Gypsy jazz western swing

krzys · October 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmZbj5z3AYI

This video got me thinking: which classic western swing players/records are most accessible for your average gypsy jazz listener? Lots of great licks and ideas to pull.

I've often found frustration in that all the tunes with classic progressions like rhythm changes get given their own name which makes it difficult to sort through familiar material.

Anyway, here's one to start:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEPkewuJQA4

wim · October 2023

You could check out Hot Club of Cowtown.

Buco · October 2023

Joel and Hot Club of Cowtown are about the only two names I could remember off the top of my head when it comes to western swing. Both Joel and Whit are fantastic guitar players. I find it very cool how the repertoire is common to both genres. Here HCCT play Tchavolo swing:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6fArKMRsWAk&t=261s

Russell Letson · October 2023

Currently, everybody has access to everything from anywhen, so big-ear'd GJ pickers can steal licks from any style that catches their attention. Before the current amalgamation-of-everything period, though, the influences generally worked from Django to swing and jazz players--plenty of western swing bands in particular must have found the Django-Grappelli combination pretty interesting. And that whole generation of post-war jazz players certainly noticed Django.