Guitar wars on CD

langleydjango

The player makes the guitar. If Django has played a Busato (for the majority of his recordings) you could buy a Selmer for $3000. etc, etc.

That having been said...our topic- Guitar Wars on CD

We've had all these discussions over which guitar sounds "the best", which is the "most classic" sounding, whatever terminology floats your boat.

But how many people actually know what these guitars sound like? Django's recordings of a Selmer are on a very poor recording medium, except as noted below, he might as well have played a Saga (heresy!).

So I propose we come up with some modern, verifiable, recordings of different models so that people may be able to hear the difference themselves.

Don't confuse the guitar being held on the cover of the CD with the guitar used for recording!

I'll start:

J.P. Favino-

My favorite examples of this sound are

"Watremaz & Co." -Jean-Phillipe Watremez
"Lejosde mi tierra"- Kamlo Trio/Kamlo Barre

Beautiful sounding guitars. THIS is the best!

Gallato

"Memoires" Angelo Debarre/Tchavolo Schmitt

Django's Selmer

Integrale 19

"Belleville" and "Nuages"

These 2 solo recordings are, to me, by far the best at conveying the true sound of Django and his guitar. Michael may disagree:)


okay, that's a start.

nwilkins

I don't know if it is fair to use any Tchavolo recording as representative of a guitar's tone because he tends to choke off the tone of all his guitars by playing so hard.

I agree on the JP Favino albums - both of Kamlo's albums, the two Cordacor albums, and Mosaique definitely show off the killer tone of those guitars. One thing to note - that tone comes out of those guitars completely effortlessly, like butter (a friend owns Kamlo's Favino and I have played it).

Bob Holo

I love this idea - I just don't know all the guitars these guys are playing


For what I consider a "modern gypsy" sound:
Am Ketenes Swing: La Poupa: St Germain De Pres: Guitar Unknown
Yorgui Loeffler: For Magnio: Fiso Place or Valse de Wasso: Guitar Unknown
Angelo & Tchavolo: Memories: Lady be Good: Gallato
Tchavolo Schmitt: Alors Voila: Lyola: Guitar: Dupont
Stephane Wrembel: Introducing: Honeysuckle rose: Guitar Unknown

For what I consider to be "modern swing influenced gypsy"
Harold Berghuis & the New Hot Trio: Voor Ada: Het Bloemenmeisje: Guitar Unknown
Mark Atkinson Trio: II: Pick Pocket: Park Encore

For what I consider "original gypsy sound"
Agree with Troy - the sound quality of the recordings of that era make it difficult at best to really know how much of the recording was the mic & how much was the guitar and how much fideltiy has been lost. One thing is for sure. In Django's early years, the state of the art mic had a usable range that was about 1/2 of the range of good human hearing ... and the recording equipment was itself far from flat. But... that doesn't stop me from having ~35 Django CDs and listening to them (many of which have different masters of the same song with different ways of reconstructing / remastering the song...which kind of helps you understand what the sound must have been.

frater

Django in"Ou Es-Tu Mon Amour" from the sessions in Rome: to me that's the tone!

Than I think you can't forget Fapy's Selmer and I'm very partial to Bireli's VR in his Gypsy Project records (also the Hahl in "Move" sounds great!).

As for Tchavolo, I don't think Memoires is the right pick to hear his sound at best. Frankly I prefer him playing a Dupont in his "regular" records...

Charlie Ayers

I love that Kamlo Trio tone, too, Troy.

I also love the tone that R. Voet gets from his Favino on "My Gypsy Rhapsody".

Of course Fapy is a tone monster, on Selmer-style instruments.

I love the Romane tone, too, and the audiophilic quality of some of his recordings; "French Guitar" is a current favorite, with impeccable violin and piano playing (by the same player), and great guitar tone. Romane is shown hold a Dupont (?) with a natural top, instead of that blue one....

Is it the strings/pic/guitar/mic, or the player? Some of each, I suppose.

Charlie

frater

The guitar you hear in "French Guitar" is a Busato restored by Marcel Dupont (Romane calls it a "Busa-pont"!). It seems his VR has practically been stolen by his son!

MichaelHorowitz

The best Gypsy tone I've ever heard on record is this:

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The
Rosenberg Trio

Caravan

Stochelo was playing his Selmer back then with very high action and a thick pick. His tone was just incredible....in recent years he's changed guitars and now uses thinner picks. He still sounds great, but I definitely feel that he was getting a better tone back in the 90s.

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frater

Let's say it all: he also played with more fire! Now he's certainly a more sophisticated and jazzier player, but in the old days he was just kickin' asses!

sockeye

What did Fapy play on the Waso albums? I love the sound of the guitar on the "Waso 4 Gipsy Swing" album.

John

a

this is great because the video gives you modern day reference. his bass doesn't sound that much different from what we hear on th recording. i think we can hear django's tone very well here.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... ge&pl=true

pdaigle

My favorite manouche guitar sound is the Jacques Favino sound from the Ferre family:

Matelo Ferre: Tzinganskaia and Joe Privat's Manouche Party
Boulou Ferre on Boulou and Elios pour Django and Gypsy Dreams

To Bob Holo: I believe Yorgui's for Magnio album was recorded on a Gerome guitar....but then again, Yorgui makes anything sound good (and loud!) I believe he also plays a Jean-Marc Perrin oval hole.