PAUL
VERNON CHESTER
Manouche Maestro
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Manouche Maestro |
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Jack Llewellyn Jr 1914-88
"To Harry" was an agent known in those days as a "fixer" or a "booker". Jack
Llewellyn Jr was an eminent
British guitarist from the mid-1930s to the late 1960s. He
was a child prodigy as a musician and by the age of 20 had established himself
as a band musician in the North of England. Moving to London
in 1935, he pursued a career with an emphasis on jazz and contributed to the
genre on a wide front, performing, recording and broadcasting with many of the
bands of the day as well as making solo radio broadcasts. A
disciple of Django Reinhardt he played with Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli in
the celebrated Quintette du Hot Club de Paris when it reformed in England in
1946.
Jack Llewellyn - played with Norrie Paramor's band At the age of 19 or 20 Jack was clearly already operating at the higher levels of the British music scene. Looking back on the experience a few years later in an article in BMG, Jack says that he was faced for the first time with demands such as reading off second violin parts and improvising without music. These were challenging tasks for a musician at an early stage of his career, but Jack confirms that it proved valuable experience for the future. The move to London in 1935 Aged 21 Jack moved to London. Between 1937 and May 1939 he was almost certainly living at 21 Mowbray Road in the London borough of Brent. Later in 1939 he moved to 44 Waverley Avenue in nearby Wembley, where he remained (apart from the war years) until 1971. Gordon Wells still has a leather address-fob of Jack’s bearing that address. The young Gordon Wells worked for Dick Knight, the founder of Knight Guitars, and married Dick’s daughter, Beryl. Gordon and Beryl came to know Jack as a result of Jack bringing his instruments to Knight Guitars for repair, and the fob had fallen off the case of one of Jack’s guitars while it was with Knight’s. Musical writings Around this time Jack was also a regular contributor to BMG. Articles discovered to date suggest that he was writing every, or almost every, month from autumn 1937 to early 1939. It is possible that he contributed at other times too. Jack also wrote for Frets. The earlier articles deal primarily with musical theory. The later ones focus on technique; Jack explained in the June 1938 edition of BMG that this was in response to the large number of letters he had received from guitarists on that subject. In 1938 Modern Plectrum Guitar Playing by Dick Sadleir was published at a price of five shillings. The book is described on the front cover as “A unique rapid system embodying the essentials of harmony, development of the left hand, dance band chord styles, extemporisation of ‘hot’ solos and modern vocal accompaniments together with original solos by famous radio guitarists”. One of those solos was Random Thoughts, a slow fox-trot composed by Jack. With Hatchett’s Swingtette 1939 – 1941 In the autumn of 1939, pianist Arthur Young formed a band to play at Hatchett’s Restaurant in London’s West End. Its members were Jack and Noel “Chappie” d’Amato (guitars), Bill Shakespeare (trumpet), Dennis Moonan (clarinet, tenor saxophone and viola), Frank Baron (second pianist), George Senior (string bass), Tony Spurgin (drums), Beryl Davies (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 Young was injured in an air raid and did not return to Hatchett’s. There is disagreement as to whether Grappelli or 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 being a pianist himself he considered him a genius. Shearing was invited to join the Swingtette and brought a new dimension to the group’s music. Jack played with Hatchett’s Swingtette until being called up in 1941. As a member of Stéphane Grappelli and his Quartet, he recorded Dinah and Body and Soul in 1941. The other members of the Quartet were George Gibbs (base), Dave Fullerton (drums) and George Shearing (piano). The Classic Session Man The post-war period confirmed Jack’s career-path as a session musician. He had the ideal attributes for session work. Firstly, he was an outstanding technician. Judd Procter told Gordon Wells of an occasion when Jack stood behind him during a session telling him how to pick a notoriously difficult guitar part in order to phrase it correctly and make it flow properly. Gordon himself described Jack as “like God” and “an absolutely amazing player”. Secondly he was a first-rate sight-reader, able to read any music that was put in front of him and, as a result, picking up “the best guitar gigs in the country”. He had been taught the banjo by his father as a small child and was probably reading music from an early age. Thirdly he was reliable. Fourthly he was suited by disposition to session work. He had a shyness bordering on introversion and probably would not have enjoyed the exposure associated with forming his own band or being a long-term member of a high-profile band. Jack was highly sought-after as a session man, moving from one session to the next. If he was typical of the busy session musician he would sometimes have done more than one session on the same day, perhaps attending at least one studio session during the day and at least one live performance or broadcast in the evening: Big Jim Sullivan another prolific session guitarist, averaged three sessions per day. When Ike Isaacs first came to the UK in November 1946 Jack had so much work that, after hearing Isaacs play, he gave Isaacs his regular spot at Hatchett’s Restaurant to get him started. Sullivan recalls the older group of guitarists on the session scene from 1958 onwards as Eric Ford, Brian Dayley, Ernie Sheer, Judd Proctor, Jack Llewelyn (sic), Ike Isaacs (sic), Roland Shaw and Dave Goldberg, amongst others. He mentions that they all had “exotic guitars” such as Gibson L5s and Epiphone Emperors.
Jack and Charlie 1936 Jack 1937/8 Le Quintete - Django and Grappelli
Reinhardt and Grappelli in 1946 When Reinhardt was reunited with Grappelli in London after the war, promoter Charles Delauney saw an opportunity to revive the music of le Quintette and arranged for Reinhardt and Grappelli to attend EMI’s Abbey Road studios to make further recordings for le Quintette. The session took place on 31st January and 1st February 1946. The other members of the original Quintette were unable to obtain visas, and the recordings were made with Jack Llewellyn and Allan Hodgkiss [Hodgkins] - (rhythm guitars) and Coleridge Goode on bass. Le Quintette had been a long-established ensemble with a distinctive style, and yet these recordings were made with only two of its original members. Hugh Palmer observes, “It says much for the London-based musicians present on this session … that they were able to blend in so well.” At least two photographs of these sessions were taken, and they appear in The Guitar Style of Django Reinhardt & the Gypsies by Ian Cruickshank. In both of them Jack is obscured by Grappelli. The publicity-shy Jack no doubt felt that Grappelli was doing him a favour. Eight tracks, including a new recording of Reinhardt’s composition Nuages were recorded. These are celebrated recordings that feature time and again in jazz compilations. They are significant in the sense that they represent almost the last recordings made by le Quintette in “the great tradition”: the following year saw Reinhardt favouring the use of the electric guitar. The reformed Quintette continued intermittently to play and record together until 1948. It has been said that their performances were often quite brilliant but their popularity was gone. Jack and Goode may have left before 1948, as further guitarists and a further bassist have been named as members of the Quintette in the 1946 - 48 period. When Reinhardt died prematurely in 1953, BMG carried an obituary that included tributes from “well known guitarists” including Jack. In his tribute Jack describes himself as a great admirer and friend of Reinhardt and comments “He will always be remembered for his contribution to single-string playing as we know it today”. A few years later, Jack was to be involved with the introduction of a German guitar into the British market. The Hofner Committee, which was the top-of-the-range guitar supplied by Höfner for distribution in the UK, was designed in consultation with a committee of the top six British guitarists of the time, one of whom was Jack. These guitarists also helped with the introduction of The Committee into the 1950s music scene. The Committee was in continuous production from 1954 to about 1969. Mairants offers a rather curious alternative version of events. Approached to lend his name to the new Hofner guitar, he declined because it sounded very thin and stringy compared with his Epiphone Emperor. “I could not very well sell my big sound for a mess of potage by advertising Höfner” he writes, “so it was called The Committee.”
Jack (Centre) - Ike Isaacs and Bert Weedon talk Guitars. (Note Jack's DeArmond added Pick-up) Jack’s musical style Mairants describes him as a “brilliant soloist”. Gordon Wells remembers Jack as a chord melody player who sometimes used unusual harmonies. Every note of every chord was played with crystal clarity and, as Gordon puts it, he could “sometimes put a chord in that would make the hairs stand on the back of your neck”. His harmonic sense was unique in Gordon’s view. Jack had a picking style with which he could execute string-skipping figures to produce a chordal effect that fascinated Gordon, who says that Jack played in such a strong and positive manner that the sound of his fingers on the guitar neck was similar to the sound produced by a saxophone as the pads go down.
Jack in Egypt 1940's after Call-up - with Selmer Maccaferri any one recognise the fellow Guitarist on the Left of Jack with the Scratch plate Sunburst. Jack McKechnie was tall and of that age and worked with the Headly Ward Trio? The Curse of the MacCrimmons - In his fifties Jack suffered a problem with his left hand that involved a tendon and impaired the movement of his little finger. Although there was talk of the hand having been injured in an accident, Beryl Wells is sure that the problem developed gradually. In view of the gradual onset, Jack’s age, his sex and his mother’s presumed Scottish roots, it was almost certainly Dupuytren’s contracture, one of the commonest afflictions and non-traumatic surgical conditions to be treated in musicians. Jack underwent an operation on his hand, but it made playing very awkward, and it took him 18 months to regain full use. The point at which the contracture started to interfere with Jack’s playing has not been established, nor has the point at which he was affected by the 18-month recovery period. It is difficult, therefore, to know the extent to which Dupuytren’s contracture contributed to Jack’s financial decline.
JazzEddie is also a suffer of
Dupuytren's Contracture and each finger of the affected hands from the smallest
or sometimes the ring finger is drawn down one by one till the afflicted hand is
all but a dead bird claw. Surgery is invasive and leaves a deal of scar tissue
and seldom successful and can recur - the French Health Authority uses needle
puncture entries and pares at the tendons more successfully. Said to have
been spread genetically by the Vikings throughout Europe and may be a 'Rowing
Hands' repetitive strain disease. Scottish bagpipe-playing MacCrimmon clan were
noticed as sufferers and the furious fingering of the 'chanter' may have induced
the condition earlier in life.
Jack in later years playing a Gibson L7 fitted with a Charlie Christian Pickup Audio Samples of Jack's Skills believed to be studies forming the basis of his mail-order lessons Jack died on 9th October 1988. His death certificate records him as a retired musician of 13 Crowbridge Park, Cullompton, Devon. He died as a result of a tragic car accident.
Acknowledments to Phil Jones for his insight to Jack Llewellyn's career -
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