Pressroom
Review of Gypsy Fire (Just Jazz Guitar Magazine)
Just Jazz Guitar - May 2006 - by Ted Gotsegen
In a relatively short period of time, the
homegrown imprint
Djangobooks.com has destroyed every single mainstream publishing house
by
creating technically accurate methodologies for playing Jazz Manouche.
With the
addition of Andreas Oberg's new book Gypsy
Fire, they are untouchable. Oberg is a graduate of the
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Review of Unaccompanied Django (Gryphon Gazet)
Gryphon Gazet - Spring 2004 - by Richard Johnston
Unaccompanied Django, by Michael Horowitz, 176 pages, $55. An exhaustive study of Reinhardt’s often neglected solo compositions. Although best known for the blazing solos and intricate voicings he played with The Hot Club, Django was also capable of highly lyrical, and lovely, solo guitar playing. Here are the best examples, and how to play them, transcribed by an ethnomusicologist who plays this kind of guitar music for a living. Some solos by Stochelo Rosenberg are also transcribed and explained.
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Review of Pearl Django Play-Along Songbook Vol.1 (Gryphon Gazet)
Gryphon Gazet - Spring 2004 - by Richard Johnston
Pearl Django Play-Along Songbook, Vol. 1, by Greg Ruby. Spiral bound, includes CD, $38. It’s no secret that the key to playing gypsy jazz solos, as with most instrumental music, lies in having a solid rhythm section that doesn’t mind playing the same chord changes over and over again. Here you get instruction, transcriptions of solos (both standard and tab), and complete chord charts for 17 Django, or Django-style, songs, plus the advantage of being able to practice those great melodies with one of North America’s best gypsy jazz bands playing back-up. Now you’ll be able to take your turn the next time a jam session digs deep into Djangology, Limehouse Blues, Nuages, or Swing 42.
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Review of Gypsy Picking, Unaccompanied Django and the Pearl Django Play-Along Songbook Vol.1 (Vintage Guitar Magazine)
Vintage Guitar Magazine - April 2004 - by Michael Dregni
Django Reinhardt set the music world on fire with his single-note solo picking. There were certainly others before him—from Eddie Lang to Vess Ossman—but Django’s jazz was arguably the most influential, creating a legacy that has been studied by everyone from Charlie Christian and Les Paul on.
While there have been no shortage of songbooks published over the years transcribing Django’s compositions and solos, there is a recent spate of method books that delve deeper, offering a greater understanding of his style.
Michael S. Horowitz is at the forefront with his new company DjangoBooks.com. A Berklee grad with an M.A. in ethnomusicology, Horowitz received a Fulbright fellowship in 2002 to conduct his Ph.D. research among Dutch Sinti Gypsy jazz guitarists, including Fapy Lafertin, Martin Limberger, Jan Limberger, and Paulus Schäfer. From his research, Horowitz dissected Django’s playing in his primary tutorial Gypsy Picking, running from the basics to intermediate level along with a lesson CD.
His masterpiece so far is Unaccompanied Django, a Herculean work of transcriptions and analyses of Django’s solo works that provide amazing insight into the master’s compositional thinking, his approaches to harmony and melody, and details the development of his solos. This book is not for the faint of heart in its scope and difficulty, but it is the single most enlightening book on Django’s playing yet published.
Finally, fans of the now-venerable Gypsy jazz band Pearl Django will want Greg Ruby’s Pearl Django Play-Along Songbook. This is a superlative resource, jam-packed with chords and heads in standard and tab notation for seventeen classic and original tunes along with alternate chord voicings, intros, outros, and a CD.
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Review of Unaccompanied Django (The Quarter Note - Dusty Strings Newsletter)
The Quarter Note - Dusty Strings Newsletter - Summer 2004 - by Clyde Holbrook
Django Reinhardt’s musical fame has always rested upon his achievements as a single note soloist in a group context. However, this Gypsy guitar genius was also an excellent composer and performer for the unaccompanied solo guitar. So much so that he even earned the admiration of the father of modern classical guitar, Andres Segovia. Unaccompanied Django provides highly detailed transcriptions of 16 of Django’s solo guitar pieces such as Tears, Improvisation, and Nuages. These transcriptions, which are for both fingerstyle and pick-style guitar, are with out a doubt the best transcriptions ever done of Django’s music. Each piece includes both TAB and standard notation. To help you develop correct Gypsy jazz technique, Michael has included Gypsy style left hand fingerings and right hand picking suggestions. These suggestions are based on the field work he did among master Gypsy guitarists in Europe. In addition to Django’s music, there are two transcriptions of solo guitar music by Stochelo Rosenberg, the contemporary master of Gypsy jazz, and three Gypsy Etudes which are designed to teach harmonic and melodic devices used by contemporary Gypsy guitarists. Students of any level will benefit from this excellent collection which is easily the most thorough study of Gypsy jazz to date.
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Review: Pearl Django Play-along Songbook, Vol.1 (The Quarter Note - Dusty Strings Newsletter)
The Quarter Note - Dusty Strings Newsletter - Summer 2004 - by Clyde Holbrook
Seattle’s own Pearl Django has been at the forefront of the Gypsy jazz scene in North America for over a decade. Now their excellent arrangements of Django Reinhardt compositions, Gypsy jazz standards, and their own original songs are available in a play-along format. The Pearl Django Play-along Songbook, which contains 17 songs, is an excellent learning tool. To date, this is the only book to provide accurate music of Django’s compositions in such an easy an easy-to-read, gig friendly Real Book format (both standard notation and TAB). The play-along CD is comprised of Pearl Django’s original recordings with the solos removed. Unlike many play-alongs which sound stiff and clinical, with the Pearl Django CD you feel as if you’re playing along with the band during a burning performance. In addition to the basic charts, separate harmony parts, introductions, endings, and advanced chord versions are also included. Two of Dudley Hill’s brilliant chord-melody compositions have also been transcribed in detail. This book is an excellent way for students of any level to learn the Gypsy jazz repertoire from one of the best bands playing today.
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Review of Unaccompanied Django (Just Jazz Guitar)
Just Jazz Guitar – November 2003 - By Ted Gottsegen
For those of you who are currently working through Gypsy Picking, here's another DjangoBooks.com release to fuel the fire to learn the authentic Gypsy style guitar. Unaccompanied Django examines the solo style of Jazz Manouche. From Django's brilliant, often on-the-spot solos like Parfum and Naguine to Stochelo Rosenberg's modern Stephanesque and the mellow and grooving Just Relax in addition to 14 other full transcriptions, Horowitz takes the lessons taught in Gypsy Picking and gives the player a melodic way to fully integrate them into their own playing. The transcriptions are outstanding, following Django's original style - fingerings and all, while the Gypsy Etudes examine different stylistic traits common in Manouche solo guitar. Gypsy Picking set the standard for what a true method on Jazz Manouche should be and Unaccompanied Django raises that bar. Oh, and for all of you Gypsy jazz junkies out there who have broken the rewind button on your VCR's in an attempt to learn Django's glorious intro to J'Attendrai, that's also included. Another killer DjangoBooks.com product!
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Review of Unaccompanied Django (djangomontreal.com)
Django Montreal Web Site - October 2003 - by Archtop Eddy
Those of you who've seen Gypsy Picking know how important his first book was to Gypsy jazz. It brought a new level of understanding to the right-hand picking technique.
His next book allows you to take these skills and apply them to unaccompanied pieces by Django as well as contemporary players like Stochelo, Angelo, Boulou, Fapy, and Bireli.
Working on soloing skills is a noble and satisfying undertaking. But, in my mind, studying unaccompanied pieces provides a different and possibly greater satisfaction -- especially, if you are a lone player in your neighborhood.
Being able to pull off a Django piece by yourself allows you to dictate the emotional content and expression in a way independent of other's influences. And there's nothing like sitting on a deck or walking into a music store and being able to play a whole Django piece by yourself!
The pieces Michael's picked provide you with more than this, however. They offer you an insight into Django's head, helping you to form the vocabulary of his music and the mental blueprints he used to develop his Gypsy jazz soloing style.
There are 21 songs in the book. Enough material to keep most of us studying for a long time to come.
This book is the book that Michael worked on for years. Every piece has been carefully noted and tabbed. He has carefully identifed the proper Gypsy fingering patterns and pick strokes, something often missing with other tabs. The very process of memorizing these pieces brings insight and those "AH HA!" smiling moments of understanding.
Think of the first book Gypsy Picking as an "introduction" to the skills you need to appreciate the rest of your studies--much as RA Wilson's Mask of the Illuminanti prepped you for the great Illuminantus trilogy, or Tolkien's Hobbit opened the way to the Lord of the Rings. Think of Horowitz' Unaccompanied Django as the beginning of your Gypsy jazz journey.
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Review: Gypsy Picking (Just Jazz Guitar )
Just Jazz Guitar – November 2003 - By Ted Gottsegen
While many books have taught the arrangements and chord changes of Reinhardt oriented tunes, none have attacked the correct manner in which the style is traditionally played. Gypsy Picking is the first such method and is required study by those who take their Jazz Manouche seriously and wish to obtain a correct, legitimate sound. The photographic examples depicting correct posture, the way to hold the instrument, hand and plectrum placement introduce the student to the fundamentals of obtaining a correct tone and the picking exercises are the keys which unlock the door to the unique sound and style of this genre of jazz. The picking exercises - focuses on the correct methods for picking upstrokes, sweep strokes, alternate picking patterns, triplets, horizontal and chromatic arpeggios and double bass triplet runs as played by the Gypsies are just a few of the studies contained herein. Horowitz' method of teaching, aimed at players of all skill levels, exhibits the quality one would expect from a musician with a BA from Berkley while his lessons reflect his hands-on study with some of Holland's finest young Gypsy talent. The best thing is that the lessons in this book are easily transferable to other methods out there. Highly Recommended.
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Review: Gypsy Picking (The Quarter Note - Dusty Strings Newsletter)
The Quarter Note - Dusty Strings Newsletter - Summer 2003 - by Erling Rockwell
How many times have you tried to execute that new hot guitar lick you just learned only to find that your picking hand was too slow to keep up with your fretting hand? I think most guitarists will agree that obtaining an efficient picking technique is undoubtedly one of the most difficult hurdles for guitar students of any style. Michael Horowitz’s new book Gypsy Picking is unique in that it offers a systematic approach to deal with this under discussed topic of guitar technique. In this 64 page book, Horowitz, a member of Seattle-based Gypsy jazz group Pearl Django, explains the very efficient and loud “rest-stroke” picking technique he learned from the Sinti Gypsies of Holland as part of his dissertation research. The rest-stroke technique (which was used by Django Reinhardt) is explained clearly through a series of 45 examples in both standard notation and tablature. The examples were transcribed from recordings or learned directly from the playing of Gypsy guitar masters such as Django Reinhardt, Stochelo Rosenberg, and Fapy Lafertin. Detailed fingerings, picking suggestions, and photos show you how to play all those fancy Django licks just like the Gypsies do. Additionally, the included CD has recorded versions of all the examples. Horowitz also includes inspirational quotes and photos from his Gypsy teachers, giving the reader a sense of their wonderful musical culture. Gypsy Picking is a “must” for anyone interested in Gypsy jazz but is also highly recommended for guitarists of any style who wish to improve their picking technique.
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Review: Gypsy Picking (Acoustic Guitar Magazine)
Acoustic Guitar Magazine - September 2003 - by Dave McCarty
After sitting at the feet of some of the top Gypsy jazz players in Europe and analyzing every component of the music associated with Django Reinhardt, Michael Horowitz has come up with Gypsy Picking, a landmark achievement that unravels the complexities and inner secrets of this fascinating style. In the first instruction book to explore the intricate right-hand picking patterns of Gypsy jazz in such detail, Horowitz takes the reader/student through downstrokes, sweep picking, horizontal arpeggios, syncopations, rest strokes, triplets, and other pivotal techniques. The 64-page text includes a series of helpful musical examples that demonstrate how a guitarist can use each pattern melodically, and Horowitz plays each example on an accompanying CD.