Phenomenal

kungfumonk007

To me this is just phenomenal. I don't have any problem with people doing Django the way Django did it on the songs Django did it on, but to just keep it there and tell others they have to just keep it there to me violates who Django was musically and makes the style and technique destined for the garbage bin of Jazz Studies programs. Django was boundless, people like Joscho, and Gonzalo, or Robin and many many others just take the style and own it. Django was a giant, and the people who are standing on his shoulders, not riding his pant cuffs are the ones who are attaining the greatest heights. Joscho just continuously blows me away, and I don't even like jazz, but this is phenomenal:

Jazzaferri

I am a bit confused, I get the impression you like Django, but you say you don't like jazz. Help me understand.

Charles Meadows

I never cared much for jazz til I discovered the Rosenberg Trio. From then on my eyes were open!

Buco

Jazzaferri wrote: »

I am a bit confused, I get the impression you like Django, but you say you don't like jazz. Help me understand.

Hehe, it is an oxymoron a little bit, isn't it?
But I've heard that same statement around the forum before from others so I wasn't surprised.

I'ts nice that he's branching out.
But this is the first time I've heard something done by Joscho that I didn't truly enjoy though.
In the first song, and it's a good tune, I didn't like his tone. Weird to say because it's probably the sound as he had it for a long time now but in this context just didn't sound good to me. I wish he used that archtop sitting next to him.
I should say I'm a fan of Jocho. Big time. I traveled to Chet Atkins Convention in Nashville in 09 just to see him play.
Also I didn't like the smooth jazz influence. Smooth jazz isn't my cup of tea.
Had everything sounded more like the second part of "isn't she lovely"... now that kicked some ass.

I don't know, I did have a headache this morning when I was listening...I should give it another listen before I diss something done by him, I mean the man is my idol.

Jazzaferri

Personally, I find that some players/styles I can listen to anytime...others I have to be in the right mood or can only listen to for a short period of time....particularly players who play lomg winding runs of high speed notes with no rests......

jonpowl

I enjoyed the songs but can't help but feel Joscho should have been playing an electric guitar of some sort. I would love to hear the same tunes played by Joscho on an ES-175 or L5, as I am also a big fan. I usually feel the same way when I see someone playing Gypsy Jazz with an electric jazz box.

Jon

I actually liked the tone of the guitar in that context - a little less elevator-y or easy to ignore than an archtop would have been - but the smooth jazz thing, as Buco mentioned, which seems like it's got a grip on the hearts of lots of the younger generation of players, leaves me cold - and bored. Not that Joscho is that young I guess, but you know what I mean.

Tunes like "Isn't She Lovely" and "Sunny" have me clicking to the next song very quickly. There's none of the grit that you get with Tchavolo, the angularity and sudden unexplained turns of some of Django's phrases, the fire of Moreno or Baro, or the wonderful plinky strange articulation of Tchan-Tchou. Early swing had a beautiful, slightly off weirdness to it that's been so ironed out more recently, and especially by the smooth movement. I think beauty is sometimes an overrated concept in music. There are other things...

I did like his build up during the solo on "Isn't She Lovely", but the band didn't go with him at all - just kept plowing through in the background. That could have been a real moment of intensity and interest...

galvanometr

When talking about Joscho and jazz, these two videos blew me away like not many did.

Stringswinger

Josco, like Robin Nolan, Bireli and a few others are top flight musicians who are taking Django's influence and are making their own music. IMO, it is way more interesting than hearing another version of Minor Swing played on guitars with far too much trebles in the tone, at too high a speed, with far too many notes. I think all the videos in this thread are great and his tone is superb.

Phenomenal indeed...

Cheers,

Marc

wim

I found this really cheesey and muzak-like. Each to their own I guess!

Joscho has great chops, and I am certainly not averse to people pushing the envelope in jazz manouche (my favourite album's Les Doigts dans le Prise and particularly the wackier tunes on there), but this concert is pushing it in a pretty bland direction in my opinion.

Jon

The problem I have with lots of modern gypsy jazz is that the advancements they are making are advancements specifically to the 70s and 80s, both aesthetically and in terms of actual content.

For boundary pushing, this from Tcha and Robin Nolan is more to my taste. You could imagine it being played in the 1940s, but the thing that keeps it modern and engaging, and timeless, is the fact that in no sense can it be ignored - it will never be background music. You may not like it, or you may love it, but you will never put it on in the background during a dinner party. It must be listened to. That is what I think modernity and pushing boundaries is, and why for me, most of the new gypsy stuff falls short.