PAUL
VERNON CHESTER
Manouche Maestro
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Manouche Maestro
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Louis Gallo - Guitarist &
The noble statesman in the photo was none other than the respected teacher, mentor, performer, Django scholar and acoustic guitar aficionado, the ubiquitous Louis Gallo. Having recently thumbed through my BMG collection I naturally spent a little more time studying this particular front page image of Louis and recalled that in the 1970’s his name was often associated with that highly significant Maurice Summerfield venture, CSL guitars. Impressively, it was he who breathed new life into the Maccaferri legend through the production of detailed replicas of the originals, many of which are still in circulation. These ‘Maccaferris’, produced by Ibanez under Maurice’s supervision, were approved and endorsed in the first instance by Mario himself. Indeed, several of the guitars were signed by him. In this connection, advertisements appeared at the time, often in this and other publications, showing Louis Gallo offering his endorsements of these new Maccaferri guitars.
Louis was a fellow Italian and friend of Maccaferri and Ray recalls spending time at Maccaferri’s home with his father. Amongst the many strings to his musical bow, Louis had also been a dealer in fine acoustic instruments. Indeed, this aspect of his work involved a long association with Clifford Essex Music in London. Louis’ dealership interests meant that he handled many original Maccaferri guitars amongst others. Clifford Essex also employed another Italian, Marco Roccia a master luthier and interestingly, Louis and Marco visited the Selmer factory at the end of its guitar production, purchasing several Selmer guitar parts. These were later assembled by Marco for Clifford Essex and were ostensibly ‘new’ post-factory Selmers. As many of you may be aware from Francois Charles superlative 'tome' on our favoured instruments, Marco Roccia also converted several Eddie Freeman 4 string tenor guitars to 6 string instruments using original Selmer necks, obtained from the factory. Many of these instruments are also still in circulation and bear Marco’s name and often the label of Clifford Essex. Mario Maccaferri was obviously closely associated with the success of the CSL guitars with Louis adding additional weight to the venture with his knowledge of Maccaferri guitars and all things Django.
Django, who was used to a level of adulation normally afforded a Prince, noticed that certain audience members were leaving the theatre before he had left the stage, becoming incensed! How dare they! He was not amused and took this ‘insult’ very personally indeed. Our two intrepid reporters, having noticed this from their seats eagerly but nervously made their way to the master’s dressing room, aware to some extent of Django’s displeasure. Len as magazine editor went on ahead. Django was in no mood to be interviewed, full stop. The tantalizing piece here though is that Louis could closely see his hero through the open dressing room door, almost within touching distance, but would never meet him! A memory of tantalizing proportions!
Check again the fascinating photo of Louis Gallo above and follow the link to his Website below. © Paul Vernon Chester.
Originally conceived by Freeman
as a hybrid instrument sitting somewhere between the banjo and guitar. Selmer
produced this ill-fated instrument in the 1930s. The feel is similar to banjo but the sound is all guitar, very punchy when tuned to the middle four strings of the standard guitar (A D G B) - It can be tuned as a plectrum banjo (C G B D) or the alleged Freeman tuning (C,G,D,A, this being the most likely, as reported in Francois Charle's book) which ever tuning is used, it still produces a strong pounding rhythm ideal for any acoustic ensemble. Maccaferri heavily promoted the EFS guitar through the Melody Maker and
Eddie
Freeman even wrote a special tune for it called 'In All Sincerity'. There are
also promotional photos of the well known British singer, banjoist and guitarist
Al Bowlly,
playing the Eddie Freeman Special and it can be seen in use by Ray Noble's
guitarist in a recording session photo of his orchestra. This guitar,
One of the reasons why many jazz
guitarists used to prefer four-stringed tenor and plectrum guitars was that they
seldom played more than four note "inner chords" so they didn't really need the
first and sixth strings.
Louis
& Ray Gallo Guitarists Louis Gallo was a respected guitar player,
teacher and composer. He was one of the first guitar players in London to
acknowledge Eddie Lang's plectrum guitar music. He dedicated original guitar
solo's to this style. He also wrote many other compositions for plectrum
guitar and fingerstyle.
Eddie Lang on Film
Howard Alden on
Eddie Lang and Django
Impromptu jam session on the Summerfield stand at the British Music Fair, London c. 1976. Left to right: Louis Gallo, Ray Gallo (playing an oval sound hole CSL Gypsy, Ike Isaacs and Maurice Summerfield - who donated this image He was also a great friend of Mario Maccaferri and did much to promote the 1970s CSL Maccaferri remakes. These were the brainchild of Maurice Sommerfield, produced by Ibanez and approved by Maccaferri himself. The early models are much sought after instruments. Ray has some photographs of his father with Mario Maccaferri which may soon be available. These have not been published before! In addition Louis was a big friend of the Luthier, Marco Roccia who worked for Clifford Essex music shop in London. He it was who made Selmers from remaining parts available when the Selmer guitar factory closed. Louis Gallo and Mario went to France to buy remaining parts stock amongst other luthiers who sought after the residues.
Acknowledgements to Ray Gallo (Ramon) |
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The
story of gypsy jazz is brimming with anecdotes and fascinating episodes that
embroider its rich legacy, with new facts and enticing stories happily unfolding
as a matter of course. I was fortunate enough some years ago to have been
offered, by a good friend of mine, several issues of BMG (Banjo .
Mandolin .Guitar) magazine, an absolute must in its day for all players of
fretted string instruments. 
On
revisiting this (now vintage) publicity I was keen to investigate Louis and his
association with Mario Maccaferri and was aware that he had a son Ramon (Ray), a
respected and highly experienced guitarist of repute himself and perfect
testimony to the skills of his father as teacher. Although I had never met Ray,
I did make contact relatively recently through email and telephone
conversations. He was immensely helpful in providing further insights into his
father’s link to Mario Maccaferri, CSL guitars and Django.
Getting
back to that front page photograph of Louis. I have been fortunate enough to
have played the very guitar held by Louis and can confirm that it still is a
stunning and quite exquisite instrument, complete with sound chamber. It has an
amazing voice. Also the oval hole Selmer, with what looks like a transitional
neck, standing on its upper bout in the background is probably a Marco Roccia
built instrument. In fact I think it may have been owned and played later by 
unfortunately, was not commercially successful in the 1930s, possibly due to
concerted resistance by the British six-string
guitar fraternity, particularly
Ray
Gallo, born 1947, started learning Spanish guitar at 8 years
old, and with his father Louis' guidance he was soon playing solos
at his school concerts. When he reached his teenage years he
wanted to broaden his scope and started to learn the plectrum guitar
style. He was soon playing with local gig bands and then became a
member of Bill Ashton's National Youth Jazz Orchestra, during which
period his featured solo was "Django" by John Lewis of the Modern
Jazz Quartet. During his late teens he was also working as a guitar
salesman in the Sound City shop in London's West End, dealing with
the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and many top session men of
the time. One of his first professional jobs was playing in an
orchestra supervised by Burt Bacharach. 