Bireli's guitar

Lango-Django

For me, it is hard to be playing a show and announcing a song that was "a #1 tune just about 100 years ago" and looking out at a sea of 30-50 somethings who have no idea and never heard it. The basic GJ repetoire is great, there are some beautiful melodies, etc. but I think every style either has to live and grow or it becomes "museum jazz" where people sit down and politely golf clap after every song.

All true, but you left out the part about 99% of today's pop music being such a wasteland.

As soon as somebody today starts writing better tunes than Gershwin, Kern, Rodgers, Porter, etc. etc. I'll get right to trying to play them.

Until then, well, call me an old fogey if you wish, but I think I'll just stick with that good old "museum jazz".

dennis

Buco wrote: »

So back to Bireli, I'd actually like to hear what is it that he would like to do musically if he didn't have to worry about paying the bills whatsoever?

Knowing him, I'd answer, that it's not about what he would do musically but he's just someone who wants to do what he feels like, and to constantly feel the pressure of being expected to do one thing gets to him.

So whatever he feels like doing will change from day to day. If he feels like playing Django style, he will. That said, he really loves electric guitar stuff. He was practicing the violin really hard a while back, but unfortunately he stopped. Anyway, Bireli does what he wants :-)

scot

Advanced musicians in every style usually do whatever they want musically. Boulou Ferre, Sebastien Ginieux, Antoine Boyer and yes, Birili Lagrene are the best examples I can think of off hand. And why not? What talented professional musician allows his audience to dictate what he does?

If a musician as great as Birili feels that much pressure to conform to the wishes of others, some of who couldn't carry his guitar case, that's really sad. Especially so when he's as good on a strat or a 335 as he is...

And what exactly does "authentic" mean applied to music?

Teddy Dupont

Django is the perfect example of a musician who played what he wanted when he wanted and had very little interest, other than occasionally from a prestige point of view, in whether it made money or not........ and he played it on all sorts of odd guitars.

scot wrote: »

And what exactly does "authentic" mean applied to music?

An excellent question.

Cuimean

What's even more disturbing than his choice of guitar is that he's playing a Billy Joel song.

Bones

Word...:-) So many bad ear worms from pop music. That's why I can't listen to the radio anymore.

Buco

dennis wrote: »

Knowing him, I'd answer, that it's not about what he would do musically but he's just someone who wants to do what he feels like, and to constantly feel the pressure of being expected to do one thing gets to him.

So whatever he feels like doing will change from day to day. If he feels like playing Django style, he will. That said, he really loves electric guitar stuff. He was practicing the violin really hard a while back, but unfortunately he stopped. Anyway, Bireli does what he wants :-)

That makes sense, thanks Dennis.

Scott, I doubt these expectations come from the audience. I'd think most people coming to see and hear him play will not care what he does on stage. My understanding is that more likely comes from promoters, booking people, recording company...

In my mind and in this context, right or wrong, "authentic" means expecting to hear something but instead hearing something else. It doesn't mean I automatically won't like it just because it's not what I thought I'd hear. I may or may not, it depends on lot of other things that make up for good music. When it comes to Bireli, you can't categorize him so yeah it's probably silly to mingle the word authentic even in the same paragraph with him.

Teddy Dupont

Buco wrote: »

In my mind and in this context, right or wrong, "authentic" means expecting to hear something but instead hearing something else.

I guess that means Django wasn't "authentic" in the 50s.

One definition of authentic is "Of undisputed origin and not a copy". On that basis, none of the gypsy jazz music played today is authentic as it is all to some degree a copy.

Jojo

Thanks for the replies, everyone. A simple question about a guitar provoked a bit of soul-searching. Regardless of our collective shared interest, how do we make our lives more meaningful particularly those of us in our 50s? You feel trapped by something that 'pays the bills' certainly happens to us all. Always interesting to see how well known musicians (I only know ones from rock) manage this: Steve Vai branches out into bee-keeping; Jeff Beck and his American hot-rod self-builds, Bruce Dickinson (vocalist) and his fencing. Is it enough for Bireli to change just his guitar and be satisfied when you've taken your guitar playing as far as it can go? Doing the same venues and the same tunes? But I guess that's the nature of work for most people, having to do the same thing slightly differently each day. But GJ, I love it; it's made my life much more complete but I don't have to make a living through it

Buco

Teddy Dupont wrote: »

I guess that means Django wasn't "authentic" in the 50s.

One definition of authentic is "Of undisputed origin and not a copy". On that basis, none of the gypsy jazz music played today is authentic as it is all to some degree a copy.

Well that's the thing, when I listen to 50s Django I know exactly what to expect and I love it.

To use your authentic definition analogy, if we think of Django as Levi's, then the Hot Club days would be 501, and 50s would be 541 or something. So Django is the original and authentic in any form or shape.

Ah the darn word, why couldn't I say "sounds better" instead. My old English teacher always said "simpler is better".