Join Us Online – Live in Reykjavik – Robin Nolan Trio – June 19, ‘10
Join us for the online party at Cafe Rosenberg in Reykjavik, Iceland Saturday night, June 19, 6PM East Coast time (2010). We’ve got a great show planned with some awesome local guests and cool surprises.
These online shows always turn into a cool party. So sign up for a www.ustream.tv account to hang out on the chat during the show. I’ll send you the rest of the details tomorrow.
See you tomorrow night!
PS – Leave us a comment below – cheers!
With My Two Brothers
Last Saturday night was a special night as my “other” brother Brendan joined the Robin Nolan Trio to lend an extra hand (literally) to our show.
I was playing a concert at the Stamford Guitar Festival with my brother Kevin on rhythm guitar and Brendan happened to be in the neighborhood.
To put you in the picture Brendan is by NO means a GUITARIST but we hatched the plan over breakfast in the hotel and thought it might be fun…………it was!
Kevin fretted the chords with his left hand while I played all the noodly stuff up top of the guitar and Brendan strummed the rhythm with his right hand – Perfect!
The audience went wild and we all had a lot of fun!
Thanks to Nigel Betteridge for sending me this great photograph.
Happy Birthday Django – Live from Denmark
We had a great time celebrating Django Reinhardt’s 100th birthday in Denmark Saturday night. Lot’s of great musicians, cool people, and amazing hospitality.
What was really cool was having 297 friends from all over the world tune in to watch the show live on the internet. It’s been a while since we’ve done something like this and we weren’t sure how it would go, but things turned out perfectly. We loved reading the online chat that was going on during the show. You guys were having your own private party there. Some funny stuff.
So did you dig the show? If you were there online, leave a comment and let me know what the experience was like watching from home. Should we do this again sometime? For those who couldn’t catch the show live, we’re putting it up here now. Enjoy!
Django Reinhardt’s 100th Birthday Invitation
It’s Django Reinhardt’s birthday tomorrow (Saturday) as he was born 100 years ago to the day and we are going to celebrate in style up in Assens Denmark, where they have a Django festival to commemorate the occasion.
I’ll be playing there with my trio and the good news is that my brother Kevin is in town so it’s going to be a rock solid gig. Gustav Lundgren is representing Sweden and this guy can really play!
I’ve been playing in Denmark a fair bit over the past years and they have a really great Gypsy Jazz scene with a really great bunch of guys who just love to jam and have fun.
That’s what this festival is all about. But the really cool thing is that you don’t have to be anywhere near Denmark or even Europe to join in – We are going to stream the concert live out on the internet so you can have a taste of the action from wherever you may be.
The last time we did this was for my 40th birthday party in Amsterdam and there really were a lot of people all over the world tuning in and digging the music and fun that night.
We’re scheduled to go on about 10:00PM Denmark time (4:00PM New York time).
So to catch the show live and be able to chat with everyone online, you’ll want to set up your free account on www.Ustream.tv ahead of time.
Set that up right now. And then tomorrow I’ll email you the link you’ll need to see the show.
See you at the gig!
Gonzalo Bergara at Midwest Django Fest
In this clip I’m chatting with my good friend and amazing guitarist Gonzalo Bergara (http://www.gonzalobergara.com). He tells the story of how he got into playing Gypsy Jazz and of his influences and how he learnt the style.
I first met Gonzalo a few years ago in Austin Texas and he blew me away with his guitar playing right off the bat. He had only been playing the style for a year or so and he was effortlessly burning through Stochelo Rosenberg licks like no one I’d seen in the U.S.A. before. He’s now in my opinion one of the best young talents in this genre and definitely one of my favourite guitar players.
The second clip is from one of Gonzalo’s sets at the Midwest Django Fest in Madison Wisconsin (http://www.midwestgypsyswingfest.com) this summer. He’s playing with my brother, Kevin Nolan (rhythm), Jason Anick (violin) and Matt Rodgers (contrabass).
Thanks to Maggie and Sims for organizing this great festival and for all their hospitality.
Leave us a comment or question below – -
It Doesn’t Get Crazier Than This – Oct 25, ‘09
Whilst driving down to London from a concert we gave in Grantham the night before I had a lot on my mind.
This was the big day which I had been anticipating for months ever since Bill Wyman invited me to be part of a big charity concert at The Royal Albert Hall earlier in the year. But now the big day had arrived and it was the 25th of October 2009 and as London came closer and closer my nervous excitement grew and grew.
But there was something even bigger on my mind that day. My wife Judy was 4 days overdue from delivering our baby and her waters had already broken on Wednesday without any contractions coming on, leaving her in limbo.
There had been no decision as to whether to operate or wait as I clutched my mobile phone as I did during the course of the whole day eagerly waiting news and hoping that everything was going to be OK with her and the baby.
Well we finally arrived at the Royal Albert Hall. I’ve always dreamed of playing there some day. It really is a beautiful and impressive building and the temple for music for which I would be doing my bit later that day. In through the stage door passes all ’round and shown to my dressing room which I was sharing with Martin Taylor’s Spirit of Django band and keyboardist Rick Wakeman.
I was eager to see Martin as we were to play one piece together ‘And I Love Her’ and was keen to have a run through. Anyways we wandered around the backstage area until I bumped into Bill Wyman in the canteen. We hugged and I began to tell him of my wife’s situation when my mobile rang “Hold on a sec Bill I better take this it’s Judy . . .”
. . . “What a Boy – a Boy! a BOY! Babes well done I can’t believe it!” I was ecstatic and told Bill the news and he took my phone and congratulated Judy and then announced to all present that I was a brand new father of a baby boy who had just been born back home in Amsterdam.
Cheers and a round of applause followed and I was overcome with emotion. Words can’t describe the joy I felt. I couldnt wait to get home to my family, but “the show must go on” and my amazing Judy wished me luck on the stage that night.
Martin and his crew arrived and it was lovely to see him again and just incase you didn’t know he is one of the greatest Jazz Guitarists in the world and someone who I’ve admired for many years since first playing with him
in the Isle of Man 20 years ago. We ran through the Beatles tune ‘And I Love Her’ and we were all set.
After changing my mother and brother Brendan surprised me by showing up unexpectedly to support me on this big day. The day was getting better and better. I felt so much love and kindness from all those around me and was floating on cloud 9.
Martin Taylor’s spirit of Django band featuring Jack Emblow on accordion John Goldie on guitar James Taylor on snare and brushes and Alison Burns adding her beautiful voice to La Mer opened up the night with two numbers.
Then it was me!
The moment I’d been waiting for finally arrived as Martin introduced me and I walked out on to the most beautiful stage in the world to a packed and enthusiastic audience.
He then said on the microphone that I “Have some news to tell . . .” and I happily told all in the hall that I was the proud father of a baby boy – this was met with wild applause and cheers and we hadn’t played a note yet! Anyways it was a joy to play with Martin and the Beatles song went down a treat.
It was a lot of fun hanging back stage for the rest of the evening and watching the other performers do their thing. Ronnie Wood was the hero for me as he personifies Rock’n'Roll and was living it for real.
For the last song of the evening we were all on stage together and what a buzz that was!
Standing between Ronnie Wood and Mick Hucknall clapping and dancing away was surreal and BIG fun! Taking the final bow with all the stars and waving goodbye to the amazing audience ended the official program.
We all hung at the after party in the Elgar room with drinks.
My gypsy guitarist friend Nomy Rosenberg (and the other members of my trio who had been playing at Le Quecumbar) turned up and we partied down.
Martin Taylor was there (he has Romany Gypsy heritage) and he enthusiastically introduced Nomy to Albert Lee and Ronnie Wood who also have Romany Gypsy in them!
It was a day I will never forget and perhaps the happiest day of my life and I want to thank from the bottom of my heart absolutely everyone who was there who gave so much love and great music to everyone around them.
The next day I rushed home to Amsterdam and my Judy, Isabel and my new son Salvador Nolan. The music continues.
With The Lost Fingers in Montreal
The Lost Fingers experience!
I toured the canadian jazz festivals with my trio last June/July and extended my stay in Canada after being invited to guest with The Lost Fingers – a trio from Quebec city who funnily enough had been mentioned to me by Martin Taylor in Sweden a few weeks before. I had checked them out on youtube etc and really dug what they did and relished the opportunity to play with them. To mix gypsy jazz with monster hits from the 80’s and more is a killer combo and a ton of fun.
We did three shows together. The first and perhaps my favorite one was in Montreal where the crowd were literally going crazy for these guys! The trio consists of Byron Mikaloff on Guitar/vocals,Christian Roberge on Guitar/Vocals and Alex Morissette on Double Bass/Vocals and they gave me a very warm welcome and a brand new ‘Tiger’ suit and boots when we hooked up at the sound check! They go for it with their threads and were all wearing pink suits and snake skin cowboy boots – killer look!
I was invited up to play AC/DC’s ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ preceded by ‘Thunder’ and the crowd went wild. I was having as much fun as I’ve ever had on stage and we were playing gypsy jazz! or were we? What a combo.
These three guys were really inspiring. Not just musically but with their great passion for playing music and having fun. They work really hard and they have an awesome act.
Click the “comments” to leave a comment below. Cheers.
