoticeably, into new territory; and one can vouch from his
'Greek' works that he has a "cross-cultural" ear perhaps as good as any guitar
composer. In his own words (from the CD's liner notes), Duarte was content
to having never given much thought to what posterity might think of him:
"I will not be here to know it. My aim is to write primarily for the living
and hopefully to give pleasure".
Hi - The person in
the photo with Max's father, Roy, is Terry Usher, my father's
only guitar teacher (6 lessons). Kickstarter fund raisers hope to record
all my father's music for voice & guitar. With best wishes
-- Chris Duarte
Readers may be interested in financing
the project
Kickstart Duarte Music Project
 In
the
50s; Jack Duarte, as a British jazz guitarist, designed the
Aristone Guitars for Besson that were made by
Framus.
Besson guitars were produced in the 1950s. They were badged as Besson
Aristone. These guitars were imported and
often rebranded.
Aristone guitars were a
product of the London-based Besson & Co., Ltd. However, many of them were made
in Bavaria, Germany, by the Framus company. The Aristone guitar was sponsored by
John Duarte, alias Jack Duarte, a classic and jazz guitarist. This instrument
was probably made in the 60's,
Just acquired a fifties jazz guitar, looks a lot like a Hofner. Bloke I
bought it from said he got it second hand in 1961, inside is label saying it was
designed by Jack Duarte the jazz guitarist. Its just called "The Aristone"
on the headstock. I'm
happy to have found out that one of my guitars was designed and signed by him. I
had no idea when I bought it a few months ago. It's an Archtop guitar.
- Mark F
Plectrum or Thumb?
Jack Duarte
cleverly observed that the thumb
technique meant some sacrifice of speed “but it was
considered worth the sacrifice in view of the gain in expressive capacity.”
Despite this, many recordings clearly evidence that Wes Montgomery
had developed incomparable speed and
technical agility with the thumb.
Jack Duarte wrote about Wes’ thumb technique
shortly after the guitarist had performed at Ronnie Scott’s Club
in England. Through Duarte’s keen observations and analyses, we can better
understand how Wes employed this unique and singular technique. The famous
right- hand thumb is fairly long (it is just as ‘curly’ as Segovia’s) the tip
joint is comparatively long and the root of the thumb is farther than average
from the hand. Throughout single note passages and in much of his octave and
chord work, the fingers are spread (virtually flat) over the scratch plate
resting lightly on the edge of the plate on the guitar beyond. They are not
riveted in position but they move in a limited way. Single notes receive
only downward strokes of the thumb, though chords and octaves are played in both
directions- but only when velocity demands it......The action of striking is a
curiously mixed one. It bears a superficial resemblance to the classic
guitarists’ apoyando, the supported stroke, in which the thumb is pushed through
so it comes to rest against the next string. The thumb operates with the tip
joint in a plane almost parallel to that of the strings, so it is the fleshly
side that meets the string rather than the nail.....
BMG Article by
Jack Duarte on Wes Montgomery
Ivor Mairants, who also witnessed
a live performance of Wes Montgomery at Ronnie Scott’s club, corroborates this
description of his right-hand technique. Access to a tape recording of a
Wes Montgomery half- hour performance on a British television program (“Jazz
625”), enables one to observe first hand how effortlessly Wes played, using for
the most part, only downstrokes of the thumb. The predominant use of
downstrokes necessitated large amounts of slurring in both single notes and
octaves in order to compensate for the bypassed upstroke. This increased
slurring is especially noticeable in fast tempos where downstrokes alone cannot
account for the myriad of notes being played. Wes used this slurring issuing
from the downstroke technique, as a principal enhancer to jazz phrasing.
Although he employs a great deal of slurring, both in single notes and octaves,
I must reiterate this does not give the slightest schmaltzy effect because the
finger slur is used only as an essential to jazz phrasing and for no other
effect. It sounds more like a legato phrase produced on the saxophone as
compared to a group of tongued notes.
In October 2001, a performance by David Norton in Los Angeles (for the American
Guitar Society) of post-WWII British guitar music, went with a heavy emphasis on
Duarte's music. The concert was scheduled in May, and about 3 weeks before the
show, JWD himself had been told of the event and would be in attendance. The
show really went well. He was quite complimentary to the artist, recognising
that he was an enthusiastic player and not a true concert artist. They met for
breakfast the next day, and he autographed one of the recital program books,
"To David Norton, with my thanks and gratitude, John W. Duarte, 26 Oct '01".
“On October 26, David Norton
presented a delightful program of music by 20th century British composers, the
best-known of whom, John Duarte, was in the audience. From the performer’s point
of view, it can be a little harrowing to have the composer present, but Dave
performed with confidence and authority, and Mr. Duarte seemed to be pleased.
Also in the audience was luthier Greg Brandt, who constructed Dave’s guitar.
This was an evening of music by and for guitarists, works which do not often
appear in the standard repertoire.”
John W Duarte: Four Preludes, Opp. 13, 3, 4, & 29
John Duarte: Variations on “Las Folias”, Op. 10
John Duarte: Variations on “3 Blind Mice”, Op. 24
He
was pretty critical of many performances of his compositions. One time he almost
attacked a player who he said had " botched " his music. He cared so much about
his pieces he probably over reacted.
- but
then. Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms were all "exceedingly unpleasant men"
John
Duarte talks of Ida Presti
I first met him in 1974, auditioning a master class he gave on Long Island, NY,
part of a guitar event organized by the late Kent Sidon. We got into a sharp
exchange about something I already forgot what it was, and found him a
formidable opponent. He must have had the same impression of me, as we became
friends quickly. That same evening we sat together in Carlos Barbosa-Lima's
concert at Hofstra University, one of the most memorable guitar concert I have
ever heard, and the following evening - Andrés Segovia's concert at Weill's.
Over the years, we had a most unique love-hate relationship and not a small
number of altercations over the pages of Guitar
International magazine,
and later Classical
Guitar.
But we always kissed and made up. There was no way to get mad at him....
When the Internet came about, Jack steadfastly refused to join any discussion
group and mailing list, preferring to maintain his own private mailing list,
dedicated to the dissemination of his collection of jokes. Some of it, the
x-rated particularly, were simply hilarious. I kept them all! I last saw
Jack at the 2000 Kutna Hora competition where he was the president of the Jury,
and I, one of the rank and file jurors. Being one of the few English speakers in
the group, we spent a lot of time together talking. That is: he talking and I
trying to get a word in edgewise once in a while. His style of conversation was
unique. It was an on going historical manifesto, each word of mine bringing on a
long stream of associations of people and events of the past, each sentence
beginning with a date line: Back in 1974 Segovia said to me....
So at the end of the week, as he was getting into the taxi taking him to
Prague's airport (the rest of us were going to the next event in Mikulov), as we
gave each other a good hug saying good by, I said to him:
__Jack, you are a royal pain in the ass, but I love you nonetheless.
Without missing a beat, he came back at me saying:
__Back in 1968....
After
his death in 2004, David Norton commissioned Angelo Gilardino
to write a memorial piece to Duarte. The result was "A Quiet Song", which is a
sort of neo-baroque fugue on the English song "Barbara Allen", drawing its
inspiration on JWD's great love of folk songs. It is published by Berben, and
has been performed a number of times.
A Quiet Song", to the memory of John W. Duarte
"It was two weeks ago today that the sad news arrived that the famous
British musician John Duarte had passed away. For some months previously,
I had been toying with the idea of commissioning Angelo Gilardino with writing a
new solo classical guitar piece for me. The news from London of Duarte's death
spurred me to take action on this idea, especially considering that Angelo and
Jack had been friends, and also that Angelo had published a number of Duarte's
pieces with Berben Publications of Italy. In the remarkably short time
span of 11 days, Maestro Gilardino has delivered a wonderful new work. Because
it is important to Angelo and to myself that Jack Duarte's memory be
commemorated.
 In
2001
Dorothy Duarte and guitarist Brendan McCormack approached e-tv productions and
asked if it would be possible to give John (‘Jack’ to his friends) the
opportunity to tell his story to camera. Paul Balmer was delighted to offer his
services as cameraman and director and Judy Caine dealt with the myriad of
details. The author Graham Wade interviewed Jack about his life and music
- interspersed with his own unique brand of humour, wit and British
eccentricity.
Joplinesque - Shades Of Green - Varieties Of
Scotch (John W Duarte)
Alexandre Lagoya said: `For one guitar you can write what the guitar will allow
you to write. For two guitars you can write what you choose.` While there is a
measure of overstatement in this, it remains true that the medium of two guitars
allows much greater creative freedom to the composer. There are many kinds of
guitar-duo works- at one extreme the very simple, at the other the call for two
virtuosi; those in this book inhabit the middle of this spectrum. They are not
in effect accompanied guitar solos but equal duets in which two players of
moderate technical ability converse with one another, sharing the lead. This
they do without sacrificing musical interest. Two of the pieces consist ov
variations on folk tunes - `Shades of Green` uses the Irish tune
`The Next
Market Day,` while `Varieties of Scotch` is based on the well known Scottish
tune `Ye Banks and Braes.` The remaining duet is an affectionate nod in the
ragtime direction of Scott Joplin. The two sets of variations are suitable for
concert use, and `Joplinesque` is a natural encore piece.
One of the things I most appreciated about
John
W Duarte, and that I later put to practical use, was his extremely precise and
beautiful handwriting and copying skills in preparing his arrangements. My work
over the years preparing parts for Hollywood feature films were greatly
influenced by my time under his watchful eye.
Gregg Nestor
Guitarist
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PAUL
VERNON CHESTER
