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.
Comments
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.
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.
The hardest part of this style IMO is the rhythm piece. Deciding which one works best has always been a challenge for me.
We have updated the site to show some complete songs
http://robertkimcollinsvo.wix.com/theidiomatiques#!new-cd/cm4v
www.scoredog.tv
Well done!!!
www.scoredog.tv