Listen to Hot Club Pacific LIVE on KPIG on August 10, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Visit www.kpig.com to listen to the streaming LIVE broadcast.
WHIDBEY ISLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS presents DJANGOFEST NORTHWEST 2008 - September 24-28
The excitement is beginning to build as we gear up for DJANGOFEST NORTHWEST 2008. Now celebrating its eighth year of bringing Gypsy Jazz performers to Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, DjangoFest Northwest has proven to be the premier showcase of gypsy jazz in North America, presenting some of the biggest names in the genre to thousands of enthusiastic fans.
We are honored to present, from Holland, the world-renowned Rosenberg Trio in their first US performance in 10 years and their only US performance in 2008. They will perform two concerts featuring completely different sets on Saturday at 8:00pm and Sunday at 7:00pm. In addition they will conduct two workshops, including a special Rhythm workshop. This is an incredible opportunity to be in the presence of some of the greatest gypsy jazz musicians ever.
This year’s lineup also includes:
• The Sebastien Giniaux Trio with Mathieu Chatelain and Jeremie Arranger, who are considered by many to be the hottest of the young players on the Paris scene today.
• The electrifying John Jorgenson Quintet with three new members, also doing two completely different sets of new material.
• Straight-ahead jazz giants Howard Alden and Mimi Fox.
• From Canada, the great Marc Atkinson Trio returns, plus the debut performance of the incredibly inventive Van Django.
• The return of local favorites Pearl Django and Hot Club Sandwich from Seattle, and Whidbey’s own Billet Deux.
• We have two ‘back by popular demand’ acts in 3 Leg Torso and Fishtank Ensemble, and another new entry in the ‘eclectic’ category, the intriguing Jessica Fichot.
• Hot Club San Francisco, Hot Club Pacific from Santa Cruz, and Hot Club Eugene.
• DjangoFest performer of the year, the amazing Gonzalo Bergara.
September 19 -21, 2008 - DjangoFest comes to Colorado!
DjangoFest comes to Mt Crested Butte, CO for a weekend festival that celebrates the music and spirit of the great French/Belgian Gypsy guitarist, Django Reinhardt. DjangoFest Colorado 2008 is an unique opportunity for music lovers, Gypsy Jazz fans, players and enthusiasts from around the globe, to congregate in the beautiful mountains of Crested Butte, while attending an extraordinary series of concerts and workshops by top internationally renowned players. This is your chance to help inaugurate the first DjangoFest in this breathtakingly beautiful location. The festivities take place at the Mt Crested Butte Town Center in Crested Butte, CO.
For tickets and lodging packages, call 1-800-600-2803.
For more information, visit:
Be sure to check out the NEW DjangoFest MySpace Page at http://www.myspace.com/djangofest Become a freind and stay current on everything that is happening at Djangofest all over the country!
Fan's of Matelot Ferret's epochal double album Tziganskaia or Angelo Debarre's groundbreaking Gypsy Guitars would do well to keep an eye out for the upcoming release of Adieu, Bienville from Charlottesville, Virginia's Olivarez Trio. Lead guitarist Rick Olivarez has obviously done his homework, and his love of the older waltzes, csardas, and Eastern European strains of Jazz Manouche gives rise here to a surprising new album that draws less on the jazz and more on the manouche.
Due out on August 8th, the disc includes older valses (Choti, Dolores) alongside pieces like Folklore Hongrois, Mademoiselle de Bucharest and the Django tune Double Whisky. Interspersed throughout are originals composed in the spirit of Ferret and Tchan-Tchou Vidal; highly dramatic works evocative of a time past, tunes like Adieu, Bienville and the wistful, elegiac Valse Sans Maris sound like small gems only recently rediscovered. (In that way, Reinhardt's Double Whisky feels a bit out of place--a slightly too modern rhythm changes tune that doesn't play to Olivarez's considerable strengths. I'd have much preferred another of his delightful originals in its place.)
Holding down the rhythm are guitarist Jeff Cheers and bassist Steve Riggs, who provide a solid, steady bed for Olivarez's soaring melodies. But Adieu, Bienville--to its great credit--mostly feels like an ensemble effort, a recording of like-minded musicians who have been together a while, and have gotten to know each other through music. It's not, despite the musicianship on display, a 'guitar hero' record, but one more concerned with showing us the oft-overlooked value of our own musical past, and it succeeds, showing that quality has no expiration date.
Adieu, Bienville is available at Digstation.
This just in from Yoshi's jazz director Jana Jackson:
The Django Festival
Starring Dorado Schmitt
Featuring Samson Schmitt, Howard Alden, Peter Beets & Brian Torff
With Special Guest Larry Coryell
Jul 31, 2008 - Aug 3, 2008
Thurs 8pm $22 & 10pm $14
Fri 8pm $26 & 10pm $18
Sat both shows $26
Sun 7pm $26 & 9pm $16
Launched in 2000 in New York, the Django Reinhardt Festival was the first-ever festival of Django's music in America. Now it returns to Yoshi's, where it enjoyed great success several years ago. Legendary Gypsy guitarist Dorado Schmitt is showcased along with his son, the young Gypsy star Samson Schmitt. They carry on the legacy of Django and his fiery, virtuoso, romantic music, which has its roots in American popular music and in the reverence for artists such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. The Festival will also feature the young Dutch pianist Peter Beets; guitarist Howard Alden, who performed the music in Sweet and Low Down, Woody Allen's film about Django; the Festival's regular bassist Brian Torff, who toured for years with Django's partner Stephane Grappelli; and, as special guest, the master guitar improviser Larry Coryell.
Yoshi's, of course, has a long history in the jazz world. Support live Gypsy Jazz by dropping by for these great shows! For more info or to buy tickets, drop by the Yoshi's website.
With its second full length release--appropriately dubbed Deux--Seattle based Billet-Deux proves itself to be one of the most mature, innovative, and intelligent bands mining the rich vein of Gypsy Jazz. Led by guitarist and founder Troy Chapman and cellist James Hinkley, the revamped ensemble (with a new rhythm section replacing that from their debut disc Alita) tours through decades of jazz history over the course of the album, including pieces by Mingus (Goodbye Porkpie Hat), Sonny Rollins (Pent-Up House), and Wes Montgomery (album opener Four On Six, which is quickly becoming a new standard among gypsy jazzers). Where many albums in the genre feature a laundry list of tunes associated with Django Reinhardt, the sole tune of his included here is his late-era Anouman, a beautiful ballad that, with its resemblance to the Bill Evans classic Blue in Green, slips perfectly into this moody and evocative set.
But it's not only their choice of repertoire that sets Billet-Deux apart. Their arrangements are tight, sophisticated pieces of work that dispense with the head-solos-head boilerplate in favor of forms that create a musical path for listeners to travel upon. Chapman's guitar and Hinkley's cello weave in and out, around and over each other, carrying on a conversation like old friends. Beneath them, the percussion work of Roger Bennett and rhythm guitar of Josephina Hunner keeps a subtle heartbeat pulse, unobtrusive but compulsively swinging. Together, they make a music that's eminently listenable--music that creates its own mood, and one that you don't tire of returning to time and again.
That's a rare and admirable thing in a circle that seems to anoint a new guitar messiah every few months. Part of the credit has to go to Hinkley's cello, whose voice alone--richer and more sonorous than the more common violin--helps shape the music into something warm, soft, and darkly inviting. In Hinkley's hands, it's also a surprisingly versatile instrument; while an accompanying role as a quasi-bass is easy enough to imagine, that's not what's happening here (bassist Michael Yocco holds down that job). Instead, it's in the carved lines and fluid bowing of his solos that Hinkley really makes the instrument sing. One wonders why it's not heard more often in jazz circles.
As a guitarist, Chapman is a musician. That is, he always seems intent on creating something uniquely beautiful instead of blowing through a collection of runs. One gets the feeling that Chapman has already studied the fireworks school of playing, only to put it aside in favor of making more meaningful work--a work that speaks wholly in his own voice, and has a lot to say.
To learn about purchasing Deux, visit the Billet-Deux site!
See young guitar wizard Tommy Davy and the Tommy Davy Trio in concert at the tres cool Coffee Gallery in Altadena, California on Monday, July 21, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
Who: Tommy Davy Trio
Where: The Coffee Gallery, 2029 N. Lake, Altadena, CA 91001
When: Monday, July 21, 2008, Doors open 7:15 p.m., show at 8:00 p.m.
How Much: Free
Reservations/Information: (626) 398-7917, www.coffeegallery.com
Tommy Davy Trio is:
Tommy Davy (guitar solo)
Jimmy Grant (guitar),
Olliver Steinberg (contrabass)
Marie Macgillis (vocals)
Tommy Davy, guitarist, is a young disciple of gypsy jazz legend Django Reinhardt. Born and raised in Laguna Beach, California, Tommy is one of a handful of Americans promoting the tradition of European gypsy jazz. His repertoire ranges from French Gypsy “Manouche” to traditional folk music of Eastern Europe, poignant gypsy melodies to the swinging standards of the Hot Club of France. Tommy demonstrates his mastery of the guitar with blisteringly rapid technique. At just 20 years of age he is making a name for himself in the international gypsy jazz community.
Tommy has performed with acknowledged masters of the genre: Angelo Debarre, Andreas Oberg, Florin Niculescu, Ludovic Beier, Robin Nolan, and Stephane Wrembel. In 2005 he toured California with David Grisman and the Gypsy Kidz on Amoeba Music’s Gypsy Caravan Tour. He sites as his greatest influence the living guitar legend Angelo Debarre. Tommy Davy is recognized as a prodigy and is leading the new wave of gypsy jazz guitar in the United States.
Band information:
http://www.myspace.com/tommydavyjazzmanouche
Two new discs arrived in this week's mailbag: Lulo Reinhardt's Latin Swing Project and the Bero Landauer Trio's Comme Autrefois. Both discs are worth tracking down on their own, and together they speak to the long and varied history of gypsy jazz--where its roots lie, and how far its branches reach.
Of the two, the Angers-based Landauer is the traditionalist. Even the title of his disc--loosely translated, "Comme Autrefois" means "as it was", or "as in the past"--speaks to his reverence for the sounds created by Django, Matelo, and their contemporaries. Most of the disc's fourteen tunes will be familiar to jazz fans, including some of the less frequently recorded selections like Just a Gigolo and the classic Cesar Swing.
With a swinging rhythm section featuring guest guitarist Samy Daussat, the band creates a rich bed for Landauer to weave his lines over (perennial accompanist Daussat also grabs a few solos on the album). In Landauer's hands, it's a sound as welcome now as was it Django's day. Here, guitar pyrotechnics are left at the door in favor of something harder to capture but much longer lasting: music.
Comme Autrefois also serves as a musical calling card for the Gipsy Swing Festival d'Angers; artistic director Michel LeFort had a hand in producing the album. The festival often flies under the radar of international fans of gypsy jazz--the more famous Samois is roughly a month later each year--but since its inception in the early nineties it has played host to a Who's Who of Gypsy Jazz: names like Bireli, Fapy, Boulou, WASO, Titi Winterstein, Angelo and Hans'che have all appeared on the roster, along with a remarkable string of other artists from Rene Mailhes to Coco Briaval. This year's event has already come and gone, but keep an eye open for the 2009 festival.
If Landauer reminds us of the roots of gypsy jazz, Lulo Reinhardt's new album shows us where the music is headed. Stocked with Lulo's original compositions, his Latin Swing Project draws together influences from all over the globe to create a more cosmopolitan music. Indeed, though its title calls to mind Bireli Lagrene's Gypsy Project, to call it gypsy jazz would be to ignore much of what makes it unique. While there are certain unifying threads--the instrumentation of guitars, bass, and violin; the swinging lilt of minor-key ballads--it largely steps outside the more rigid styles of latinesque warhorses like Bossa Dorado to find its own world music niche.
The result is an infectious album of songs tinged with the flamenco of Sabicas and the insistent pulse of the tango. With dramatic arrangements in place of the standard head-solos-head form of most albums, Reinhardt and company (guitarist Doug Martin, violinist Daniel Weltinger, and bassist Harald Becher) avoid the single-note overload of many guitar-based groups. In addition, cajon player Uli Kramer adds a welcome percussive touch to three tracks, including the driving Lulo's Tango, which seems to draw inspiration from the melody of Ma Premiere Guitare before twisting it into something new.
My only complaint about Latin Swing Project is that the recording quality could have been a tiny bit better, especially in the balance between lead and rhythm parts. On most tracks it's a non-issue, but on one or two the mix seems a little raw; it's just enough to notice, but it shifts attention off what should be the album's focus: the considerable pleasure of the music it contains.
(To hear more samples of the albums or to purchase your own copy, click on the album covers above.)
See my good friend, Chuck Botelho, perform this weekend with "CBQ" (The Chuck Botelho Quartet) at Ricky Berger's CD Release Party and Ice Cream Social. The CBQ is: Chuck Botelho (guitar), Jimmy Grant (guitar), Simon Planting (Bass, and yes, THAT Simon Planting!) and Nick Righos (violin). Here are the details:
When: Saturday, June 28, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Where: Bricka Bracka, 2114 P Street, Sacramento, California
How much: $7.00 (ALL AGES!)
May 29-June 1, 2008 - DjangoFest San Francisco / Mill Valley, returns to the incredible 142 Throckmorton Theatre for a four-day festival celebrating the music and spirit of the great French/Belgian Gypsy guitarist, Django Reinhardt.
Join us and other Gypsy Jazz fans, players and enthusiasts from around the world to congregate in the wildly scenic Mill Valley and attend a series of concerts, workshops and impromptu djam sessions featuring top internationally renowned players mixing it up with local stars and aficionados of the genre.
"More than a concert, this was a celebration of the return of hard-driving, melodic gypsy jazz, building on the remarkable creativity of Django Reinhardt and his works, with dedicated fans that know what they want to hear!" - Harvey Barkan-LA Jazz Scene
The festivities take place at 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, just across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco, California, in beautiful Marin county.
For more information, visit:
www.djangofest.com or
www.142throckmortontheatre.com
Be sure to check out the NEW DjangoFest MySpace Page at http://www.myspace.com/djangofest Become a freind and stay current on everything that is happening at Djangofest all over the country!
The Robin Nolan trio and the Hot Club of Philadephia will be appearing at the World Cafe in Phila on June 8th which we're calling, The Giants of Gypsy Jazz Pt II, featuring the Robin Nolan Trio, and the Hot Club of Philadelphia, these two standout bands will be teaming up for an evening of Gypsy Swing.
Robin, has been touring world-wide with his trio for years, having learned his craft from the top players in Europe. Robin and his group performed many times for the late George Harrison. His new release is titled “Organized crime.”
Robin and his band have performed at the Django Reinhardt festival in Samois France, and Lincoln Center. This is their 1st Phila. area performance.
The Hot Club Philly are local favorites, inspired by the original Hot Club of France, they bring plenty of passion, energy and wit. They are returning to the World Café after a sellout show with Gypsy Jazz giant John Jorgenson earlier this year. They are recording their debut CD. They will be joined by special guests, vocalist Phyllis Chapell and Bob Butryn on clarinet. The show will be upstairs, with limited seating, so buy your tickets now and arrive early. Show starts at 8:00, tickets are $15.00
The World café is located at 3025 Walnut Street
Call 215.222.1400 or vist www.WorldCafeLive.com, or visit www.HotClubPhilly.com for more information.
Nevada City Music Events presents: a night of "Hot Club" style jazz direct from Paris featuring The Zaiti Acoustic Quartet – Friday June 6, 2008, in The Miners Foundry Stone Hall 325 Spring St., Nevada City CA
WHAT: Hot Club style jazz direct from Paris featuring The Zaiti Acoustic Quartet
WHEN: Friday June 6, 8 p.m.
WHERE: The Miners Foundry Stone Hall 325 Spring St., Nevada City CA
ADMISSION: Purchase tickets for $15 in advance at Gold Rush Records, BriarPatch, Record Connection and, in Auburn at Cherry Records. At the door, it's $20.
INFORMATION: E-mail: info.ncme@gmail.com or call (530) 470-9615; online at www.NevadaCityMusicEvents.com
Info about the artists performing:
The Zaiti Acoustic Quartet
Adrien Moignard : (Guitar)
Mathieu Chatelain : (Guitar)
Jérémie Arranger : (Double Bass)
Cedric Ricard : (Saxophones)
Fresh from the Parisian jazz scene, the Zaiti Acoustic Quartet offer a mix of influences applied to the Django repertoire. Composed of artists from different musical backgrounds, each member brings to the style their own experience and unique interpretation: the band goes beyond the traditional aspect of the music and adds touches of bossa nova, flamenco and a touch of modern jazz.
Founded by a phenomenal young lead guitarist, Adrien Moignard, and one of France's premier rhythm guitarists, Mathieu Chatelain, the Paris-based Zaiti Acoustic Quartet has grown to now include Jeremiah Arranger (bass) and Cedric Ricard (saxophone). The group's approach to Jazz Manouche melds the Django tradition with elements of bebop and experimental jazz, resulting in a sound all their own. In the campgrounds at Samois Mathieu and Adrien invariably host one of the most popular and, frankly, intimidating jam sites, with some of the best players in the world stopping by for impromptu performances. The band is quite exceptional featuring a range of music from 1930s gypsy anthems mixed with frenetic improvisation to the smooth classic jazz guitar sounds of Wes Montgomery and George Benson.
The group have delighted audiences at such prestigious events as the Marciac jazz festival in France, the Espoo jazz fest in Finland, the Champain Assembly hall (USA) with the Savanna Pep Band, the Django d'or, the Samois Django fest, the Lierberchies Django Fest in Belgium, the Brussel Jazz Fest and Noumea jazz festival (New Caledonia). This is the groups first USA tour with their final stop being right here in Nevada City, an opportunity not to be missed.
Web Links
http://www.ensemblezaiti.com/
Guitarist Doug Martin is doing of West Coast concerts with Sinti-gypsy guitarist and composer Lulo Reinhardt. The quartet will be performing gypsy, swing and Latin compositions as well as music of Lulo's uncle, Django Reinhardt.
Accompaning Lulo and Doug will be violinist Daniel Weltlinger coming from Sydney Australia as well as bassist Harald Becher from Germany also.
Lulo Reinhardt's new CD "Latin Swing Project" will also be available for purchase at the concerts including the CD release concert at the famous Yoshi's at Jack London Square on May 27. Guitarist Paul Mehling and violinist Evan Price (both from the Bay Area based group "Hot Club of San Francisco"), will also join us this evening only as special guest artists!
CONCERT DATES:
May 22 - Anna's Jazz Island 8-11 (Berkeley)
http://www.annasjazzisland.com/index.html
May 24 - Amnesia (SF) Short 1 hour set at 8:00
http://www.amnesiathebar.com/
May 25 - Red Poppy Art House (SF) 7:00
http://www.redpoppyarthouse.org/
May 26 - Don Quixote's (Felton) 7:30
http://www.donquixotesmusic.info/
May 27 - Yoshis Jack London Square (Oakland) 8:00 and 10:00
CD release party plus special guests Paul Mehling
and Evan Price of the Hot Club of San Francisco
http://www.yoshis.com/jazzclub
May 28 - Monterey Live (Monterey) 8:30
http://www.montereylive.org/index.html
May 29 - Djangofest SF 8:00
Additional acts performing this evening are
Jessica Fichot as well as the Hot Club of San Francisco.
http://www.djangofest.com/sf/home.htm
May 31 - Djangofest SF 4:00
This early set of day three of DFSF will also include a
performance by the Robin Nolan Trio following LR.
http://www.djangofest.com/sf/home.htm
June 1 - House Concert in Soquel
Please call (650) 438-9828 if you're in the
Soquel area and would like to attend this intimate showing.
Chris Sartisohn will be doing a Mini-Tour with his good friend & massive guitarist Robin Nolan from Amsterdam - venues will include Vista 18, the first ever "String Summit" at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church , The Hornby Festival , and much more! Other guests include master local fiddler Dan Lapp & monster Berlin-based bassist ... Scott White
Click Here for more Information
Scott "Edog" Petersen Benefit Dance Concert - Sunday May 18, 2008 @ Ashkenaz, Berkeley, California
This event is a rare and special one that brings out the two top Bay Area swing dance bands – Steve Lucky & the Rhumba Bums and Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers – to share the evening in a medical fundraiser for beloved local saxophonist Scott “Edawg” Petersen, www.scottpetersen.org. Petersen has been a busy player on the local scene, performing in both bands and many others including the Mike Vax big bands and the Stan Kenton Alumni Orchestra, despite suffering from the congenital disease cystic fibrosis. His career has included a long stint with legendary jazz drummer J.C. Heard’s band, and he performed with Hammond organ greats Shirley Scott and Brother Jack McDuff, as well as a who’s who of pop from Aretha Franklin on down. Now the time has come for Petersen to receive a double lung transplant. Tonight’s bands raise money for his operation, joined by special guests.
The Rhumba Bums have been one of the West Coast’s most popular, to say nothing of most entertaining and fun, bands since composer-pianist-leader Steve Lucky assembled the group back in ’94 in the early days of the swing dance revival. The Rhumba Bums continue to play and sing just about the most irresistible dance tunes extant. They mix some well-known ’40s and ’50s jump blues and swing charts with rare and nearly forgotten gems that deserve to be resurrected. The band’s trump card is singer-guitarist Miss Carmen Getit, who offers vocal sparring matches with Lucky and guitar playing that, whether swing, blues, or even some bebop licks, is inspired, fast, and faithful to the genre. In pre-Rhumba Bums years, Lucky discovered Getit (who had played piano before she could read and has played guitar since shortly thereafter), bought Getit her first electric guitar and introduced her to the music of T-Bone Walker, Ruth Brown, and other swing-R&B legends, and they formed a piano-guitar duo in New York City. www.luckylounge.com
Before swing became a national craze, jazz vocal stylist Lavay Smith and her band were making music as sharp and irresistible as her period costumes that recall the pinup girls of the Forties. More than a decade later they are still the Bay Area’s hottest swing attraction, as well as that rarity that sounds as good as it looks. Big, bluesy-voiced Smith has deservedly raked in national attention from network television to NPR, and Johnny Otis proclaims that “she and her band are a breath of fresh air!” Multiple award winners, Smith and her Skillet Lickers present not only the best-dressed but also one of the most exciting shows of East Coast Swing and Lindy Hop dance music, as well as sultry torch songs. www.lavaysmith.com
When: Sunday, May 18, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Where: Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center
1317 San Pablo Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94702
Information: INFORMATION: www.ashkenaz.com (510) 525-5054
Tickets: $15 Minimum Donation
There will be a raffles and door prizes.
FOR UPDATES: check the thread at http://www.swingtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7669
***It’s not too late to donate goods and services to the raffle and/or auction!
Send a note and/or make a donation to help Scotty now:
Scott Petersen Transplant Fund
P.O. Box 1010
Novato CA 94948-1010
See Impressions Tziganes, featuring maestros Tommy Davy and Jimmy Grant, on Friday, May 16, 2008 at 8:00 PM at the 1078 Gallery, 820 Broadway, Chico, California.
When: Friday, May 16, 2008
Time: 8:00 PM
Tickets: $5.00
Where: 1078 Gallery, 820 Broadway, Chico, CA 95928
Information: www.1078gallery.org/
Band information:
Jimmy's Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/croissant2
Tommy's MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/tommydavyjazzmanouche
