About

Welcome to

The Gypsy Jazz UK Website!

To Navigate around this Website please use the Left Hand or Top Banner & Drop-down links.  If you have a Name or Subject try the Search Engine”

  • Make this your source for Gypsy Jazz Information
    Encourage New Talent by attending Gypsy Jazz Events
    Support British & International Gypsy Jazz Exponents
    Keep Django’s Memory and Musical Legacy  Alive
  • Django inspired music as a well established contemporary Genre with no name & yet many names – Jazz Manouche, Swing Gitan, Gypsy Jazz, etc – it reflects in a direct way the many facets of the Legendary Guitarist Django Reinhardt himself.  The Genre today has a natural spectrum of rustic, traditional Jazz, via sophisticated Modern Jazz, a variety of Folklore elements & Rock, to Contemporary, Classical & even Symphonic approaches. Few other types of Music can capture the same idioms.  Django’s Music has become a fantastically popular & nostalgic Genre of today.

It would be nice to have a Gypsy Jazz Foundation to advance Music Education for the public.  It could both administer and co-ordinate the provision of Music Tuition and youth Music activities for young people & adults. In addition, also support the development of Music Education in Schools and provides a wide range of music-making opportunities, including Concert Performances, Workshops, Masterclasses, Projects & Courses.

This Website is here to encourage all generations to become involved in listening to, playing, discussing Gypsy Jazz & conveying the benefits for young people & Schools. The Website also includes Local & National Events & Venues where you can expand your knowledge of Gypsy Jazz Music and it’s exponents.

Support Gypsy Jazz – Support Young Jazz Musicians – Support Live Music

Corporate Sponsors Required
To improve the quality of Performances at regular Gigs, or to maintain ongoing International Jazz Performers participation, we would welcome all degrees of Sponsorship from any Local or National Company that feels that Gypsy Jazz of this quality would assist in the promotion of their Corporate Image in the UK Area & beyond.  In return, you invest in something pleasurable of your choice & enjoy Corporate Tax Relief for supporting the Performing Arts.

9 responses to “About”

  1. I thought I’d let you know that I bought the Bert Weedon-owned Abbott Victor Ritz featured on your UK Luthiers page at auction two years ago. It’s still in original condition except that I had the bridge replaced (I’ve kept the original obviously!) with a piezo bridge rather than adding a pickup. The scratch plate is signed by Bert Weedon (the signature is a bit faded now) and is being copied by Sims Custome Shop – the original will go in a display frame with signed notes from Bert and the copy on the guitar.
    The Abbott Victor Ritz has a great unamplified sound and it’s in use regularly as I’m gigging it at various open mic and jam sessions in Ilfracombe (North Devon).

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    • Thanks Mike – i have put your comments on that page. If the signed notes and copy are available for scrutiny i would be delighted to read them – I found Berts Site a bit too much about Bert posing in the spotlight and very little about his guitars. It is said he could play flies on flypaper as a good reader but often referred to by musos as ‘berk’ Weedon
      Regards and Good Giggiing in Ilfracombe.

      Ed the editor

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  2. Comment for article Cedric’s Guitars – Dad sold the White Falcon guitar to Steve Marriott from The Small Faces. Thanks for the article, it was sent to me recently and I would love to know who the author is.
    Thank – Jenny, Cedric’s daughter

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    • Hi Jenny – just visited the site after a long absence – and this seems to have gone without a reply. I compiled the whole site out a love for jazz in general – I merely listed all I could find on Cedric and published it – I hope you found it worthy of his memory and I am sorry that I never met him in my long interest in Jazz and Jazz Guitarists. His recordings and spirit remain with us if not his wide choice of Guitars.
      Ed the Editor

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  3. I was very pleased to read your appreciation of Alan Metcalfe. When very young, he played with Ambrose and his Orchestra. During the War, he was with Joe Loss. As a small boy, I remember being patted on the head by Joe Loss at post-performance parties, where I was taken by my parents. Later, during his Sessions and Bill McGuffie Period, Alan also worked a lot for the BBC and presented a series of the Radio Jazz at Night programmes during the late 60’s. I last saw him in 1963, when I visited him at home in Finchley with my parents.

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  5. Hello Ed,
    I am enjoying the Gypsy Jazz UK Website so far. I was lead hear in search of information on Albert Harris. You have one of the more complete Biographies about him. I would love to know what references you used. I am currently writing about and recording all of his Classical Guitar Works including one unpublished. Ivor Mairants Biography “My Fifty Fretting Years” had a great deal on Harris (more than anything else I have found). I have several pictures that you may use. I would love to chat with you and share any information you may have and that I can give you. My email is below, I hope to hear from you :). – Keith Barnhart

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  6. Hi guys
    Just to add to the story of Curley Clayton, I would like to add that my father Doug Lake was a very close friend of Curley’s and introduced me to him at the age of abou 15 to him and his Studio in Highbury Grove.
    I was at Grammar School there in the late 50’s and learning the Guitar. Doug & Curley were close and we often Partied with him, his wife Rose and met his 2 sons Alvin & Melvin. His daughter Patsy was older than the 2 boys but cannot remember if she was married or not.
    One story I remember vividly is that when Curley was playing Guitar with the Edmundo Ros Orchestra, one of the members of the band, who played percussion dropped his maracas which then broke open and the sight of all this made Curley roar with laughter….! He was immediately sacked by Ros! I don’t know if this is exactly what happened but this is the story I remember well.
    After I graduated from University around 1968 my father and I lost contact with Curley and his Family and have heard nothing about him until reading your article on the web!
    Best regards
    Robin van Praag

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  7. Comment on the Al (Harold) Ferdman page – do you have contact details for his son Alan? I have a photograph of my father’s big band (Roy Kenton Orchestra) taken at the Embassy Ballroom Welling Kent in Feb 1959 with Al Ferdman. I’d love to share it with his son, and also find out if he has access to any other photos of my Dad’s big band.

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