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A Bit About Myself

(My original post to the GypsyJazzGuitar eGroup.)

Hello all,

Since I've posted a couple of messages, I guess I should formally introduce myself. (Get ready for a long one.)

I'm 44 yrs old, live in the San Francisco area, and grew up as a big fan of the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. In my early 20s and 30s I was a bass player, but knew a few basic open chords on a 6-string. My first guitar was a 60s violin shaped Vox bass. In my early thirties, I got into computers, and used my first big tax return to buy my first real guitar: a '73 Precision bass. I had some money left so I also bought an 80s Japanese made Strat, that looked just like the one my hero Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock. Soon, I found that I enjoyed playing the Strat more than the Precision. Once I realized that computers were a bad investment, I began collecting archtops. (19 guitars and basses, and counting.)

One day, I stumbled across a chord that blew me away: a major 7th-root 5 string. That got me hooked on jazz. Later that year, I went to a summer music camp where I took a class in Swing guitar from Sylvia Herold. (At the time I had no idea who she was.)

Earlier that summer, I went to Dixieland Jazz fest with some friends. I wasn't interested in the music at the time, so I started wandering around when I heard this music coming from one of the smaller stages that intrigued me, so I follow the sound until I found this 4 piece group called the Hot Club of San Francisco, consisting of two funny looking acoustic guitars, an upright bass, and a violin. The music blew me away! At that very moment, my aspirations changed from wanting to be the next Hendrix playing in front of 60,000 people, to being a rhythm guitarist playing this intoxicating music in a smoky little bar. I attended a few more HCSF performances after that, and eventually, Sylvia introduced me to Paul.

A year or so later, I attended a Gypsy Swing fest in Northern California, where Paul Mehling and Pearl Django was giving seminars. (The HCSF, Romane and John Jorgensen performed as well.) I brought my '33 Epi Triumph. After one of the seminars, this guy wearing a fedora and long pony tail walks up to me and says " Is that a '35 Epi Triumph? I can tell by the case." This turned out to be Archtop Eddy. We exchanged e-mail addresses and phone numbers, and stayed in close contact for the next few months. (Still do.) Eventually, I began taking occasional private lessons from Paul M. (I'm meeting with him again this Saturday.)

Later in the year, I was planning a trip to Europe, and discovered that the Rosenberg Trio would be playing in Amsterdam the same week I would be there. I didn't know anything about them other than they played Django's music, but after discovering that they had played at Carnagie Hall in NY, I had a feeling the tickets would be sold out by the time I got there. Eddy put me in contact with Mary Honcoop (alias Gypsylover), who purchased tickets for me. I was lucky. The concert sold out two months in advance! In Amsterdam, I had dinner with Mary and Peter before the concert, then went to the concert. After the performance, they took me and my traveling companion backstage where we had a few beers and took a lot of pictures. Then, we all went out into the lobby where there they signed autographs, took more pictures, etc. (Eventually, I'll scan the photos and post them on my Jazz Manouche website.) Of course I came back a fanatic! Later, Mary sent me some Rosenberg CD's and a video.

Previously, at the music camp, I got the chords to Douce Ambience, but after my trip, a friend of mine sent me a file consisting of 40+ Django tunes in Band-in-a-Box format. That really got me going! (One of these days, I'll get them to the file to the group.)

Anyway, most of you know the rest of the story from my other postings. If I repeated anything from the previous ones, I apologize. If I forgot anything, I post it later. (I'll try not to be so long winded next time.) I'm hoping to make it to Samois this year, and am looking forward to meeting and playing with some of the members of this group, as well as seeing Mary and Peter again.

Djamming till it hurts,

Garry Bowlds

PS: Just curious. Any other African-Americans out reading this?