Robin Nolan Trio

“Tainted Love”

(Robin Nolan Music RNM04)

Robin Nolan is considered to be one of the world’s leading gypsy jazz guitarists. He is certainly revered by local gypsy jazz musicians such as the Gloucestershire based combo Swing From Paris with whom Nolan collaborated for a series of live appearances in 2010.

Born in the UK Nolan studied at the Guildhall School of Music but it was a visit to the annual Django Reinhardt Festival at Samois-Sur-Seine, France, in 1992 that inspired Nolan to dedicate his life to the guitar and the gypsy jazz style. Nolan has been incredibly prolific ever since recording in both trio and quartet formats, touring widely across Europe and Canada and becoming a personal friend of the late George Harrison. Now based in Amsterdam his current trio features his younger brother Kevin Nolan on rhythm guitar with Arnoud Van den Berg on bass.

Nolan is not afraid to look beyond the regular gypsy jazz canon for inspiration. His latest album “Tainted Love” draws on 80’s pop with imaginative re-workings of songs associated with Soft Cell, Human League and Police among others. For jazz listeners the pill is sweetened by the inclusion of   occasional jazz and gypsy standards. Nolan has adopted an unusual, some may even say provocative, stance, but on the whole his approach works well. 

The thirteen concise selections on this album begin with a fast and furious take on the old Django Reinhardt warhorse “Joseph Joseph” but even here Nolan can’t resist the temptation to throw in a quote from one of rock music’s most famous riffs, Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water”. This is “Joseph Joseph” as you’ve probably never heard it before.

My copy of this album came from Shrewsbury based musician Chris Quinn who is due to play rhythm guitar with Nolan on his UK tour in spring 2012. The information given on the cover is minimal although there is the proud boast that the album won the “5 star Facebook award for best Gypsy Jazz recording 2011”.

Be that as it may the next tune up is “For Sephora”, another Reinhardt piece I suspect, although the sleeve doesn’t say as much. In any event it’s taken at a fast clip with the three instruments meshing together well and with some dazzling fretboard work from Robin Nolan.

A series of interpretations of pop material begins with “Something Stupid”, once famously a hit single for Frank and Nancy Sinatra. The song lends itself well to Nolan’s slightly whimsical gypsy jazz style treatment.

The title track is clearly inspired by the Soft Cell version but if memory serves they, in turn, lifted it from soul singer Gloria Jones. Here it’s the vehicle for some taut, virtuoso finger picking from Nolan as his rhythm colleagues strum up a storm behind him.

The Beatles’ “And I Love Her” has been covered by Herefordshire’s own gypsy jazz virtuoso Remi Harris but Nolan’s version is different again with an expansive introduction that stands apart from the body of the song. Again there’s plenty of virtuosity on offer plus something of that taut, urgent quality that seems to imbue much of Nolan’s work.

“Don’t You Want Me”, an enormous synth pop hit for Human League in the early 80’s lends itself extremely well to Nolan’s distinctive gypsy jazz treatment as jazz virtuosity combines with a sense of rock dynamics.

“Tears” slows things down a little but there are still plenty of interesting things going on with Nolan’s ever inventive guitar work shadowed by Arnoud Van den Berg’s splendidly resonant bass.

A-ha’s massive hit “Take On Me” is given a breezy up-tempo treatment with Kevin Nolan’s crisp rhythm guitar propelling his brother’s flights of fancy. It’s great fun, as is a languid, samba style take on the Police hit “Every Breath You Take”. Nolan’s novel approach goes a long way to subverting the frankly sinister mood of the original.

As far as I can tell the remaining four pieces are gypsy or jazz standards. I certainly don’t recognise any of them as pop songs. There’s a breezy “San Miguel” plus an equally lively “Swing Gitane” and Nolan and co. don’t exactly hang about on “Bossa Dorado” either.

The album closes with the jazz standard “All Of Me”, a favourite vehicle for Reinhardt and his numerous successors. Nolan and his colleagues imbue it with the same brio as the rest of the album. 

“Tainted Love” represents a very enjoyable listen with some excellent playing from the three participants. The three instruments blend together seamlessly and one is left in little doubt as to the veracity of Robin Nolan’s status as a virtuoso in the world of gypsy jazz guitar. If one has a criticism it’s that everything is delivered at a rapid speed, Nolan knows he’s got the chops and takes the chance to show them off at every opportunity. I guess that in many ways this is the essence of gypsy jazz but nevertheless a little more variation in pace and mood would have been welcome.

I certainly don’t have a problem with Nolan’s selection of material. Jazz has always borrowed from popular song and I don’t see any difference from Nolan borrowing from A-ha to Brad Mehldau borrowing from Radiohead. The point is that both bring something fresh to the material albeit in totally different ways. Occasionally one senses that Nolan might just be being ironic but that hardly seems to matter either. 

As enjoyable as this album is the best way of appreciating gypsy jazz is in a live context where one can truly appreciate the virtuosity of the players, particularly the lead guitarists with their dazzling runs, dizzying chord changes and note bending techniques. With this in mind I’ll be keeping an eye open for Nolan when he returns to UK shores in 2012.

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