Label Quest, a French record company has released an album of 12 Django Reinhardt compositions performed by a variety of French Gypsy guitarists.

The album opens with “Anouman”, a beautiful ballad from Django’s late period. It is performed by Matcho Winterstein, a French Gypsy with Herve Ganguenetti on Rythym guitar and Claudius Dupont on bass. After stating the head, Winterstein goes into doubletime on the solo and swings it hard, articulating every note with the precision of an ace flying team.

Next up is Noe Reinhardt (a distant relative of Django perhaps?) doing “Dinette”, Django’s catchy contrafact of “Dinah”. After a first rate solo by Noe, Bassist Claudius Dupont (who plays bass on all of this albums tracks) tells his story in strict time. Noe then solos some more over the rhythm guitars of Rudy Debard and Linekar Lemaire before playing the head out. Noe returns later in the album to play “Hungaria” at a blistering tempo. Bravo!

Django’s Grandson David Reinhardt and another Django descendant, Levis Adel-Reinhardt play “Blues for Ike” on archtop guitars with Samy Daussat on rhythm guitar. A modern jazz feel over a flat four rhythm. David and Levis also play a lesser known Django piece entitled “Vamp” (a beautiful ballad, again performed with a modern jazz sensibility).

Gadjo (non-Gypsy) Samy Daussat then does a Latin feel version of “Nuit De Saint-German-des-pris”. Samy plays both lead and rhythm on this track. Superb phrasing and tasty lines flow effortlessly from the fingers of this virtuoso. Samy’s other feature track is “Are You In The Mood”.

Swan Berger (a child prodigy) plays “Micro” a Django contrafact of Gershwin’s “I got Rhythm” at the usual high speed with Frank Berger and Samy Daussat on rhythm guitars. Lots of notes are played solidly in the Manouche guitar tradition. Wait till Swan Berger is older. His guitar fretboard will need to be treated with fire retardant!

Mundine and Rocky Garcia do “Troublant Bolero” Mundine spells out every chord change on this beautiful composition While Rocky keeps the Gypsy Bolero rhythm propelled in perfect time. Mundine and Rocky also perform “Artillerie Lourde”

Fred de Charco plays the album’s waltz “Chez Jacquet”.

The last track on this CD is “Tears” performed solidly by French Gypsy Bero Landauer. This album starts and ends with a ballad, a most unusual formula that works stunningly well here.

This album is well worth the price of admission. Every piece is a timeless Django classic played by some of the best French guitarists performing Gypsy jazz today. These performances are inspired and are a joy to listen to. The variety of having 9 different lead guitarists on an album of 12 tracks is wonderful. It is Django’s 100^th birthday. Buy this album for yourself as a celebration.