Ivor Mairants
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ivor Mairants (18 July 1908- 20 February 1998) was a professional jazz and classical guitarist. He also taught and composed for the instrument, and with his wife Lily in 1958 created Ivor Mairants Musicentre, a specialist guitar store in London that was the first of its kind in the country and is still among the foremost of its kind in the UK.
[edit] Biography
Ivor Mairants was born in Rypin, Poland. He came with his family to the United Kingdom in 1913. He took up the banjo at the age of 15 and became a professional musician at the age of 20. From the 1930's he was a featured banjoist and then guitarist of many of Britain's leading dance bands including those of Ambrose, Roy Fox, Lew Stone, Geraldo and Ted Heath. In the 1960's and 1970's his outstanding guitar playing was often heard on television, radio, film soundtracks, and many recordings with the popular Mantovani 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 1950's on the BBC's 'Guitar Club' series.
