This is maybe an odd starting place for this edition of Six Degrees of Kevin Shields, but Django Reinhardt is a name I had heard mentioned many times before, but without really knowing anything about him. And then, a few weeks ago, they played one of his tunes on 6Music - it turns out he has an interesting story.
So, that is where we will begin this time - with jazz guitar pioneer, Django Reinhardt - as we once again, wend our away through some random musical connections, towards Kevin Shields. This route was a tough nut to crack, as several of the pathways I was on, seemed to not to be taking me the right way - but I stuck with it and finally hooked up some connections through to Kevin.
Jean Reinhardt was born in Belgium in 1910, in a Manouche Romani family. Django was a nickname - one version says it was a Romani name, another version says it may have been a Walloon version of his given name. In 1928, the caravan that Django and his young wife lived in, caught fire. He was left badly burned and without the use of the fourth and fifth fingers on his left hand - not ideal for a budding guitarist. But he defied the doctors and adapted his way of playing. By the early 1930s he was down in Paris, where in 1934, he formed Quintelle du Hot Club with young violin virtuoso, Stephane Grappelli.
Django Reinhardt: Minor Swing - https://youtu.be/uTlo809EIlo
In 1973, the Allman Brothers Band wrote what would become one of their classics - Jessica. Now, the song was written about Dickey Betts' young daughter, Jessica, but what gives us a nice link, is that it was also written as a tribute to Django Reinhardt, being as it was designed to be played with only two fingers! The music for the song was collaboration between Betts and Les Dudek.
Les Dudek had built himself a bit of a reputation around Florida, playing in local bands like The United Sands and Blue Truth. This got a young Dudek a job in the studio working with the Allmans. As well as playing acoustic guitar on Jessica, he can also be heard playing guitar harmonies with Betts on their big hit, Ramblin' Man. Dudek subsequently went on to work with the likes of Boz Skaggs, the Steve Miller Band, then record four solo albums, before eventually getting to work with Cher and Stevie Nicks.
Steve Miller formed his band in San Francisco in 1966. The band went on to have some huge hits through the 1970s and early 80s, including The Joker in 1973 (#1 in both US and UK), Fly Like An Eagle (a US #2 in 1978) and Abracadabra in 1982 (another US #1 - and UK #2).The band had many members over the years, including Boz Skaggs (1967-68), Doug Clifford, previously of Creedence Clearwater Revival fame (1975) and Ross Valory (1970-71).
Ross Valory was a founder member of Journey and played with them from the beginning, in 1973, through to 1985, and again from 1995 to 2020. He was part of their Rock n Roll Hall of Fame induction. He was noted from the unusual way he strings his bass - using the bottom 4 strings from a 5 string bass set - giving him a B-E-A-D tuning (instead of the standard E-A-D-G). Journey's big hit, Don't Stop Believin' became, in 2009, the most streamed iTunes track, not from the 21st century. Also part of their Hall of Fame induction, was Aynsley Dunbar, who played on the first four Journey albums.
Fun Fact: We interrupt this edition of 6 Degrees for a fun Journey fact. They had 19 US Top 40 hits, but never a number one - making them second on the all-time list, behind ELO, who had 20 US Top 40 songs without hitting the top spot!
Aynsley Dunbar was born in Liverpool in 1946. He had been in the running for the drummers stool in the Jimi Hendrix Experience. It is said that the decision was so tough for Hendrix, that Mitch Mitchell got the job after winning a coin toss! Dunbar joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers between 1965 and 67, before he was replaced by a certain Mick Fleetwood. After that, he did some solo stuff, formed a prog rock band called Blue Whale, to which he tried to lure Robert Fripp from the recently ended King Crimson (Fripp also tried to get Dunbar into Crimson when he got the band up and running again). He played extensively with Frank Zappa, on two solo records and three by the Mothers of Invention - then with Nils Lofgren, Jefferson Starship (3 albums), before finding himself in the mid-80s with hoary old rockers, Whitesnake. Throw in some time with UFO, The Animals and Michael Schenker, and you have a pretty varied career. Rolling Stone named him #27 on their all-time greatest drummers list.
In December 1978, Dunbar found himself playing a one-off gig at the Winterland in San Francsico, with The Tubes. The Tubes had released their debut album, White Punks On Dope, in 1975. They went on to have some chart success in 1983, when the single She's A Beauty got some MTV airtime and made it to #10 in the US chart. Back to 1976 - and their second album, Young & Rich, which made it into the lower reaches of the US Top50 album chart, was produced by an Englishman - Ken Scott.
Ken Scott was an assistant engineer in London in the 60s. Working with George Martin, he eventually became one of five main engineers who would work with the Beatles. In his first session after promotion to engineer, he got to work on Your Mother Should Know. He would go on to engineer for the likes of Elton John, Pink Floyd, Procol Harum - and produce works by Supertramp, Devo and Level 42. He was also considered a pioneer in the development of jazz-rock, through his work with people like Stanley Clarke, Jeff Beck and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Perhaps some of his most well known collaborations were with David Bowie. After engineering on The Man Who Sold The World, he would co-produce Hunky Dorey, The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars, Aladdin Sane, before finishing his time with Bowie, working on the covers album Pin-Ups.
1986 saw David Bowie returning to acting, in the Julian Temple film Absolute Beginners, based on a novel by Colin MacInnes. The film starred Bowie alongside a young Patsy Kensit and James Fox. Patsy Kensit's band, Eighth Wonder, also appeared on the film's soundtrack, as did Bowie. He sang two of his own songs, Absolute Beginners and That's Motivation, and also added the 50s Italian classic Volare. Another song on the soundtrack album was Have You Ever Had It Blue? written by Paul Weller and recorded by his post-Jam band, The Style Council.
Paul Weller released a solo album in 2010 called Wake Up The Nation. One guest guitarist, playing on She Speaks and 7 & 3 Is The Strikers Name, was one KEVIN SHIELDS.