Django's Birthday Fest Jan. 20-23; 2023

jonpowl

Had the good luck to attend Django's B'day Festival tonight, the first of 3 days, in Berkeley, CA. Tonight's lineup was Tatiana Eva-Marie and band doing "Djangology" including lyrics she has written for a few Django tunes. I'm a big fan of Tatiana and enjoyed Max O'Rourke sitting in on rhythm guitar. Hot Club San Francisco followed and chatty Paul "Pazzo" Mehling and Evan “Zeppo” Price were in fine form, as always. The rhythm section was outstanding especially the bass player as was forum member Christophe. Rhthym Future followed with an All Star lineup that made everybody better. I have seen Jason Anick before, and he is a solid violinist. But with Max O'rourke and Henry Acker on guitars, everybody sounded phenomenal, including bass player, Greg Loughman. Max improvised an opening for "My Blue Heaven" and even band leader Jason had to complement his playing. Honestly, it must be intimidating doing a solo with Henry Acker sitting a few feet away with what must be a hundred fingers on each hand. I don't know what guitars they were playing but they sounded incredible. Henry had a bit more of a classic Manouche sound and was very, very fast while Max might have had more of a Gonzalo sound due to the time he spent on tour with Gonzalo pre-covid.. Henry appeared to have a mic, while Max had a mystery pickup as he was turned to the side and I couldn't see anything on his guitar. Two more days remain to celebrate Django's Birthday so make sure to get down to the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley Jan. 23-24. There are free workshops with your paid ticket and I have a ticket for Stephane Wrembel's clinic Sat. at 11:00 AM. Not sure if I'll make it as it's a bit of a drive and traffic is never easy going into Berkeley and Oakland.