Introducing "The Idiomatiques"!

Scoredog · August 2015

Hi there fellow Djangoite's,

As many of you know I have been posting for a bit over 2 years now after I got the bug to play Gypsy Jazz. I found 2 other newbies like myself and a long time lover and forum member (*Bones) and put together a group. Bones has since left due to a longtime injury (hope he can recover soon). We added another newbie recently due to the lack of serious GJ'ers n our area, so the average experienced player in this band is under 2 yrs. To make matters worse we all qualify for the senior discount at IHOP so how good can we be?

Well we have a few things in our favor....first being ignorance and it has served us well...i think.
2nd...the bass player Kim Collins was the professor of the local college jazz ensemble, is a professional singer and VO artist
3rd...Brian Mann our accordion player was the Keyboard player for Larry Carlton for 5 years and has played with a list of who's who Kenny Loggins, Michael Jackson etc etc...his first instrument is accordion
4th ...our new guitar player toured extensively with French violin legend Gilles Apap
5th and maybe last...I have had 3 contemporary jazz top 10 hits via Billboard in the last few years and am currently working on a new "Boyz II Men" album.

That said thinking any of these talents would translate to GJ was fools gold as we have been humbled by how challenging the style is. We do however have a CD getting ready to be released. You can hear some snippets here.

http://robertkimcollinsvo.wix.com/theidiomatiques#!new-cd/cm4v

The music is some Django, some originals, and a lot of wackiness. We are still finding our way, the album got better the further we got into it as we are growing into the style. We don't expect to sell a lot of copies or get a lot of responses, I have seen some really great cd's here get zero comments from forum users, but mostly want to let you know we are out there (in more ways than one). Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully listen.

Best

Craig Sharmat

*Bones is playing rhythm on a few cuts, happened before his injury.

Bones · August 2015

"Cinderella story, out of nowhere..."

Sounds great guys! Keep up the good work!

I'm thinking about trying to start (slowly) working on some of Christiaan's exercises (see other thread) to see if I can get any rehab going.

Buco · August 2015

@Bones I truly hope you will soon get back to doing what you love!

Craig that's an impressive line up of players. I didn't have a chance to listen yet but I'm pretty sure you're being far too modest.
Good luck and I hope to catch a live show in the future.

Jazzaferri · August 2015

You guys were certainly having fun. Nice recording bits. Look forward to hearing the final mix down.

The hardest part of this style IMO is the rhythm piece. Deciding which one works best has always been a challenge for me.

Scoredog · August 2015

Thanks Jay for listening, we just kind of feel our way and let the chips fall where they may.

We have updated the site to show some complete songs

http://robertkimcollinsvo.wix.com/theidiomatiques#!new-cd/cm4v

Michael Bauer · August 2015

Craig, my friend, I love that you came at this music from another world and made it your own. You already know what I think about your stuff, but for the record, I really admire what you have done/are doing. I also have enjoyed every minute of the hanging out we have done over the last couple of years, and all the demos and works in progress you have sent me to listen to. Looking forward to when you are back in Chi-town!

Buco · August 2015

Finally got time to listen to a few tunes. I don't know man, I think it's pretty remarkable for a guy that came to the genre a couple of years ago to sound like that.
Well done!!!