The Idiomatiques and My Gypsy Jazz Journey Blog Part Trois (nu cd sample)

Scoredog

So if you wish to catch up on the earlier blogs the link is here

http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/15638/the-idiomatiques-and-my-gypsy-jazz-journey-blog-part-deux/p1

So here I am over 4 yrs into my Gypsy Jazz journey. This year has had a few events. Getting the band on The new BoyzIIMen album was a big deal as they hold numerous all-time records on Billboard.
We got to play on 4 songs

http://intro.boyziimen.com

That said it has nothing to do with Gypsy Jazz but still thought it was worth mentioning. Personally I have stopped taking lessons to focus on my own direction but still watch lots of vids as I pick up new stuff or remember things I might have forgot. I got to sit in with Alfonso when I went to Chicago and have now gigged with Neil Andersson of Pearl Django. Nick Coventry of Black Market Trust comes and sits in with The Idios when he is visiting his old home town. The famous French violinist Gilles Apap has sat in a rehearsal with us. I was at the rehearsal and I looked outside the window and I said to the guys there appears to be a homeless guy outside the door here with a violin case…it was Gilles! (btw he is not homeless just very casual and appeared to have good hygiene). I mention these names as they are ones people on this forum might be familiar with.

The Idomatiques have been focused on trying to play festivals. We played the massive amount of 2 this year but that is 2 more than last year. We also have been playing more concerts but not a ton. Of course we would like to be busier. We do continue with a 2x a month gig we have been on now for two and half years but the room is so loud we can’t do our vocals and show stuff, still very grateful for the gig.

The one thing we can control is our new album which we are very excited about and is set for imminent release (It was imminent last October….sigh) I thought I’d share one of the songs with you and see if you could give some feedback. Both Brian (the accordion player) and I are producers and tend to go a bit overboard with production though we both have individual producing styles.

Anyway here is the unveiling of our album and one song to hopefully wet your appetite.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h0inj1uc1s5huo6/Scooby Doo.m4a?dl=0

Thanks to those who listen!

Craig (Scoredog)

BillDaCostaWilliams

Fun theme and great production.
Sounds like just what I would like to hear on the radio on a sunny morning.

Bones

WHERE'S MY CD!!!????

Scoredog

Thanks Bill!
Bones, we should have virtual CD's sometime this week barring fire evacuation. Physical in January.

Bones

Yeah this fire is nuts. Basically zombie apocalypse around here. Wear ur N95 face mask if you are outside and keep ur doors and windows closed tight to keep the smoke out.

Buco

Yeah Craig, I figure you'd the band to be busier but those are some nice experiences and memories.
I finally heard the song. This thing is a lot of fun to listen to! Is that a sound of melodica besides the accordion? And were you playing a Dupont on this track? This whistling makes it so playful and it's a very nice addition to the song.
The production is sure polished but it's not clinical and the mix is just perfect. The only thing I'm missing is more of the acoustic woodiness in the upright. But the bass is so well balanced, has a lot of body and low end punch without being overbearing. I thought "let's have some fun" was a good sounding album but this seems to be on a whole new level.
Are you gonna put it on Spotify?

Scoredog

Yeah Bones...we are having a white Christmas here but wrong kind of white.

Thanks Buco for the listen. The band is playing 3-4 gigs a month between our club gig, concerts and casuals, hopefully we can grow that. Yes Brian plays clavietta and accordion (nice juggling act live). The guitar is my Hahl Gitano-D. Bass player Kim is the whistler. We feel this album is considerably better than "Lets Go Have Some Fun" as we now are a bit more seasoned GJ players, ON LGHSF we were all GJ newbies except Bones. We will put it on Spotify and anywhere else we can land it.

AndrewUlle

Great sample - I look forward to more! I wish all these great bands would tour the country so I could see you all play live.

Lango-Django

Wow... what a fresh-sounding tune! First of all, kudos on your compositional skills, Scoredog!

And what marvellous crystal-clear sound quality (maybe having two producers on board is actually a plus, who knew?)

And not to neglect the tone of that Hahl guitar... like crushed velvet!

An accomplishment to be proud of!

Will

PS I also dug the Fats Waller quote at 2:29...

Your playing sort of confirms one of my pet theories about "first language interference" in guitar playing...

Mind you, I don't pretend to be perfect at this, but I can often tell by listening to a guitar solo's phrasing whether the player is an actual gypsy, or a French speaker, or an English speaker.

Your playing is great, with an American accent!

Scoredog

Thanks Andrew! We are going to look into getting a booking agent to send us out east, you never know, we might show up one day.

Thanks Will, I wish I could say I wrote this tune but it was Brian our Accordion player and the producer I mentioned. As far as my playing is concerned I love the real Gypsy's and French and other European players, many are mind boggling in their abilities but I figured I'd better do my own thing while still hopefully sounding like a GJ player. If you listen closely enough you might be able to hear what state i'm from, i'm about as American as one gets and figured I better go with it.

Lango-Django

Well, your own thing definitely sounds great!

And I completely agree that jazz players should do their own thing. Otherwise, what's the point?

But in another thread, there was a link to a Tcha Limburger article in which he was talking about the same general sort of language interference...

I can clearly hear when someone plays Magyar nóta whether he speaks Hungarian or not. It’s not even the meaning of the lyrics. It’s the rhythm of the language that you need.

Part of what makes those European players sound so amazing is not just their technique, it's also their unusual phrasing, which I think is always going to come across as slightly mysterious to us English speakers...

And of course, as others have pointed out, the same process works in reverse...

Just for one example, if you listen to Django and Stephane's version of a classic Tin Pan Alley tune like "Three Little Words" you'll hear some variations in chord choices from those that contemporary North American jazz players would've chosen...

So who's 'right' and who's 'wrong'?

Who's 'good' and who's 'bad'?

There are no answers... except for "Who will always be 'best'?"

A: "Django!"