Kohe Reinhardt
In the videos of his channel, Kohe plays the second solo in the first video and the first solo in the second one. I don't know the names of the other guitarists in the first video. The guitarist joining in the second video must be Giovanni Weiss. The young guitarist on the right side of the table is an interesting player too!
I sang with Wolkly Rosenberg's band 18 years ago. Kohe and Manusch Weiss (very young men at that time) played lead, Wolkly (not the virtuoso at all, but a real rhythm machine) rhythm guitar. I forgot the name of the bass player, I only remember he was not of sinto origin.
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Kako Weiss
A very fine musician, playing soprano, alto and tenor sax. In this first video He is playing Solo in Hamburg's famos main St. Michael church, the "Michel". Kako studied at the conservatory and plays with various bands as a sideman or leadIng his on ensembles.
"Café Royal Salonorchester":
Clemens Rating guitar; Dikno Kako Weiss, tenor sax; Bummel Weiss, violin; Baro Kako Weiss, accordion; Gerd Bauder, double bass
With Patrick Pagels, guitar and Axel Burkhardt, double bass
Kako once complained "As a Sinto musician, you are doomed to play Gypsy Jazz", but he doesn't comply.
Astoria Piazolla's "Libertango"
Compiling the posts I realize that there is not much significant material of those outstanding musicians. Nobody in this scene has much gigs, so there is no rich video footage of big international festivals and such with the guys I want to introduce to you. Although all the Hamburg Sinti musicians I met or heard in concerts are among the best players I ever got to know, none of them can make a living from music. They run business like antique trade, scrap trade, selling fried sausages at fairs or obscure musical instruments on flea markets ..., and the pandemic did not improve their situation.
I remember when we played at the "Hafengeburtstag (festival all around the Hamburg harbour)" with Wolkly Rosenberg's combo in 2005 or so. Wolkly had invited German violin legend Alfred Lora and the Hungarian bassist Deszö Racs to join the band. It was fun to sing along with those excellent musicians whose names I knew since I have been a young man, and I had the impression that they liked my singing. Just when I wanted to ask them, if they had any gigs for me, they asked me, if I had any gigs for them.
40 minutes with Kako Weiss, sax; Robert Weiss, guitar (right); Manusch Weiss, guitar (left); and Jürgen Attig, double bass. "Planten un Blomen" is a park in the former ramparts of Hamburg, in summer there are free open air concerts.
Willie,
great stuff, I had met a few of these musicians in past years, but not seen much video.
The young guitarist is Justin Geisler (Mogeli's son) unless I am very mistaken.
B.
An hour with "Django deluxe" featuring Giovanni Weiss, guitar.
A lot of the Hamburg Sinti musicians played with this band; among the guitarists were, as far as I know, Manusch Weiss, Robert Weiss, Jeffrey Weiss and Kohe Reinhardt.
This is all amazing, thank you Willie.
Jeffrey Weiss
Testing a guitar:
Jeffrey, Marcel and Mirano Weiss with bassist Oliver Zierke - "Django forever":
Jeffrey Weiss, Robert Weiss, Giovanni Weiss, Wawau Adler, Kohe Reinhardt (don't know the bassit's name, but he too is a member of the Weiss family as far as I know):
There are more videos of Django forever posted in the Song-of-the-month-threads of January and February.
Looking at all the young Gypsy players I have to state that dresscodes have changed over the years. When I had the chance to sing several gigs as a guest with the Oechsner-Weiss-Ensemble (https://youtu.be/qW7bhoADg6Q) about 25 years ago, we all wore suits and leather shoes, of course. And Traubeli Weiss (of the Munich and Straubing based part of the family) gave me a hint for some important detail: if you are playing guitar in a sitting position, with crossed leg, you should not wear socks, but stockings. People in the first rows of seats don't want to see your hairy leg. I've taken that to heart ever since.
Tornado Rosenberg
Of the elder generation. Tornado is known not only for his guitar playing, but also as a singer/songwriter. I personally prefer the style of the younger Sinti guitarists, but Tornado and his brother Wolkly have great merits for the Hamburg Sinti Swing scene. For decades they play and organize musical events with their relatives and friends.
Tornado and Matthias Gerhardt, who is also playing tuba.
Here Tornado is playing with Meni Weiss and Jack Dombrowski, guitars, and Christian Schwaß, double bass. I hope the video works; if not, try this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poGof6TG0Qw
Tornado, Meni Weiss, and Wolkly Rosenberg:
Manusch Weiss
Manusch was my first musical contact when I moved from Munich to Hamburg in 2001. We met at a flea market, he was playing a tune I knew on an old selmer style guitar someone was selling. I sang along, and he invited me to a jam session at the "Lightship". Later he introduced me to Wolkly Rosenberg in whose band he was playing together with his friend Kohe Reinhardt, and the following years we had a few gigs together.
Manusch is one of the very fine Hamburg Sinti musicians with almost no video footage to find:
Here he is playing lead guitar in Caro Josée's musical project: