Friday, November 23, 2007

An interview with Kevin Nolan, gypsy jazz extraordinaire

Posted by Jon in • Guitar Legends

Kevin Nolan - known in the panto circle as Asphyxia
Let me introduce to you Kevin Nolan, a long time ago I went to Kidderminster College to do a performing arts course and my music A level. While I was there I had the great pleasure of playing, acting alongside and generally acting like a silly bugger with Kev. At the time he wielded a very nice Fender Precision Bass and was in high demand for bands and performances. The last time Kev and I managed to meet up was back in 2000 in London before I moved to Australia so I thought it was about time to find out what has been happening since then. A lot it seems, after college Kevin joined forces with his brother Robin in The Robin Nolan Trio, a gypsy jazz band, playing rhythm guitar. Since then they have been touring all over the world.

GN: How come you are based in Amsterdam?
The band moved from London to Amsterdam in 92 after finding that London was not very welcoming to street performers. Back then that’s prety much how the band made money. Amsterdam was much more hospitable.

GN: Does your brother let you do any solos?
No. But the point is that when i started to learn the guitar after putting down the bass i only learned how to play rhythm, so i’m not exactly up to standard with my solos.

GN: So what kind of touring schedule do you have these days, I remember you were telling me last time we met up in London that you had played in some pretty exotic locations!
I’ve travelled quite a lot since joining the band. Japan and Iceland being my favourites. But over the last 5 years we’ve had opportunities to play in the States quite a bit. It’s a big country with lots of money, so it’s possible to do some long extended tours over there.

GN: What guitars do you play in the trio?
I still play on the first guitar i ever got. It’s a 1999 Rob Aylward D-hole.

GN: How long has Robin been playing?
Robin first started to play guitar at age 6. He passed his classical grade 8 with distinction. He then went on to study jazz at Leeds college of music.

GN: What inspired him to play gypsy jazz?
He was taken to a festival “THE” festival for gypsy music in Samois-Sur-Seine near Paris. This was in 1990. Our father had always played the music of Django Reinhardt when we were children, but i think that when Rob witnessed it being played he fell in love with the passionate style.

GN: How many CD’s have the Robin Nolan Trio released to date? Go on do some plugging!
I think we have around 8 titles www.robinnolan.com check them out.

GN: So is this the trio a full time job?
It’s been backwards and forwards. Sometimes we have months booked up, and sometimes the opposite. I’ve just moved to the states and not only do i continue to play with the Robin Nolan Trio, but I’ve also joined the John Jorgenson Quintet. This means that I’m lucky enough to make a living from playing.

Thanks for taking the time talking to me Kevin, hopefully we will catch up when you tour Australia. Check out The Robin Nolan Trio site or the MySpace page.

Recently on Guitar Noize

Clicking on ads has been proven to make you a better guitar player, just wanted to put that out there...

Post a comment

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.