Best US festival

Charles Meadows

So if I had to choose a US Gypsy jazz festival to attend which would be best?

Django in June? Djangofest NW?

Masterclass type instruction would be great.

I'd also really like to see a good selection of professional quality GJ guitars to try. I had great luck buying my ALD sight unseen. But I'd love to try some of the others.

Passacaglia

Charles, I can't speak comparatively between DFNW and DIJ, because I've not been to DFNW (and really hope to make it sometime over the next couple of years). I can tell you I believe DIJ to be the only event of its kind in the States, a week devoted to intensive, world-class instruction, and all-hours access on a more informal basis to world-class artists. My left hand fingers literally turned blue, a good bruising by week's end. It was one of the most transformative experiences I've ever had. The weekend concerts are an added joy, but if DFNW is a concert week with some instruction and definite jamming, I'd say DIJ is an intensive instructional week, with a couple evenings of concerts, and jamming everywhere, all the time.

This, I'm sure, is a crude comparison. I think both are rich experiences...just a difference of emphasis. Others can speak better to this, but this was my experience of DIJ, and my gut in comparing the two.

I think both are also great places to see, hear and play many different guitars. Michael Bauer himself comes to DIJ with an assortment of his beautiful guitars. Look up the history of this "Room No. 1" at DIJ.

Buco

Same like Paul, I've only been to DIJ and can mostly echo his feeling.
What's nice about DFNW is it's a la carte in case you wanna watch only a certain artist and attend a certain workshop or your budget is simply limited.
What's nice about DIJ is it's all inclusive, write the check once, get there, get your name tag and choose and attend any class during the week and watch the official concerts.

But what I though was unique about DIJ and what I loved about it is being able to run into these world class players, among the very best in the genre, just jamming on some porch or a spot on the lawn somewhere on the campus, so you can have your own private concerts every day of the week. Go find a chair and take a seat a few feet away and enjoy and absorb the energy and intimacy of the setting.
If you're brave enough and you think you can hang with them you can even pull out your instrument and join in.
I've seen guys do this, some being able to hang in there and some not so much, but the guys we came there to watch and admire were pretty receptive to these sit-ins.
This closeness to the musicians that we follow and admire and buy their music is something I don't think is easily matched at any other event regardless of genre.
Compare this to some other genre of popular music and try to imagine the same setting of intimacy between the stars and the fans, it just doesn't happen.
That's what makes DIJ very special in my opinion.

B

EmmettRay

I've been going to both festivals for a few years now. They are both excellent but if I had to choose I'd pick DIJ hands down. An entire week of hanging with players of all levels, classes with your favorite players from all over the world, getting to play all kinds of beautiful vintage and new guitars you wouldn't find anywhere else, jamming until the sun comes up, awesome concerts on the weekend... and it all takes place on an all girl college campus. How can you beat THAT???

Passacaglia

Ditto.

Oh, and as far as cafeteria grub goes, Smith College is top-shelf.

klaatu

I haven't been to DFNW, but having looked over the program, I'd pick Django in June any day. As others have pointed out, you get to hang with the artists and even jam with them if you are brave enough. Plus the instruction is multi-level - if you're a rank GJ beginner, there are classes for you, and if you can hang with the big boys, there are classes at your level as well. DFNW may get some more famous names, but the artists at DiJ are world class and also excellent teachers.

jimvence

I've not been to DFNW, but close friends of mine have been, and I've read enough a fair deal about it.

DIJ is a camp retreat for players interested in GJ instruction, with performances added.

DFNW is a festival for GJ fans with instruction added. Sight difference. One can make a vacation out of DFNW, bring along a non-playing spouse, which is something you would likely not do with DIJ.

Now, most of you reading this reply already know this. I thought it worth stating for those browsing the forum, or Google searching on the basic difference between DIJ and DFNW.

anthon_74

one thing I would like to add is that, having taken a few "django fest" style master classes, and two years in a row of DIJ style guitar intensive classes, though I haven't actually been to DFNW, I can say easily that the DIJ classes are typically far better hands down. To the best of my knowledge, the master classes at DFNW are not really level based, and therefore the teachers must find a way to make everyone happy, as a result the classes are likely very hit and miss. Additionally, due to the camp intensive style of DIJ, your training has more of a continuity to it, and since the focus is on training musicians, the jamming feeds the classes, which feed the enjoyment and inspiration of watching the players and around and around it goes. by the end of the week, you're a better player period end of story.

While I would have liked to see Fapy this year, nothing beats seeing great players, up close, jamming out on the lawn at Mills college... in fact, it's great to see players of all different levels jamming.

Quite frankly, you could go to Django in June and not even go to the actual concerts and still be quite fulfilled in terms of seeing great players play.

Anthony

Michael Bauer

My favorite years at Django in June are when the concerts are less jam-like. Les Doigts de l'Homme were probably the pinnacle of shows for me, but I liked Zaiti, Gonzalo when he's playing with his band (less so with the Moignard stuff this summer, which I thought was pretty dire, to be honest), the Wrembel does Zappa show a few years ago, Denis Chang's band, etc.. Tcha's music this past summer worked so well for me because it was not a jam format, as much as a conversation between Tcha and Robin. Jamming is it's own thing, but by Friday night, I am ready for something more formal.

I have wanted to go to DFNW these past two years, but was recovering from surgery each time and had to miss, so I cannot speak to it.

Django in June has changed for me in the years since I started bringing old guitars along. I used to get more sleep, and I used to actually make it to alot of classes, but the informal madness of the Hot Club of Room 101 has been fun for me and, seemingly, a few other people, so the self-improvement part of D in J had to be let go. But I get something else, which is lots of great relationships, new friends, some unforgettable moments, like Tcha's private concert on Friday night...and, frequently, a state of single malt bliss.

Still, what Andrew has put together in Northampton is so special and so unique, that it's hard for me to imagine my liking any other event better. Don't know about the future, but my eight consecutive years there have been a great run at my favorite event of any sort...ever.

Bob Holo

Different animals entirely. Ying & Yang.

DJiJ is a guitar camp:
If you want to go to a beautiful cloistered ivy-covered campus with a couple hundred guitar players focused on GJ as a genre, and learn with and fellowship with these like-minded people along with world class guitarists. It is a quintessentially immersive educational experience for people who are interested in learning or improving in this style. You live in dorm rooms together, you get up and play together, you take a self-directed curricula of classes together, you go to the cafeteria and eat together... then you go back to your dorm rooms and play together - then you fall into your bed with your guitar in a stand at the foot of the bed and when you wake up - you do it all over again. Oh, and if you draw the short straw - you may at some point get elected to collect money from people and drive into town and purchase a large quantity of liquor, (lol) but some guys never leave the campus other than to go to the concerts. Which reminds me... it's worth mentioning that there are a few concerts every year.

DFNW is a music festival:
If you want to come to a beautiful little island (with your loved ones if you want it to double as a vacation) and see a dozen concerts in the space of 4 or 5 days and between concerts stroll around town with your guitar in a soft-pack and picnic or eat at a cafe and get a few hours of jamming in the afternoon and catch up with friends from different parts of the country or different parts of the world while your spouses ride the ferry to a neighboring US or Canadian city or walk/drive around the towns on Whidbey Island... then meet up and go to dinner together and jam again for a couple hours or till 5am depending on your stamina. It's a music festival held in a beautiful little island town in the Pacific Northwest. There are way fewer classes, and the classes are usually aimed at intermediate players and/or people coming from other styles of playing. But the quality of classes is equivalent if you're not an advanced GJ player. If you are an advanced player, you can plan ahead and ask top artists if they are willing to do a private lesson while you're there. That is mostly done by players who are already very good but who have some particular thing that they want to work on with some particular player - like if Wim wanted an hour with Tchavolo for instance. But that type of instruction is typically expensive and completely self-directed just as it is at Samois for instance.

Different experiences anchored by a common passion. Guitar camp with a side order of music festival, or music festival with a side order of guitar camp... depends on what you want. Actually, I wish I could afford the time and expense of attending both.

Charles Meadows

Django in June sounds like the place to go. My son's birthday is June 23 so I would have to work around that. My wife is open to it - she even asked if Django Reinhardt would be there. She's not a GJer as you might guess!