In the early ‘90s, gypsy jazz guitarist Robin Nolan was a frequent busker on the streets of Amsterdam. However, he’d soon find himself playing before more star-studded audiences thanks to an unlikely hero — George Harrison’s gardener.
Leidseplein, a busy square in the canal-lined Dutch city, was one of Nolan's go-to spots. It's an area known for its rich nightlife and is typically populated by a variety of street performers at any one time. Unbeknownst to him, one of his customers was George Harrison's gardener, who, knowing his employer was always thirsty for new music, passed Nolan's CD on to him.
“The next thing I know,” Nolan tells Guitar World, “George and [his wife] Olivia call to ask if we'd play at their Christmas party.”
Nolan, in Harrison’s eyes, was more than just entertainment — he was a seasoned expert in gypsy jazz guitar. The pair struck up a long-lasting friendship, and the guitarist’s "pinch me" moments became commonplace.
“We played [their son] Dhani Harrison's 21st birthday, and everyone there was famous except for us,” he says with a laugh. “Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, Ravi Shankar, the Monty Python members. We'd be doing our Django Reinhardt stuff and George would say, 'Check these guys out!' Our CD was in his jukebox with all his favorite music. We even got to play together. It was surreal.”
In the years following Harrison's death in 2001, Nolan had toyed with the idea of penning a tribute album: something that blended the gypsy-jazz playing style that his friend loved so dearly with his extensive and instantly-recognizable body of work. Then, the concept took on a life of its own after visiting Olivia at Friar Park on her birthday.
“We were all talking, and then George's Ramîrez acoustic guitar appeared and I played ‘And I Love Her’ on it,” he recounts. “It was a massive thrill to play the song on the same guitar George originally recorded it on with Olivia and everyone watching.”
“I had already been thinking about how cool it would be to do an album of George's songs, but then to actually be playing one of his songs on that guitar, that's another layer of awesomeness,” he adds. “So that was where the inspiration for the album was born.”
With Olivia’s blessing, the album was recorded at Friar Park with a trio of Harrison’s guitars, including the 12-string Rickenbacker that can be heard on “A Hard Day’s Night” and a Gibson J-160E acoustic-electric that starred on a score of Beatles LPs.
“When you put your fingers in the same place that George put his fingers on the same guitar from an epic recording from the Beatles, and it sounds the same, it blows you away,” Nolan says when asked about his experiences playing such history-steeped guitars.
“Noodling or trying to shred was out the window. With these songs, I was only thinking of George. I just wanted to play for him.”
A total of 10 Harrison tracks — from "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" to "I Want To Tell You" — feature on the resulting record, titled For the Love of George. The jewel in the crown is an unfinished Harrison song that Nolan has completed with approval from Olivia. Harrison’s idea was sent to him via a text message that showed a picture of an envelope with Harrison's writing and a chord progression scribbled upon it.
“I had to unravel the mystery of what he intended. As I played the changes, I kind of heard George's voice humming in my head,” Nolan continues.
With a loose idea mapped out, he sent it to Oliva while trying to quiet the voices in his head that told him she'd hate it.
“That was nerve-wracking,” he says with a sigh. “But she texted back, ‘Oh, it sounds so George!' Now the copyright says, 'Harrison–Nolan.' It’s unreal.”
The album released in February with the Harrison–Nolan written title track opening the record and unifying their talents in a truly fascinating way.
Nolan’s full interview, as well as an image of the aforementioned envelope, features in the latest issue of Guitar World, which can be ordered from Magazines Direct.
Meanwhile, David Crosby has explained how he introduced George Harrison to Ravi Shankar – a moment that would reshape the Beatles’ history.
