Diz Disley

Diz Disley

Disley (centre) at the 1981 Essex Festival, England
Background information
Birth name William Charles Disley
Born (1931-05-27)27 May 1931
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Died 22 March 2010(2010-03-22) (aged 78)
London, England
Genres Jazz
Occupation(s) Guitarist, graphic designer
Instruments banjo
guitar
Years active 1950s-2000s
Associated acts Ken Colyer
Cy Laurie
Sandy Brown
Kenny Ball
Alex Welsh
Stéphane Grappelli
Biréli Lagrène

William Charles "Diz" Disley (27 May 1931 – 22 March 2010) was an Anglo-Canadian jazz guitarist, entertainer, and graphic designer. He is best known for his acoustic jazz guitar playing, strongly influenced by Django Reinhardt, for his contributions to the UK trad jazz, skiffle and folk scenes as a performer and humorist, and for his collaborations with the violinist Stéphane Grappelli.

Biography

William Charles Disley was born, to Welsh parents then overseas for work, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.[1] When he was four, his parents moved back to Wales, then five years later to Ingleton, North Yorkshire, England,[2] where his mother worked as schoolteacher. In his childhood, he learnt to play the banjo, but took up the jazz guitar at the age of 15, after being exposed to the playing of Django Reinhardt via a neighbour, Norry Greenwood; as Disley recalled, Norry taught him the chords to "Miss Annabel Lee" and "Try a Little Tenderness", in the summer of 1946.[3]

Disley showed an early gift for drawing, and on leaving school enrolled at Leeds College of Art, a college with a reputation for student music making in particular trad jazz, and was soon playing with his fellow students in the Vernon City Ramblers and, shortly afterwards, the newly formed Yorkshire Jazz Band alongside trumpeter Dick Hawdon and clarinettist Alan Cooper.[4] Diz did his National Service overseas in the Army from 1950–1953 after which he resumed his studies in Leeds and began selling cartoons to national newspapers and periodicals. In 1953 Disley worked for a summer season in Morecambe, Lancashire, in 1953 as part of a comedy harmony group, the Godfrey Brothers, still playing banjo, and then moved to London, where he joined Mick Mulligan's band, along with George Melly.[5] Melly described him as having "a beard and [...] the face of a satyr en route to a cheerful orgy".[5] Subsequently he worked with, and occasionally recorded with, most of the leading London-based "Trad" bands of the day including those of Ken Colyer, Cy Laurie, Sandy Brown, Kenny Ball and Alex Welsh, mostly on banjo but occasionally doubling on guitar. His first love, however, remained the music of Django Reinhardt, in particular the sound of the pre-war Quintette du Hot Club de France, and in 1958 he formed his own quintet to replicate that sound, employing the talents of Dick Powell on violin, Danny Pursford and Nevil Skrimshire on rhythm guitars, and a range of double bassists including Tim Mahn; recordings of this outfit have been released retrospectively on Lake records in 2011, also featuring a classic Disley self-portrait cartoon on the cover.[6]

As the skiffle boom took over from traditional jazz in popular culture in the UK, in the late 1950s- early 60s Diz started working as guitarist with a number of "skiffle" groups including those of Ken Colyer, Lonnie Donegan, Bob Cort and Nancy Whiskey,[4] and featured on numerous recordings of the day. With Ike Isaacs he also co-hosted "Guitar Club" on BBC radio for a number of years,[7] and was voted second best (1960) and best (1961) British jazz guitarist in the UK "Melody Maker" Jazz Polls.[8]

In January 1963, the British music magazine, NME reported that the biggest trad jazz event to be staged in Britain had taken place at Alexandra Palace. The event included George Melly, Alex Welsh, Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer, Monty Sunshine, Bob Wallis, Bruce Turner, Mick Mulligan and Disley.[9] That same year Diz played the conductor in the Harrison Marks' film The Chimney Sweeps (1963), a slapstick comedy starring Pamela Green.

Meanwhile, the "trad" and skiffle booms were coming to an end and Disley moved across to the emerging folk club scene, developing a new persona as an entertainer/musical comedian with an act based on songs from trad jazz and the British music hall and other humorous ditties accompanied by lightly swinging guitar, monologues in the manner of Stanley Holloway (especially those penned by Marriott Edgar), banter with the audience, and a string of one-line jokes in the manner of W. C. Fields and Groucho Marx, always finding room at the end of the evening for some hot-club-style guitar instrumentals, often with the assistance of some unsuspecting second guitarist invited up from the audience. He was also employed by the BBC as compere for a number of shows, including introducing The Beatles on their first London concert.[10] As arguably the "folk world"'s then most competent performer in the area of jazzy guitar accompaniment he collaborated with fiddle player Dave Swarbrick on several ragtime tunes the 1967 Dave Swarbrick album "Rags, Reels & Airs" along with singer-guitarist Martin Carthy on the more folk-based material. Disley also played guitar accompaniment to Mike Absalom on the latter's 1968 album, Save the Last Gherkin for Me.[11] By the 1970s, he was one of the folk scene's busiest artists and a mainstay of folk festivals as musician and compere.

In 1973 he was influential in persuading original Quintette du Hot Club de France violinist Stéphane Grappelli (Django Reinhardt's original playing partner) to return to public performances using an all-strings acoustic line-up, recapturing the spirit of the original Quintette to a whole new generation of popular listeners (prior to this, Grappelli had spent a number of years playing "cocktail jazz" in a Paris hotel). After a couple of "warm up" gigs in small folk clubs, they played together to an unexpectedly warm reception at the 1973 Cambridge Folk Festival, with Denny Wright drafted in on second acoustic guitar (a portion of this performance being subsequently released on CD in 2000 as Stéphane Grappelli: Live At The Cambridge Folk Festival), and this began a lengthy collaboration between Grappelli and the "Diz Disley Trio" (sometimes billed as "The Hot Club of London"), including tours of Australia, Europe and the United States, to ever increasing acclaim. Karl Dallas[12] reported Disley as having "single-handedly created a revival of interest in the music of Stephane Grappelli, which has taken him to the Carnegie Hall, Australia and New Zealand" (the latter in September 1974). "...the night he closed at the Palladium, he went to The Troubadour where he was booked later that night to perform his folk club act of idiocy and mayhem, keeping up the tradition he has built up over the past 20 years for delivering a shrewd mixture of musical brilliance and vocal insanity". With a few changes in line-up (Ike Isaacs, Louis Stewart and John Etheridge occupying the second guitarist's chair at different times), the Disley trio accompanied Grappelli for a further five years until Diz was forced to take a break in 1979 following a broken wrist sustained after being knocked down by a motorcycle in London; his replacement was a young Martin Taylor who went on to tour with Grappelli for the next 10 years. In 1978 Stéphane, Diz and others were invited by David Grisman to contribute the score to a film called "King of the Gypsies" which was duly completed together with Grisman and other musical associates. Stéphane and Diz had walk-on parts playing gypsy musicians and were suitably attired for the occasion. Unfortunately the soundtrack to the movie was never released, although the film is still available via movie outlets for hire or purchase.

Disley was back with Grappelli in 1981-2 including a visit to the U.S.A. which resulted in parts of two performances captured on film, later released as "Stéphane Grappelli - Live In San Francisco" although the two musicians parted ways soon after, this time for good, apparently due more to personality than musical clashes. For the second concert performance shown in the film (filmed at the Great American Music Hall), Stéphane and the Trio were joined for an encore by David Grisman, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall and Rob Wasserman for a performance of "Sweet Georgia Brown".

In the early 1980s Disley formed a working partnership with the young gypsy guitar prodigy Bireli Lagrene, with whom he again toured the world, including a return visit to Carnegie Hall.[13]

In 1984 Disley was instrumental in forming a club quintet for Nigel Kennedy, who was starting to explore other musical styles. Musicians in the original line-up with Kennedy were Jeff Green, Ian Cruickshank, Nils Solberg (guitars) and Dave Etheridge (bass), who had played with Disley and Denny Wright on their 1973 tour with Grappelli. In 1986, Disley formed the Soho String Quintette with Johnny Van Derrick (violin), Nils Solberg and Jeff Green and David Etheridge. An album Zing Went The Strings was issued on Waterfront Records.

In the 1990s, during several years he spent in Los Angeles, Disley recorded with the blues saxophonist Big Jay McNeely and country-rockabilly artist Ray Campi. He also painted several now sought-after portraits of jazz greats, including Illinois Jacquet, in the style of the cubists. In the 2000s he also spent time in Spain, where he had purchased some land with the stated intention of building a golf course, and at one point ran a jazz bar there in between trips to the UK for continued performances.

In early 2010 Disley's health took a serious turn for the worse, and he was admitted to the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, on 2 February. He died on 21 March 2010.

Guitar style

Although frequently characterised as a follower of Django Reinhardt, Disley's' guitar style (with the exception of single-string soloing, which bears some muted resemblance to Reinhardt's) was based strongly on jazz rhythm traditions and in fact forms more of a continuum from early plectrum-style players such as Eddie Lang, Lonnie Johnson and Teddy Bunn,[14] for the latter of which he expressed admiration along with his idol Reinhardt. Over the early part of his career, Disley had developed a highly sophisticated accompaniment style of solo guitar incorporating complex and subtle jazz harmonies, the ability to play in any key anywhere on the instrument (including traditionally "non guitar-friendly" keys such as B flat, E flat etc.), the choice of numerous alternate voicings for any chord, plus the incorporation of moving figures in the bassline and/or internal notes of chords to create considerable melodic and harmonic interest;[15] all of which stood him in good stead when playing in jazz company as well as being almost from another galaxy so far as most attendees of folk clubs in the 1960s and 1970s would be concerned (much folk music of the day being accompanied by simple guitar chords played in the root position, utilizing open strings where possible to simplify the left hand fingerings required). While much of Disley's typical playing in this respect remains undocumented from his folk club years except for a few amateur recordings, the two tracks on Dave Swarbrick's "Rags, Reels & Airs" album on which Diz plays give an indication of his unique talent in swinging accompaniment.

Much better documented are the years of Disley's association with Grappelli in which his rhythm playing is notable for the lightness and propulsion engendered by his right hand technique (in tandem with his long term preference for using Selmer/Maccaferri-style instruments noted for their projection and bright open tone), as well as choice of appropriate chord voicings, with his individual guitar contributions most easily discernible in the solo musical introductions to certain swing tunes as well as taking the occasional acoustic guitar solo backed by the other rhythm guitar and double bass. While his own rhythm guitar playing is somewhat less prominent in the general group context, the availability of several Grappelli concerts on video with the Diz Disley trio offers valuable insights into Disley's' general musical approach in a way that audio recordings alone could not convey.

Anecdotes and personal reminiscences

Disley was very much a one-off "character" and remembered (mostly benignly) for his numerous personality characteristics and eccentricities.[16][17][18] Contributors talk of his general lifestyle of only slightly ordered chaos, his ability to make large sums of money then be completely penniless, his penchant for driving around (and occasionally sleeping in) an ancient Rolls Royce hearse with a sack of carrots and a juicer in the back (he believed at one point that drinking carrot juice would offset the general consumption of alcoholic beverages through the preceding hours), his arrival at clubs for a booked performance only to discover that he had got the wrong week, his loss of valuable guitars by leaving them in a hedge or under a caravan overnight for safety only to discover in the morning that they had disappeared, and his frequent habit of arriving at folk club gigs without a guitar (or money), then borrowing one from a member of the audience on which he proceeded to play the entire gig. He addressed most persons he met as "Dear Boy" and among his commonest requests would be either an advance on his fee, or to cash a cheque for the same purpose, which he would refer to in rhyming slang as "sausage me a gregory" (sausage & mash = cash, Gregory Peck = cheque). Younger artists such as David "Brillo" Etheridge (double bass) and Chris Newman (guitar) have spoken highly of his mentoring and sharing of his musical knowledge at formative stages in their own careers and it could indeed be said that that the resurgence of interest in gypsy swing in the UK from the 1980s onwards owes in no small part to the activities of Disley who virtually single handedly kept the flame alive during the 1950s, 60s and into the 70s during a period when such music was perceived by many to have little place in the jazz world.[19]

Partial discography

Yorkshire Jazz Band

Ken Colyer

Alex Welsh

Kenny Ball

Sandy Brown

Nat Gonella

Nancy Whiskey

Diz Disley

Dave Swarbrick, Martin Carthy and Diz Disley

Mike Absalom

Sandy Denny

Alex Atterson

Stéphane Grappelli

Stéphane Grappelli with the Hot Club of London

Stéphane Grappelli & the Diz Disley Trio

Teresa Brewer

David Grisman

Biréli Lagrène

Big Miller & the Blues Machine

Rosie Flores & Ray Campi

Johnny Silvo & Diz Disley

Filmography

Other filmed performances apparently in existence (information from [20]):

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Guardian obituary, 15 April 2010, accessed 10 May 2010
  2. ↑ "Dislay, Diz : Actually William Charles". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  3. ↑ D. Disley, in sleeve notes for Norry Greenwood & The Craven Hot Club's Sweet and Swinging CD (G8INA-CD003, 1999)
  4. 1 2 Peter Vacher. "Diz Disley obituary | Music". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
  5. 1 2 The Times obituary, 3 April 2010, accessed 7 April 2010
  6. ↑ "DIZ DISLEY and his STRING QUINTET - - LAKE LACD307 : Jazz CD Reviews - 2012 MusicWeb International". Musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
  7. ↑ Liner notes to "Violinspiration" LP (Stephane Grappelli and Diz Disley Trio), 1975
  8. ↑ "The Melody Maker Jazz Polls 1960-1974". iancarrsnucleus.webs.com. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
  9. ↑ Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 116. CN 5585.
  10. ↑ Keith Woods (2010). "Tales From The Woods Issue no. 56" (PDF). www.tftw.org.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  11. ↑ "Mike Absalom Music Shop". Mikeabsalom.com. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
  12. ↑ Karl Dallas, Melody Maker July 27, 1974, "Disley - still making whoopee"
  13. ↑ The Daily Telegraph obituary, 12 April 2010, accessed 13 April 2010
  14. ↑ MacKenzie chapter, p. 159
  15. ↑ "Diz Disley retrospective". Mudcat.org. 2010-03-22. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
  16. ↑ Mike Harding. "Folk: Remembering Diz Disley". BBC. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
  17. ↑ "Diz Disley - health - died 22 March 2010". Mudcat.org. 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
  18. ↑ "Obit: Diz Disley - 22 March 2010". Mudcat.org. 2010-03-22. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
  19. ↑ "Diz Disley | Gypsy Jazz UK". Gypsyjazzuk.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
  20. ↑ "Martin Taylor Discography - Video". Gould68.freeserve.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-14.

External links

Further reading

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