Video's of the Anniversary Concert of the Dutch Gypsy Jazz Association

Melvin Koenings

Yesterday, 23 April 2023, we celebrated the 40-th anniversary of the Stichting Hot Club de France Nederland, a.k.a. the Dutch Gypsy Jazz Association. What a pleasure was that! Mind you, 40 years ago in 1983, the jazz style of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, was nearly gone in terms of live music. This style was bound to go where the Latin language went in history, to be known on paper en recordings only, a sort of a dead language. In 1983, only 3 bands were playing this style. Only in Belgium, a successful band emerged, the WASO Quartet, with Fapy Lafertin as lead guitarist and Koen de Cauter (multi-instrumentalist). A handful of enthusiasts decided to start a new Dutch association, to promote this style of music. They gathered in a hotel in the middle of The Netherlands and when they started to discuss the idea of creating this association, something magical happened. The radio was on in the hotel bar and right on that moment they started to talk on this new idea, a song started on the radio: it was Nuages played by Django himself. Hoe about a message from above?

Anyway, WASO did the first concert for a handful of enthusiasts and from there it started to grow gradually. Now, after 40 years, we have more than one hundred bands playing this style in The Netherlands. We have jam sessions in every major city all the time. The Netherlands has produced so many great ambassadors of this style, like Stochelo Rosenberg, Paulus Schäfer, Lollo Meier, Robin Nolan, Mozes Rosenberg, Jimmy Rosenberg, Tim Kliphuis, Christiaan van Hemert and many more. There are many gypsy jazz concerts every week, we have numerous teachers as well. The association has organised over a hundred concerts, with all the best artists in the world. The association also has a great colourful quarterly magazine (Quintette) and a popular podcast.

For the very first concert in 1983, the association obviously invited the WASO Quartet (there was not much choice anyway). Shortly after that, they also invited Stéphane Grappelli, who was still on the road back in 1983. And after 40 years the association invited WASO again, how special is that! Below are some video links of the concert yesterday.

Melodie Au Crépescule:

https://youtu.be/3aBWYBUtjHc

Tu Djajal:

https://youtu.be/UkcySKMpnnw

The WASO Quartet ended the concert with a beautiful version of Nuages, the song that started it all 40 years ago.

https://youtu.be/2azKO6Wb9Es

 

crookedpinky

Congratulations to you all on your 40th anniversary. Here's to the next 40.

BillDaCostaWilliams

Great to hear about the Association - thanks Melvin.

And nice to see three generations in the band.

Buco

Wow, wonderful rundown writeup of the club's history, thanks. Looking forward to listening to these.

There was one band (that I know and most likely the only one) that existed in Yugoslavia at the time. That was my first introduction to this music. Wish I could somehow find out who they were.

This genre is truly amazing and one of a kind when compared to anything else.

billyshakes

Melvin,

Agree. Such a cool recounting of the history of this club. Were there any original members in attendance for the 40th anniversary? Have you seen continued interest from younger generations in joining the association?

Melvin Koenings

Fortunately both Koen de Cauter and Fapy Lafertin of the origibal WASO Quartet were there. And also two of the original founding member of the Dutch Hot Club association (including the first chairman Georg Lankester) were there as well, I interviewed them on stage.

For a while this association tended to look back a lot, meetings were often called reunion. Meanwhile, members got older and older. When I became chairman of the association (about 8 years ago), I tried to turned that around . We started to organize "concert meetings" and also more often jam sessions, inviting younger artists and we organized workshops for younger generations. That is helping a lot actually, we now have a significant number of younger people as members of our association. And also a flourishing quarterly magazine.

Building bridges between generations is one of the most important challenges in world music today. Pass on your love and passion.

billyshakes

Building bridges between generations is one of the most important challenges in world music today. Pass on your love and passion.

They are fortunate to have your good and wise leadership, Melvin. This is an important point you make. If a genre is to remain alive and vibrant, it needs fresh ideas and an admixture of those new inspirations.