Kevin Murray - Alain Breitenbach - John Whyte - 1983
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THE HISTORY OF HAVANA SWING
Havana Swing are based in Dundee, Scotland.
The band has been described as being a “manouche” or “gypsy” band, but their music is swing, with a variety of numbers included in their repertoire which have been influenced by the jazz genre of Django Reinhardt. Django was a Belgian gypsy who was the first European to have an influence on American jazz. From 1922 he performed in Paris and having tragically mutilated his left hand in a caravan fire in 1928, he devised a fingering technique to overcome his disability.
The band Havana Swing was formed in 1983.
Three guitar players Alain Breitenbach, Kevin Murray and John Whyte joined forces sharing a mutual admiration of Django Reinhardt and a love of swing and jazz music generally. The name Havana Swing derives from the Dundonian pronunciation of the term “having a swing” and incorporates “Havana” in recognition of Alain’s great love of Cuban cigars.
The trio’s first engagement was at Roots Restaurant in Dundee, and the group soon became popular in the Tayside area and also great favourites of the student population at St Andrews University.
One performance of the trio in 1986 was at Mennie’s Bar in Dundee, where they played with professional jazz violinist Bert Clarke, and Bert’s brother Alec told Walt Smith to bring along his clarinet and a contact was established. In 1987 they were joined by the double bass player Calum McKenzie, who added his vocal talents to the band’s musical abilities.
The name of Jimmy Deuchar is internationally famous in the jazz world, and he happened to be sitting in the audience at a Havana Swing gig. Legend has it that he couldn’t resist joining in, and the wonderful sound of Jimmy’s flugel horn playing with Havana Swing was born. Retired and based in Dundee, Jimmy became the lead instrumentalist in the band until his untimely death in September 1993.
The year 2002 brought about the release of their first CD album entitled “Havana Swing plays Django Ecossais”.
With ever increasing outside demands being made on his time, band member and composer Kevin Murray stood down and was replaced by Ashley Malcolm in the summer of 2003. Ashley was a classically trained guitarist who brought his own individual slant to the band.
This line-up of Walt Smith on clarinet, Ashley Malcolm and John Whyte as lead guitarists, Alain Breitenbach as rhythm guitarist and Calum McKenzie on double bass was to last for almost ten years.
In 2004 the band introduced their concept of ‘new gypsy swing’ and 2005 saw the release of their second CD album titled “Django’s Lion” . Their CD title was a humorous adaptation based on the melody originally called “Django’s Tiger” and featuring Scotland’s Lion Rampant flag on the front cover.
The summer of 2005 was the start of Havana Swing’s long association with jazz festivals commencing with the Bute Jazz festival playing on Friday 30th April in the Marble Hall at Mount Stuart House, Isle of Bute.
Havana Swing’s third CD “There’s Music in the Ayr!” was released in 2010 and featured band contributions from live recordings taken at Elms Court Hotel and Blairquan Castle in Ayrshire. The CD was well reviewed in Just Jazz magazine :
“The strength of Havana Swing is broad-based. The virtuosity of John Whyte, the animated, intense playing of Walt Smith, and the fine fiery ensemble rhythm-section combine to elevate this band.”
This CD resulted in the band being shortlisted for a prestigious award at the following year’s Scottish Jazz Awards, ultimately taking the second place to John Burgess and his Nova Scotia Jazz Band.
2010 further saw the band’s third visit to France, the “31st Festival de Jazz – Django Reinhardt” held at Samois outside Paris.
Havana Swing were honoured by being invited to play at the Glastonbury Festival in 2011 and their CDs were frequently featured on BBC Radio 2. In November that year the band produced a DVD double recording called “Django’s Discovery”. This linked Dundee’s title as “the City of Discovery” with the type of music featured. The double DVD records the band’s concert performance at the Gardyne Theatre during the Dundee Jazz Festival.
2012 brought changes to band personnel with guitarists Alain Breitenbach and John Whyte leaving. They were replaced by Django devotee Dave Rattray whom the band had met up with on more than one occasion at Samois, and whose playing had been long admired. Dave and Ashley were more than able to alternate between lead and rhythm playing, and Havana Swing became an even tighter swing unit as a four-piece.
The band renewed their annual appearances at the Isle of Bute Jazz Festivals in 2013 and returned to the well-known Glenburn Hotel in Rothesay to feature in their ballroom presentations. Such was the rapport with the islanders(!) that Havana Swing were invited over for weekend concerts at the Victoria Hotel on the Isle of Bute.
Valentines Day in 2014 heralded a special wedding at the George Hotel in Perth with Havana fans Charlie and Tracy, bride and groom, seeking jazz all evening! March at the Unicorn and the band invited former guitarist Alain Breitenbach up on stage for a song. April saw a wedding at Forbes of Kingennie and a gig at Dundee Transport museum, and May featured Walt as an invited guest of the Nova Scotia Jazz Band during the Bute festival. June saw Kevin Murray playing as a deputy for Dave Rattray at Duke’s Corner, and Havana Swing were back in the Speigeltent for the Edinburgh Jazz Festival in July.
Travel was all within Scotland at the start of 2015. Fife Jazz Club provided gigs in North Queensferry and St Michael’s Inn; regular gigs were at Milton House, Sante’s in Perth, Duke’s Corner, Edinburgh Tea Dance club, Barry Golf Club, Glenburn Hotel and Edinburgh speigeltent with Roger and Louise’s wedding the highlight at Kinkell Byre in Fife.
Personnel changed in 2015 with Ashley Malcolm seeking more personal time and Calum McKenzie deciding also to leave.
Kevin Murray took Ashley’s chair and Kenny Irons deputised for Calum when he was able, but running his own band equipment company made this difficult.
2016 was a busy year and Havana Swing benefitted from some classy deputies none better than Marcus Ford who stood in for Kevin at a Balboa Dance night. Highlights included weddings at Surgeons Hall in Edinburgh, Cortachy Castle, and MSP Jenny Marra’s wedding at Rufflets Hotel followed the next evening by a very enjoyable birthday celebration at Kinblethmont House, near Arbroath. Havana Swing were asked to play a fund raising show in Dundee City centre. This was a challenge as the previous year’s fundraising effort was handled by Deacon Blue and we hoped to raise as much as the well-known pop group. Tickets were priced at £15 and were available from Groucho’s Dundee and Eventbrite but we received great support and the tickets sold well.
The next two years put several bass players in the red shirt of Havana Swing – Owen MacDonald and Mario Caribe (Brazil) covered the early festivals and Paddy Beakley (New Zealand) covered a later Edinburgh festival.
2017 started with a memorial jazz afternoon for Douglas Gow (former sax and clarinet player with the East Coast Jazzmen) and finished with a memorable wedding afternoon and evening at Cambo House, Kingsbarns. The band’s concentration this year was focused on festivals and we appeared at six, including the first ever festival at Portpatrick and an absolutely jam packed Clark’s Bar for the Almost Blue Festival. The Dundee Jazz Festival included the introduction of Ray Elrick on double bass, and that vacant seat has now been well filled. He is moreover a very fine keys player so yet another instrumental combination becomes possible.
Havana Swing have now appeared at the Scottish Jazz Festivals of Aberdeen, Arran, Ayr, Bute, Callander, Dundee, Edinburgh, Fife, Glasgow, Inverurie, Kirkcudbright, Lockerbie, Montrose, Perth, Pittenweem, Portpatrick, Scone, Shetland, Stranraer and ventured across the border a few times to play at Keswick and various trips to London. Havana are one of five bands selected to appear at Rothesay’s first Bute Manouche Festival in October this year, and are further booked to feature at the first Dumfries Jazz Weekend in March 2020.
Nothing matters more to Havana Swing than playing their music, and they are as busy as ever. The proof of their popularity is shown at each performance – full to capacity, as witnessed at a recent Aberdeen Jazz Festival. Despite the ‘Sold Out’ notice punters were still being turned away from the front desk.
Walt Smith - July 2019