01. The Blue Bird
02. Crépuscule hawïen
03. Manuska
04. Hawaï nous appelle
05. Sérénade bleue
06. Retour d'Hawaï
07. J'écoute la guitare
08. En écoutant l'ukulélé
09. Addio Signora!
10. Hawaiian berceuse
11. Je n'ai plus personne
12. Reflet viennois
13. Viens dans ce joli pavillon
14. Hé hop la hé
15. C'est une valse qui chante
16. Waikiki en fête
17. One kiss
18. La destinée du marin
19. Le jeune pêcheur
20. L'ile aux rêves d'or
21. Chant d'amour de Tahiti
22. Ay, ay, ay
23. De tout mon caeur
24. Dans la nuit
25. Avant de mourir
Gino Bordin [1899-1977] was born on 4th February 1899 in Vicenza, in the north east Italy. His eldest brother led an orchestra in which Gino played the musical saw and sometimes harp-guitar acquired from Luigi Mozzani, at Cesta. There he struck up a friendship with the prodigy Mario Maccaferri.
His name first appeared beside that of Michel Péguri, an accordionist, on a Perfectaphone disc where the record label showed “ banjo : Gino Bordin”. Although he later abandoned this banjo for guitar and Hawaiian guitar, he continued to play with musette accordionists until the end of his career.
In the 20s Gino supported other accordionists on his guitar and chanteurs and chanteuses also began to call on his talents as accompanist and writer. All doors opened for him, and, significantly, those to the recording studios. When the record companies realised the sudden taste for Hawaiian guitar, the slenderness of their catalogue licensed from America in this genre and the need to add a repertoire more to French public taste, they turned naturally to Gino Bordin, already a virtuoso on the instrument.
Perfectaphone recorded Dreamland and Beautiful Hawaï by Gino Bordin, Hawaiian guitar. Then Pathé issued in early 1928 four other covers of standards interpreted by a Hawaiian Trio, Bordin, Kamenetsky and de Lignori. From then Gino Bordin went on to record hundreds of titles for at least 15 labels, in his own name and also under various pseudonyms. We can count at least 120 sides for Parlophone, over 60 for Polydor and Pagode, at least 20 for Pathé. The Odéon label issued over 30 to which we should add English pressings on Decca and Ariel, those on Columbia and Polydor in Japan, Parlophone in Australia and Brazil. There were yet more titles on Salabert, Omnia, Grammophon, Supraphon, Disc Art, Gladiator, Colisée, MP, Clarus, Discum, Unifix and, after WW2, Pacific, Vogue, Mode, Mondo Music, Nixa, Saturne and Charmilles... that’s without counting the many discs he played on where the record label credit simply read: Hawaiian trio or Hawaiian Guitar
Gino Bordin adapted the guitar from Honolulu to every musical style. There were only a handful of Hawaiian standards or hapa haole tunes, but there were many originals including classical, in all sorts of orchestrations, from guitar duo to large string formations, in instrumental versions or with refrain. SACEM (the music copyright agency) handles a catalogue of about forty works written by Gino Bordin either alone or with co-writers Gardoni, Ferrari, Viseur and Saarbecoff. That short list doesn’t tell the full story because published sheet music and record labels show that he was the prolific writer of dozens more instrumental pieces and songs.
French radio stations broadcast Gino Bordin’s records widely and also invited him to play live in their studios. Then Radio Lausanne and stations from Hilversum in Holland spread his fame throughout Europe.
Now a star on records and radio, Gino increased the number of his concerts and tours. Since 1926 he had sported the white Hawaiian outfit and red silk sash, slipped the lei around his neck, posed with guitar flat on his lap and livened up the dance-halls of the casinos, at Dinard, Saint Jean-de-Luz and Monte-Carlo. In 1931 his orchestra consisted of three dancers in exotic dress, Alex Manara on second Hawaiian guitar, Vincent Kamenetsky on guitar and Joseph Puni, the authentic Hawaiian, on ukulele. Later Le Trio Havaïen saw Gino flanked by Jean Stéfani and André Thomas, Tino Rossi’s guitarists. As for the Bordin-Manara duo ...that was seen at every possible opportunity, and notably opened for Édith Piaf at the ABC in 1937. Gino Bordin played on all the great Paris stages, Paramount, Gaumont, Rex, Alhambra, Bobino, Européen, Vel’ d’Hiv, at the Carlton in Cannes, at Monte Carlo’s Palm Beach, at Maxim’s in Athens. He criss-crossed North Africa, went as far as Alexandria and Cairo, and went through Lausanne, Zurich, The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. During the war a lengthy tour took him to the Wintergardens in Vienna and Berlin and all across Germany to Prague and Warsaw
In France the guitar from Hawaii owes its popularity to Gino Bordin. At first he used a pear shaped acoustic Hawaiian guitar then being made in the Vosges. In 1932 Mario Maccaferri produced for Selmer his jazz guitar with resonator chamber which Django made famous and he designed at the same time a 7 string Hawaiian model without cutaway, an idea conceived with his friend Gino. In early 1936 it was Maccaferri who again brought him right up to date when he returned from a USA visit carrying under his arms a National lap steel electric 7 string, immediately christened the “Magic Guitar” by Gino and plugged in at the studio in May that same year. Gino, pioneer of the electric guitar, had already contributed to the instrument’s evolution by adding a low seventh string in 1931 and using a seventh tuning, then later a 6th tuning. His Nouvelle Méthode de Guitare Hawaïenne à Sept Cordes (New Hawaiian Guitar Method for 7 strings) published in 1935 by Max Eschig contained a “Transposer”, a cardboard device with holes which denote on the frets the location of notes for each chord. Based on a similar principle he also produced a set of 16 cards “500 guitar chords by the perforated strip system”. He published collections of arrangements for the instrument and up until the mid 1960s gave lessons at his home on or in the posh colleges of the southern suburbs. During this period Gino was still appearing in cabaret and still playing on stage with Fredo Gardoni. His career had lasted all through the 40s and 50s. He accompanied Patrice and Mario, then Tino Rossi once more ...and Lucienne Delyle too, while his records for Pacific and Vogue had wide distribution and the younger generation of players, Harry Hougassian and Marcel Bianchi considered him a master. From 1965 however Dupuytren’s Contracture reduced the movement in his left hand and forced him gradually to rein in his musical activity. In 1969 he retired to l’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. And that’s where he has been at rest since 14 July 1977 - liners
superb hawaiian gypsy jazz. darker & more doleful than the typical fare & perhaps more timeless as a result, but then i do dig the somber schtuff. would certainly love to find this in more prestigious bits, but til then this'll hafta do :)
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