Django's Castle - New Hank album

[hoffers]

Today the postman delivered an advance copy of Hank's brand new CD, Django's Castle, direct from the man himself.
According to Hank the CD will be available through itunes, CD Baby etc, not sure when though.

14 tracks in all, mostly Django Reinhardt compositions.
Recorded in 2011 with Nunzio Mondia and Gary Taylor providing the rhythm section plus a couple of double bass players.

This is pure gypsy jazz so don't expect twangy, echo laden Fenders.

Hoffs

[RogerCook]

Thanks for the update Hoffers - good news! It will be great to hear Hank's take on some classic Django tunes.

[noelford]

I've been looking out for a BT for Django's Castle for years. Assuming that track is on this album, I'm hoping someone will now produce one!

[RogerCook]

Hallo Noel,

Not sure if this is what you're looking for:

http://store.payloadz.com/details/13042 ... sRves.html

Roger

[MeBHank]

Today the postman delivered an advance copy of Hank's brand new CD, Django's Castle, direct from the man himself.
According to Hank the CD will be available through itunes, CD Baby etc, not sure when though.

14 tracks in all, mostly Django Reinhardt compositions.
Recorded in 2011 with Nunzio Mondia and Gary Taylor providing the rhythm section plus a couple of double bass players.

This is pure gypsy jazz so don't expect twangy, echo laden Fenders.

Hoffs

An album from Hank? Wonderful news! What a shame that there's been so little publicity.

I think it's criminal that Hank's record company only seems to consider his work worthy of promotion when he makes the type of music that they tell him to make. I know it's probable that he doesn't have a permanent record deal in place any longer, but I'm willing to bet that Polygram/Universal would be all over him like a rash if he independently suggested an album featuring his "standard" electric guitar sound making covers of recent pop hits. On the other hand, guitarists like Brian May, Mark Knopfler and Jeff Beck are able to flex their creative muscles and try their hand at pretty much any style they want with the full blessing of their record companies. Why is Hank chained down to making bland music? He made little effort to disguise his frustration during the promotion of "Guitar Man", though we only ever saw this frustration vented in Hank's light-hearted way.

I - like many fans - am frustrated that Hank is not given enough recognition by the music industry. I think we tend to wrongly assume this is down to people not accepting his style as still relevant. I've turned full circle and now I think that this opinion is misguided. Hank is regarded in the highest possible esteem by musicians and the general public. I believe that, if his reputation as an artiste has suffered, it purely down to poor support from his record company who wrongly see him as irrelevant and so tie him down to making irrelevant music that does not adequately showcase his talent. I also believe Brian Goode has managed him poorly, treating him as a commodity, taking little interest in the music that is made, therefore not fighting Hank's battles with the record company strongly enough. These people have the privilege of handling the solo career of one of the biggest legends in the music business and yet they have increasingly mis-represented, mis-sold and mis-managed him for nearly twenty years.

"Django's Castle" will likely be the first time we've heard Hank playing the music he wants to play since "Into the Light" and "Heartbeat". "Guitar Player" was a highlight and had many of us drooling at the prospect of further, similar albums. Hank's playing was simply sublime. But we never had a follow-up; "Guitar Man" was a bitter disappointment; the shackles were back on. It was like restricting Andrea Bocelli to singing nursery rhymes. The blame for that, again, lays solely at the feet of the record company. Whether you like Manouche jazz or not, this new album will undoubtedly sound more exciting because it's music that Hank is obviously enthusiastic about. For this reason alone, I'm already excited. It is a travesty that "Django's Castle" is not being released through the proper channels, and all because a few boring executives think it won't make them money.

The men in suits should hang their heads in shame.

Hank, I await "Django's Castle" with great anticipation.

J

[iefje]

Will there be an actual CD, or just availability via music websites in the form of sound files? If it is just available via sound files, I hope those will be of a good quality, so no mediocre MP3 files.

[hoffers]

Will there be an actual CD, or just availability via music websites in the form of sound files? If it is just available via sound files, I hope those will be of a good quality, so no mediocre MP3 files.

It's a CD in a colour slip case with liner notes and technical details.

[hbmartin]

Today the postman delivered an advance copy of Hank's brand new CD, Django's Castle, direct from the man himself.
According to Hank the CD will be available through itunes, CD Baby etc, not sure when though.

I - like many fans - am frustrated that Hank is not given enough recognition by the music industry. I think we tend to wrongly assume this is down to people not accepting his style as still relevant. I've turned full circle and now I think that this opinion is misguided. Hank is regarded in the highest possible esteem by musicians and the general public. I believe that, if his reputation as an artiste has suffered, it purely down to poor support from his record company who wrongly see him as irrelevant and so tie him down to making irrelevant music that does not adequately showcase his talent. I also believe Brian Goode has managed him poorly, treating him as a commodity, taking little interest in the music that is made, therefore not fighting Hank's battles with the record company strongly enough. These people have the privilege of handling the solo career of one of the biggest legends in the music business and yet they have increasingly mis-represented, mis-sold and mis-managed him for nearly twenty years.

The men in suits should hang their heads in shame.

Hank, I await "Django's Castle" with great anticipation.

J

Don't get me started on poor management. And it's actually more than 20 years of management of Hank. He also did a poor job during the previous 10 years he managed The Shadows.I believe it was Goode who was responsible for taking them to Polydor and making them record covers of crappy pop tunes rather than writing great songs of there own that we know they can do. He spent too much time on others. I know Bruce is reported as saying he was unhappy that the manager spent all his time in America with Jimmy Page and no time looking after him and Hank and Brian. Its all to do with money making for the managers.

[MeBHank]

Don't get me started on poor management. And it's actually more than 20 years of management of Hank. He also did a poor job during the previous 10 years he managed The Shadows.I believe it was Goode who was responsible for taking them to Polydor and making them record covers of crappy pop tunes rather than writing great songs of there own that we know they can do. He spent too much time on others. I know Bruce is reported as saying he was unhappy that the manager spent all his time in America with Jimmy Page and no time looking after him and Hank and Brian. Its all to do with money making for the managers.

In that case, the managers have missed a trick. Big time.

"Guitar Player" and "Guitar Man" both sold in huge quantities, even though the latter was mostly comprised of commercial, melodically weak songs that just didn't translate into instrumental music. Hank regularly made it into the top ten in the album charts, even though people consider him to be a "niche" artiste. Well, the niche can't be particularly small, can it?

As world and folk music seem to be everlastingly popular, I'd expect any other artiste's foray into that type of genre to be welcomed. Due to the dire management that Hank has had, he isn't given enough credit. He has always had the potential to be just as big a "hitter" and trend-setter as Knopfler, Beck or Clapton. As I said previously, the only reason he isn't considered so is due to the treatment of him by Brian Goode and Hank's record company.

J

[Didier]

I believe it was Goode who was responsible for taking them to Polydor and making them record covers of crappy pop tunes rather than writing great songs of there own that we know they can do.

According to what Bruce wrote in his book, when their contract came with EMI to an end in 1980, negociations for renewal occured, and they asked to have rights on their recordings as it was already done for some other artists (such as Queen). But EMI refused, so The Shadow created their own label "Roll Over Record" and signed an agreement with Polydor.
How much Brian Goode was involved with this isn't known.

I am not sure I will rush to buy Hank Marvin's new album. There are many guitarists far better than him in the gipsy jazz style, while there are none better than him when he plays in the Shadows' style...

Didier