With the Northampton, MA Django in June festival almost here, I thought I’d post a quick reminder to get your tickets now! This year promises to top all the others, and those were damn good themselves. The concerts in ’07 include Wawau Adler, Tim Kliphuis, Stephane Wrembel, and more, and organizer Andrew Lawrence has slated a full week of great workshops (not just for guitarists, either; this year includes tuition for violinists, mandolinists, and accordionists), many taught by the same performers. In addition, there will be everything you could hope for in the CD, book, DVD, and guitar departments, so be sure to bring your ATM card.
Also this year, my band Swing Caravan will be performing as part of the festival on Wednesday June 13th at The Sierra Grille, a local bistro and Belgian beer house. The chef there will be presenting a special night with a French menu inspired by the French lilt of Django’s jazz. We hope to see you there!
Original Post: 2007-05-04 13:24:33

In the course of a few short years, Stephane Wrembel has gone from being a relatively new face on the Gypsy Jazz scene to one of its most vital, inventive, and fearless musicians. With his latest CD release, Barbes Brooklyn, he proves himself to be a marvelous composer as well-of the disc’s eleven tunes, eight are Wrembel’s own, and they more than hold their own against the other work included (Dizzy Gillespie’s A Night in Tunisia, Django’s Fleche d’Or, and Santamaria’s Afro Blue). Indeed, they’re what make the album so much more than another collection of hot guitar solos; instead, Wrembel creates and sustains an overarching mood for the entire length of the disc, bookended by his raga-influenced “Introduction” and “Detroduction” tracks. Listening to this album is akin to entering a trance state-the effect is that hypnotic. After hearing so many recordings by musicians who seem unable or unwilling to look beyond Django, this album is a gift.
Wrembel, of his goals for the album, writes:

For this new album, I’ve been focusing more on compositions, and on the mood. I didn’t want it to be another Django cover kind of album. You’ll find various influences : Django, Middle East, and maybe some impressionistic colors too.
I like to think of Music as a soundtrack. Depending on your mood, your position in Time and Space, your personality, your culture, you’ll appreciate different styles of music at different times. I never listened to the notes but always was drawn into the mood, and that’s how I expect this album to be : a suite of moods helping your soul to travel.
Other highlights include the title track, named for the Park Slope haunt the band has made their own over the years, and the bolero Big Brother, a track I can easily imagine becoming the Black Orpheus (aka Manhã de Carnaval) of a new generation, and the delightful, bouncing Buster Swing. Throughout, Stephane is supported by his usual crack rhythm section of Jared Engel on upright and David Langlois on washboard. Filling out the album is Olivier Manchon’s swinging violin, Eric Rodgers’ guitar, and Julien Augier on drums.
Camarade Soleil

On top of all that, Wrembel has launched a new project, a quartet with Augier, Engel, and organist Matthias Bublath called Camarade Soleil. From the demo recordings I’ve heard, this group should be taking the jazz and jam worlds by storm. The tracks include a revamped Fleche d’Or and Afro Blue along with Georges Ulmer’s Si Tu Savais, all of which are drawn out, deconstructed, and explored from every angle. The addition of Bublath brings the group squarely into the tradition of New York jazz combos, and pairing that sound with the woefully underplayed Reinhardt tunes-Django was an amazing composer, but American jazzmen have always seemed a bit xenophobic when it comes to his work-promises to lead to an exciting future. Let’s hope this group opens many ears.
Camarade Soleil is on tour now, and the Stephane Wrembel Trio will be appearing at the Django in June gypsy jazz festival in Northampton, Massachusetts next month, where aspiring musicians can also take part in masterclasses with members of the band.