Vancouver Flashback IV

Chapter 16

Robert Chris Jordan


Robert C. Jordan, or Chris Jordan as we knew him then, came onto the Vancouver classical guitar scene around 1965 and became a familiar face to all those lovers of classical guitar who were around the Mediterranean shop and elsewhere in the city.

He had previously played violin with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and was a truly professional musician who had performed widely. He studied guitar with Eduardo Sainz de la Maza in Barcelona and later worked with Julian Bream in Stratford, Ontario.

Click to listen to Etude No.9 in MIDI format.
Sequenced by Dmitri Bachovich

I was interested in his rather unusual right hand finger technique, learned from Sainz de la Maza and so took some lessons with him for a while. He introduced me to the Matteo Carcassi Intermediate Etudes Op.60 arranged by Karl Scheit, which I found to be very good and later passed on to a couple of my own more advanced students.

The Guitar Player - Joseph De Camp 1908

Chris Jordan played often at guitar meetings in my old rented house on west 27th Ave. and was one of the founding members of The Vancouver Classical Guitar Society. I remember going with Chris and Bill Lewis in Chris' Volkswagen beetle driving one evening from Vancouver down to Seattle to see a concert by Julian Bream. I believe we drove back to Vancouver again the same night. We were all very enthusiastic...and younger...in those times.
Here is more about Robert Chris Jordan.

Barry Hall


Barry was a popular and talented folk musician who played both guitar and five-string banjo. He was a performer in and around Vancouver who came to teach both guitar and banjo in the Mediterranean shop. As a teenager, he made a record for Folkways Records called The Virtuoso Five-String Banjo.


Here is a clip of Barry performing Little Maggie.

Barry later left the Mediterranean shop to teach in Bill Lewis' Music studio. Here is a writeup from that time.

As far as I know at present, Robert C. Jordan is still teaching classical guitar in Vancouver and Barry Hall is still performing there on the folk music scenario.
I have fond memories of both of them from those past times.

Les Deux Guitars - Suzanne Delbays

Continue on to Chapter 17...... Vancouver Flashback V - Bill Lewis

Go back to Chapter 15......Vancouver Flashback III - Mike Dunn & Ray Nurse

Vancouver Flashback III

Chapter 15

Teaching guitar was enjoyable and I looked forward to my evenings at the Mediterranean Shop, as well as those nights when I gave beginner's folk accompaniment at the YMCA in downtown Vancouver. Before leaving for Spain, Bill Lewis had suggested I take classes in advanced theory and harmony from a retired European university music professor friend of his who lived in east Vancouver, so that was added to my agenda. Those hours were good for me, as they nurtured the spaces inside that needed filling. I loved to study so it was rewarding to have a new challenge.


On evenings when there was a lull in lessons at the shop, some of us would go a few doors up the street for a quick Chinese dinner at The Varsity Grill, where generous quantities of the best Chinese food in memory could be bought by hungry students at a weekly or monthly rate. It was owned and run by Bing, a friendly oriental man with an incredible memory for names and faces. Together with family members he operated one of the first home delivery services, which I made use of many times.

Here are some of the people who were active in and around the Mediterranean Shop or in the guitar circle at that time:

Michael Dunn:

Photo by Victor Smith

Mike started working on guitar repairs for George Bowden during the time Bill Lewis was in Spain. He played flamenco guitar and was an admirer of the gypsy-jazz style of Django Reinhardt. A familiar face around the shop, Mike was also present at some of the gatherings and guitar socials in the old house on west 27th Ave.

After Bill Lewis returned from the guitar factory in Mallorca, Mike went over to Spain for a couple of years to study the methods of guitar construction from the Spanish luthiers Jose Orti and Jose Ferrer in George Bowden's factory. Upon returning to Vancouver he worked together with Ray Nurse to build lutes and with Edward Turner to build harpsichords.
More is written about Mike Dunn on this link.

Mike has been making music in a band, lecturing and building custom art guitars in his Vancouver workshop. He is recognized as one of Canada's top instrument builders and one of the world’s leading luthiers in the Maccaferri and Selmer style.
Here is another link from Michael with photos of guitars he has made. And yet another link from the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Ray Nurse:


Ray Nurse was another highly talented performer and luthier who was present in the days of The Mediterranean Shop, working with George Bowden and Mike Dunn.

The following text from article by The Lute Society of America:
He has performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia, and appeared on many broadcasts and recordings. His research has led him to museums and libraries around the world and he is in constant demand as a teacher at workshops. A versatile performing musician, instrument maker and researcher in historical music, Nurse was a founding member of Early Music Vancouver, The New World Consort, the Vancouver Chamber Choir and Pacific Baroque Orchestra.

He originally studied voice and musicology at the Department of Music at the University of British Columbia and in 1972 he won the Vancouver Met auditions. During the 1970s he took a break from singing to pursue other interests, studying lute performance and lute-making. Since the 1980s he has concentrated on early music performance and research, with special interest in early singing and opera, and directing The New World Consort (1982-1989), which toured extensively in Europe and North America.

He currently co-directs the Baroque Vocal Programme in the Vancouver Early Music Programme at U.B.C., coaches early music for the U.B.C. Dept of Music, is professionally active as a lutenist, accompanist, and continuo player, and continues to build instruments for selected customers.
More about Ray Nurse on this link.

Continue on to Chapter 16...... Vancouver Flashback IV - Robert C. Jordan & Barry Hall

Go back to Chapter 14......Vancouver Flashback II - My Students & Edward R. Turner

Vancouver Flashback - II

Chapter 14

Those first weeks learning to play went by quickly. Since George Bowden had loaned me one of his new guitar models to try out I practised for hours every day, enjoying the mellow sound of a real Spanish-made instrument. After I'd been studying for three months Bill Lewis asked me if I would come in and start teaching the youngest of the beginner students. It was a great compliment and I was eager to try.

Jeune Espagnole Avec Une Guitare - Renoir

At that time folk music was in a peak and many young people wanted to emulate Bob Dylan, Joan Baez or The Beatles and become popular as the one who could play and sing for their friends. Old guitars were being taken down from walls to be handed over to the youngster of the family and both were brought into the guitar shop in the hope that lessons would help their child learn the basics enough to at least play simple tunes, and hopefully go further.

Unfortunately many of those basement room wall guitars should have just stayed on the wall as a decoration since they were unplayable, and had warped necks which raised the strings an impossible distance above the fingerboard so that tiny fingers would not be able to press them down. I had to communicate this to the parents in the hope that they could afford to buy a minimum quality student guitar. As is true for most musical instruments, they must have a certain level in order to be playable, and produce a sound decent enough that a student feels encouraged by his efforts.

La Joueuse - Renoir

I started teaching both classical technique and folk accompaniment to my young students and was careful to start them off with correct body and hand positions, making sure they established good habits which didn't have to be undone later when they attempted to play more difficult pieces. It was challenging but I enjoyed teaching immensely and was soon taking on older students and adults.

The Mediterranean Shop was a happy place, filled with interesting people coming in to visit or take lessons as well as attracting an increasing number of experienced guitarists who were willing to give lessons or were interested in new instruments. Bill Lewis and George Bowden had a workshop set up in a back room where guitars were repaired and adjusted. I loved the smell of the wood and breathed deeply of that familiar aroma whenever I entered the guitar shop. Then Mr. G.(Bowden) decided to send Bill Lewis to Spain, to his factory in Palma de Mallorca in order to better learn the guitar building techniques used there.

La Musique - Henri Matisse

Meanwhile many of the classical guitarists as well as those who played flamenco or jazz were congregating around the Mediterranean shop and visiting the large old rented house that my husband and I had up in the Dunbar area of Vancouver on west 27th Avenue. We wanted to establish a Classical Guitar Society so we started having meetings there about once a month. The classical guitarists would congregate on the main floor, the flamencos in the attic and the folk players and jazz aficionados were in the basement. Those were fun times and more than once the remains of my Sunday roast ended up as roast beef and pickle sandwiches to feed a hungry group at the end of our meetings.


The Turner Organistrum - photo from the Canadian Museum of Civilization

At that time my husband started a little factory in the basement, producing 5-string banjos. We also had a basement room which we rented out for a period of time to our friend Ted Turner, (Edward R. Turner) who had studied at the École des Beaux Arts de Montreal and in later years became world famous as a graphic artist, lecturer, builder of harpsichords and replicas of early stringed instruments, such as the organistrum. He also produced reproductions of historic aircraft and designed sailboats. (Ted I'm glad to hear you survived my rather inexperienced cooking from those days when you shared our table, and so happy to hear of your success.)


Photo from the Canadian Museum of Civilization

Here is a link from the Canadian Museum of Civilization about Edward R. Turner, and another link about him from the Canadian Encyclopedia of Music in Canada.

There are more interesting people from this group of friends who have gone on to add their talent to Canada's musical heritage. I will write about them in the next pages.

And one day, after much writing and rewriting of our constitution and charter, over coffees and sandwiches in that old house on west 27th Avenue, we officially became The Vancouver Classical Guitar Society.

Continue on to Chapter 15...... Vancouver Flashback III - Mike Dunn & Ray Nurse

Go back to Chapter 13......Vancouver Flashback I - The Mediterranean Shop

Vancouver Flashback - I

Chapter 13

Sometimes a small step off the main road can lead to a life change. A detour from one’s customary path can at times be the passageway to another existence. So it was with me one day in Vancouver, when walking along Tenth Avenue in the early 1960s. I saw a store that I hadn't noticed before. 'The Mediterranean Shop' was written over the doorway and I was intrigued, so I walked in.
And there my life changed.


At the time, I was a young wife and mother of two little girls and I was searching for a creative outlet. My husband was just finishing university and we had no money for paints or art equipment.
My Vancouver Regional Library card was well worn but just reading wasn't enough. I had heard Andres Segovia playing classical guitar and was captivated by the special sound of that instrument.

So that day when I saw guitars hanging in The Mediterranean Shop I was drawn inside where I was greeted by a tall, grey-haired man who spoke with a slight British accent. He told me the guitars on the wall were made in his own factory in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. His name was George Moore Bowden and his guitar factory in Spain was called Los Guitarreros de Mallorca.


When I realized that here were Spanish-made guitars I enquired about lessons.....was there a teacher near? He responded that he had a good teacher named Bill Lewis who was at that time taking master classes in California with Andres Segovia but he would be returning soon to teach in the shop. Although I had no money for lessons, I signed up. I knew from where I could borrow an old nylon stringed guitar and that would have to do. (We were so poor that we reused teabags, stringing them up on a rail in the kitchen with clothespegs to dry until the next day.)

With my girls and my beehive hairdo in Stanley Park, Vancouver.

I was excited to start taking lessons from Bill Lewis. He was a man who played classical well and could impress me and others with his flamenco rasgueado, although that wasn't going to be my genre.

YouTube~rasgueado (Caution...it's very loud!)

I would be taking the Aaron Shearer Classic Guitar method. It was a surprise to learn that I’d be using a little footstool for my left foot. I hadn't noticed that classical guitarists didn't usually play with their guitar slung horizontally over one knee.

I took to the instrument with a passion. Since I’d had piano lessons and choir experience in the past, I could read music and had a knowledge of theory and harmony. After a few weeks I could also tune the guitar myself with the help of the little pitch pipe that was used for this.

Volume One of Aaron Shearer was my introduction to Classical Guitar and the book I was later to use for my beginner students. It was very well written and easy to follow.

At the time I’d also heard Julian Bream playing J.S. Bach’s Chaconne, written originally for violin in D minor,but heard first by me played on classical guitar.

Yehudi Menuhin plays Part one on You Tube.

Part two is on the same page.

Although we had only an old and very large tape recorder and no record player, I played that piece over and over again. Every day found me practicing scales, arpeggios and the first little studies of Aaron Shearer, in between caring for the small apartment and children. It was thrilling to be able to produce such sounds even from a simple and old guitar.

Chaconne - Part One

Chaconne - Part Two

Parts One and Two of the Chaconne by J.S. Bach played by Andres Segovia on guitar. (YouTube)

Then Mr. G. loaned me one of his Spanish made guitars. It was a model with a slightly longer neck, and I would have an even harder reach with the left hand fingers. He said he would like me to try it out as it was a bit different from his other models. I was finally able to start playing a real guitar that had been made in Spain. It sounded beautiful and I was in heaven!

Continue on to Chapter 14......Vancouver Flashback II - My Students and Edward R. Turner

Go back to Chapter 12......The Guitar Factory

Photo credit of G.Bowden to "Classical Guitar",
Newcastle - 1994, article by Ivor Mairants.

The Guitar Factory

Chapter 12


Mr. G.’s guitar factory at that time was located on the edge of Palma in The Pueblo Español, or Spanish Village, an enclosed area built in 1965 consisting of nearly one hundred replicas of famous Spanish buildings and monuments. It was quite a pleasant place, with its winding streets, main plaza and fountains where one could see, for example, smaller versions of the Alhambra of Granada, the house of Greco and the large and beautiful Palacio de Congresos, the Congress Palace where international events are still held today.


When I arrived in Mallorca it was all fairly new and the little guitar factory, called Los Guitarreros de Mallorca, was installed in one of the buildings seen on the left in the street of the top photo. The guitar builder from mainland Spain, José Orti, also know as el maestro, had left and been replaced by José Ferrer who was aided by two young ladies, Pepa from Andalucia and Maria, who was Mallorquin. They helped with the work as well as the polishing and finishing of the guitars.

El maestro had also been responsible for teaching the Japanese constructors at Yamaha how to make a Spanish classical guitar. A wall of the Palma workshop, el taller displayed framed photos of this elderly gentleman in his black beret surrounded by a group of white lab-coated Japanese in the Yamaha factory as he showed them the intricacies of contructing a classical guitar.

Here below is the first guitar label placed inside the guitars made at Los Guitarreros de Mallorca.


There is no scent to me more captivating than that found inside a guitar workshop. The woods have such a wonderful perfume! The rosewood for the back and sides, the cedar and spruce for the tops and the beautiful ebony for the fingerboards give off their peculiar aromas as they are shaven and moulded into shape. Just being in a workshop where the goal is to build an exquisite instrument for the purpose of creating beautiful music is exciting, and it is even more so as the instrument begins to take form, and is then polished, and then strung and then with great anticipation …..tested for the first time. What satisfaction it is when the creation turns out well!

My present guitar made in June 1968 by José Ferrer, son.


At this point I feel it is time to reveal the identity of Mr.G., my mentor and good friend, whom I had met in the early 1960s in Vancouver in his guitar outlet called The Mediterranean Shop, on tenth avenue near the university gates, where I learned to play and later to teach classical guitar. Since this dear, quiet man, who dedicated himself to studying and improving the construction of guitars is no longer living and has since become a legend not only in the Balearic Isles, but also in the whole of Spain as one of the great contemporary luthiers of the past generation, I should not keep his identity hidden any longer.


His name was George Moore Bowden. There has been much written about him and his parents who came to settle in Mallorca in 1932 and I will elaborate more on my relationship with this unique family in a coming entry.

Here is a photo of George Bowden with his successor, Antonio Morales:


I was just a bystander but I had been drawn deeply into being a part of all this. It began in Vancouver, B.C. around 1964.

Continue on to Chapter 13...... Vancouver Flashback - Mediterranean Shop

Go back to Chapter 11......The Guitar Center

The Guitar Center

Chapter 11

(click to enlarge photos)

The Guitar Centre, also known as El Centro de la Guitarra Clásica Española, was situated in Calle Montenegro 10. Just behind the avenue of the Borne and not far from Plaza de la Reina, it was located in one of a number of large old townhouses formerly owned by wealthy families of Palma.

The Centre was on a second floor and consisted of several rooms, one of which was a heavily curtained concert salon where local and visiting guitarists gave evening performances on a small stage.


Near the entrance, a long foyer lined with glass cabinets served as a showcase where Mr. G. displayed guitars made in his Palma factory. Down two stairs off the foyer was a music room where I was to be giving lessons. Inside the music room was a door leading to another room used as living quarters by a pleasant young Englishman named Jeremy, who was a scuba diving instructor. He would tiptoe in and out, sometimes while I was giving a lesson, carrying his air tanks and flippers.

The Guitar Centre was run by Peter Burr, an American and his tall, willowy Catalán wife, Rita, who was in charge of preparing her Gypsy Dinner, a stewed casserole which was offered on certain evenings in the bar area. Peter and Rita lived with their young son within the centre in a large rather cold high-ceilinged apartment.


The centre gave the impression of being part of a medieval castle, dark with aged stone floors and walls and curtained doorways. But in the evening it would fill with a multi-national array of colourful people. Local British and Spanish, visitors on holiday, passing musicians as well as those who were slated to play or sing that evening. There were some performers who played and sang folk music, others who played classical guitar and others such as José Cobos and the gypsy guitarist, Cayetano, who played flamenco.


I would need a guitar, since I had sold my beautiful Juan Estruch classical guitar to help pay for my plane ticket to Spain.

Thank heavens Mr. G. had a guitar factory and was willing to lend me one of his test models. I was waiting for my large box of sheet music and lesson books to arrive from Canada by air freight.

Continue on to Chapter 12......The Guitar Factory

Go back to Chapter 10......The Straw Basket

The Straw Basket

Chapter 10

The rustic shopping baskets we carried were a must-have addition to the wardrobe of any newly-arrived foreigner such as myself. Called cestas de esparto in Spanish, they were made of straw with two long thick hemp rope handles which scratched your shoulders if you were wearing a sleeveless blouse or dress.


It was the basic carry-all that served not only for toting home the market shopping, but also for carrying suntan lotion and bathing gear to the beach as well as bread and cheese or fruit with a bottle of wine for a picnic.

It was evident that new arrivals to the island immediately felt the need to have one of those baskets, and I was no exception. Sporting one made a person feel like an entrenched local even though, with the exception of a few students, the resident Mallorquin people didn't use them around town as much as foreigners did, and tended to keep them for garden or farm use.

Standing in Buñola with my Basket 1968

At any time or day, that basket could contain an assortment of items such as mail from home, recently collected from the post office general delivery, an apple or two, a crusty long barra of bread , a damp bathing suit wrapped in a towel, a paperback novel or a Spanish-English pocket dictionary, a copy of The Mallorca Daily Bulletin - the local English newspaper, sun glasses and perhaps a forgotten potato or onion from the last trip to the market. One was often surprised at what could be found in the bottom depths of the basket.

Later I was to see even the writer and poet, Robert Graves, with his well-worn basket, walking from the post office down towards the café Formentor, on an outing from his home in the mountain village of Deià.

Robert Graves -
Image borrowed from The Listener, Brigham Young University

The café Formentor was a pleasant place to sit, preferrably on the outdoor terrace, while sipping a café con leche, reading the Mallorca Daily Bulletin and watching the flow of people coming and going to the post office and walking past along the Borne.

Continue on to Chapter 11...... The Guitar Centre

Go back to chapter 9......Cooking in the Apartment