Ivor Mairants
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Ivor Mairants (18 July 1908 – 20 February 1998) was a Polish jazz and classical
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
ist, teacher and composer. With his wife Lily in 1958 he created the Ivor Mairants Musicentre, a specialist guitar store in London.


Biography

Ivor Mairants was born in
Rypin Rypin (german: Rippin) is a town in north-central Poland, in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, about 50 km east of Toruń. It is the capital of Rypin County. Population is 16,950 (2009). History Rypin was founded in the Middle Ages, and ...
, Poland. He moved with his family to the United Kingdom in 1913 and attended
Raine's Foundation School Raine's Foundation School was a Church of England voluntary aided school based on two sites in Bethnal Green in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England. It was situated in the north of Bethnal Green, just to the east of ''Cambridge Heath ...
in
Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By ...
. He began learning the banjo at the age of 17, and became a professional musician three years later. Beginning in the 1930s, he was a banjoist and guitarist for British dance bands led by Bert Firman, Ambrose,
Roy Fox Roy Fox (October 25, 1901 – March 20, 1982) was an American-born British dance bandleader who was popular in Britain during the British dance band era. Early life and career Roy Fox was born in Denver, Colorado, United States. He and his ...
,
Lew Stone Louis Stone known professionally as Lew Stone (28 June 1898 – 13 February 1969) was a British bandleader and arranger of the British dance band era, and was well known in Britain during the 1930s. He was known as a skillful, innovative a ...
, Geraldo, and
Ted Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...
. In the 1960s and 1970s his guitar playing was often heard on television, radio, film soundtracks, and many recordings with the
Mantovani Annunzio Paolo Mantovani (; 15 November 1905 – 29 March 1980) was an Anglo-Italian conductor, composer and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' sta ...
orchestra and with Manuel and his Music of the Mountains. His recording of the "Adagio" from Joaquin Rodrigo's ''Concierto de Aranjuez'' with Manuel sold over one million copies. His guitar quintet broadcast regularly in the late 1950s on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's ''Guitar Club'' series. Mairants devoted much time to writing music and instructional method books for guitar. He worked with American guitarist
Josh White Joshua Daniel White (February 11, 1914 – September 5, 1969) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names Pinewood Tom and Tippy Barton in the 1930s. White grew up in the Sout ...
on ''The Josh White Guitar Method'' ( Boosey & Hawkes) in 1956. British guitarist
John Renbourn John Renbourn (8 August 1944 – 26 March 2015) was an English guitarist and songwriter. He was best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo care ...
and American guitarist Stefan Grossman (who was living in the UK at the time) have cited it as an influence on their playing. The success ''The Josh White Guitar Method'' prompted Mairants to commission a Zenith "Josh White" signature guitar based on Josh's Martin 0021 from German guitar maker Oscar Teller. Scottish guitarist
Bert Jansch Herbert Jansch (3 November 1943 – 5 October 2011) was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter ...
owned one of these models in his early playing years. On the last page of ''Josh White Guitar Method'' (printed 1956) there is a photo of this Zenith Josh White signature guitar and some text about it. In 1958, his book ''The Flamenco Guitar'' was published. It was written with the cooperation of Torroba (conductor), Sabicas, and other guitarists. The Guild Guitar Company in the US worked with Josh White on a signature model in 1965. Mark Dronge took Josh White to the Guild factory in 1965. A guitar made to Josh White's specifications was made and was meant to become a signature guitar for White, but it was never mass-produced. Dronge said, "The scene was starting to change. The Beatles were so influential and all these bands came out and the electric music was getting bigger and the plans for Josh White model just kind of fell by the wayside, unfortunately." Mairants commissioned German guitar manufacturer
Framus Framus is a German string instrument manufacturing company, that existed from 1946 until going bankrupt in 1975. The Framus brand was revived in 1995 as part of Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG, in Markneukirchen, Germany. The company's cu ...
to make further Zenith Guitars, with Boosey & Hawkes the sole distributor and each guitar signed by him. These included the Zenith Model 17 acoustic which became
Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
's first guitar and on which he wrote most of his early songs. In an interview McCartney relates how he was surprised to see a 'chit' in Abbey Road Studios that Mairants had signed as a session musician - "...he was a God to us." In 1950 Mairants established the Central School of Dance Music in London, which he ran for 10 years. All instruments were taught at this establishment, but emphasis was given to guitar. Among the teaching staff at the school were
Johnny Dankworth Johnny is an English language personal name. It is usually an affectionate diminutive of the masculine given name John, but from the 16th century it has sometimes been a given name in its own right for males and, less commonly, females. Varian ...
, Jack Brymer, Kenny Baker, Bert Weedon and Ike Isaacs, as well as Eric Gilder. In 1960 Mairants handed the school over to Gilder, who renamed it as the Eric Gilder School of Music. In 1958, with his wife Lily, he opened The Ivor Mairants Musicentre. This was Britain's first
guitar shop A music store or musical instrument store is a retail business that sells musical instruments and related equipment and accessories. Some music stores sell additional services, such as music lessons, music instrument or equipment rental, or re ...
, in the heart of the West End of London. He was often employed as a consultant for instrument makers and importers. Beginning in the 1930s, Mairants was a columnist for '' Melody Maker'', '' BMG'', and ''Classical Guitar''. In 1980, his biography ''My Fifty Fretting Years'' was published by Ashley Mark Publishing in the UK and, in 1995, his book ''The Great Jazz Guitarists'', a collection of note-for-note transcriptions of historic jazz guitar solos, was published by
Music Maker Publications Music Maker Publications is a publishing company established in Ely, Britain in 1986, that specialized in books and magazines relevant to the music industry.Paul Théberge, ''Any Sound You Can Imagine: Making Music/Consuming Technology'' (1997), ...
in Cambridge, England. He was a member of the Worshipful Society of Musicians, a British guild, and a
Freeman Freeman, free men, or variant, may refer to: * a member of the Third Estate in medieval society (commoners), see estates of the realm * Freeman, an apprentice who has been granted freedom of the company, was a rank within Livery companies * Free ...
of the City of London. In 1997 the Worshipful Society of Musicians inaugurated an annual competition for the Ivor Mairants Guitar Award. The Ivor Mairants shop, in
Rathbone Place Rathbone Place is a street in central London that runs roughly north-west from Oxford Street to Percy Street. it is joined on its eastern side by Percy Mews, Gresse Street, and Evelyn Yard. The street is mainly occupied by retail and office pre ...
, finally closed its doors in December 2019 after 61 years, though the business is still running online.Ivor Mairants Musiccentre: About Us
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References


Bibliography

* Harper, Colin. ''Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival'', 2002 * Mairants, Ivor. ''Ivor Mairants' Guide to Latin American Rhythms for Guitar''. London: Latin-American Music Publishing, 1962 * Wald, Elijah. ''Josh White: Society Blues'', 2000


External links


Ivor Mairants' Musicentre info page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mairants, Ivor 1908 births 1998 deaths Polish guitarists Polish male guitarists People educated at Raine's Foundation School 20th-century guitarists 20th-century male musicians