Gino Bordin: Virtuoso of the Hawaiian Guitar

Gino Bordin and the Hawaiian guitar: 1930s Paris ( English) Gino Bordin en de Hawaïgitaar: Parijs jaren dertig (Nederlands) Gino Bordin: Virtuoso of the Hawaiian Guitar ( English) Gino Bordin : Hawaï-gitaar virtuoos (Nederlands)

Guitares Hawaiiennes 1930s
GINO BORDIN: VIRTUOSO OF THE HAWAIIAN GUITAR
Jørgen Larsen

Recently GrassSkirt records released a great album with reissues of 1930s recordings by the French Hawaiian guitar player Gino Bordin (1899-1977). This reissue is entitled Gino Bordin - Virtuoso de la Guitare Hawaiiene ( 1930s Paris) and contains two dozens of tracks recorded during the 1930s by this famous, but now almost forgottten, guitar player Gino Bordin: A great album dedicated to the Hawaiianguitar. Jørgen Larsen introduced us, in a previous blog, to Gino Bordin's early career up to his most famous years - the period of successes during the 1930s and 40s to his death in 1977, complete forgotten. In today's contribution the recent reissues by Gino Bordin and his colleagues will be reviewed, including the Gino Bordin - Virtuoso de la Guitare Hawaiiene album.
Paris Jazz Corner 983 643-5
In 2006, a few years ago, the French label Paris Jazz Corner released a cd titled Paris, Plages d'Hawaii - Guitares Hawaiiennes 1930 featuring 1930s recordings of French Hawaiian guitarists compiled by Cyril LeFebvre and Dominic Cravic. Gino Bordin was heavily featured on the compilation further containing extensive notes, as published in the Aloha International Magazine of Oct - Dec. 2007 written by Cyril LeFebvre (translated by Les Cook) from which the info on Bordin, in Gino Bordin and the Hawaiian guitar: 1930s Paris is extracted.

Grass Skirt GSK 1003

However, recently a new cd solely devoted to the Hawaiian guitar recordings of Gino Bordin has been released by the small English label Grassskirt Records, entitled Gino Bordin - Virtuose de la Guitare Hawaiienne (1930s Paris).

Jolies Fleurs d' Hawaii: available on the Paris, Plages d'Hawaii album.
The cd contains 25 recordings from the 1930s featuring Bordin in various settings, again compiled in cooporation with Cyril LeFebvre. The cd encloses further extensive notes on Bordin's career and a magnificent audio restauration has been maintained to save the sound of the original 78 rpms in best available audio format.

Gino Bordin (1899-1977)

The music on the cd are not Hawaiian Hulas, but European waltzes, a few fox-trots and tangos performed on the Hawaiian guitar in different combinations and many of the tunes composed by Gino Bordin - a great document of a period in European popular music when the sound of the Hawaiian guitar was maintained by a virtuoso of the instrument. - To give you an impression of the music I love to share with you a fragment of Gino Bordin playing a theme by Chopin

The cd, Gino Bordin, Virtuose de Guitare Hawaiienne, 1930s Paris as shown above, is available online from Grassskirts Records

Jørgen Larsen
keepswinging@live.nl


A random check on the Dutch radio programs of the 6th of February, 1934, learns that, beside fragments of light classical music, played by the Omroeporkest directed by A. Van Raalte and popular music by John Van Prück (sic) ( = Brück), the Italian guitar player Gino Bordin "en zijn Hawaiian orkest" is a sought after popular item on the A.V.R.O. networks. ( from: Het Vaderland). The Keep Swinging blog spotlights this now forgotten and neglected Hawaiian guitar player. Don't miss it!! Ask for its weekly newsletter.


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