Django Reinhardt Festival - Dimitriou's Jazz Alley Seattle,

MichaelHorowitz

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Django Reinhardt
Festival

August 3-6, 2006

$23.50



Dimitriou's
Jazz Alley, 2033 6th Avenue, Seattle WA 98121

Phone (206) 441-9729 | Fax (206) 443-8247

jazzalley@jazzalley.com



Make a reservation
for this show.
www.djangobirdland.com
The
Pacific Jazz Institute at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley presents for four
nights a Django Reinhardt Festival. Band members include Dorado Schmitt
(guitar gypsy legend from the Lorraine region of France), Samson
Schmitt (young gypsy guitar star, son of Dorado), Ludovic Beier
(accordion whiz from Paris), Peter Beets (pianist from Holland) and
Brian Torff (bass, toured with Grappelli for years). Set time Thursday
through Saturday are at 7:30PM and 9:30PM. Set time on Sunday is 7:30PM.
Legendary
gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhard’s “hot swing” style and music
caused a sensation in Europe in the 30’s and 40’s and is just as "hot"
today. Django along with famed Stephane Grappelli were the stars of The
Quintet of the Hot Club of France, which defined this style of music,
known as "Le Jazz Hot"!

DJANGO was a gypsy guitar
virtuoso, called a genius by many. His influence lives on through
recordings and talented musicians who continue to enjoy and appreciate
his very special and original style of swing music...which today we
even call "Hip Hot!" The DJANGO REINHARDT FESTIVAL, produced by Pat
Phillips and Ettore Stratta, serves to preserve and carry forward the
musical legacy of DJANGO as well as the many possibilities of
creativity that can grow from his enormous talent and inspiration by
presenting the top players in the world of this music.

plankity

Tchavolo is not playing Seattle???

He was remarkable last night at Lincoln Center: the complete embodiment of good and evil. He transcended everything and played like there was no tomorrow! The rest of the show was great but he was so head and shoulders above and beyond his colleagues, it was just plain scary!

He was also a handful and needed to be monitored: he had the JALC staff running around, following his second-hand smoke. He also disappeared more than once, only to show up at the very last second and walk out onstage, all smiles and jolliness. At one point, however, he and Samson disappeared entirely and their absence altered the second set: they went outside and were wandering around Columbus Circle and became lost, only to find their way back but couldn't find the right floor from the elevator.

I couldn't help but think what a great film Robert Altman would have made of the whole scene.

I will try to post a more complete review after I've had some time to digest it all.

Norman CT/USA

Andreika

Tchavolo Schmitt was brilliant... as was Florin Niculescu, as always.

Tchavolo's two song lead-off was simply untouchable... he blew everyone away. Angelo Debarre did the same thing last year... no one could compare with him or catch up.

I would travel anywhere to see Debarre, Tchavolo and Niculescu together. Perhaps at Birdland this November?

Intermission - There was much activity in Columbus Circle... there was a fairly unique ensemble of musicians that sounded like a fusion between a High School Marching Band and a Swing/Jazz ensemble. We almost missed the last call for seating for the 2nd act we were so caught up by them.

czecko

I thought the whole band was great! And their antics onstage and (what we guessed)off were really funny. They had us laughing for most of the 2nd set. I don't know what joke Florin and Dorado were sharing but they couldn't stop laughing through one song (body and soul?).

Although it must be hell for the organizers, stage, and sound people to have what amounts to The Marx Brothers perform, it was really refreshing to watch a group of virtuoso musicians who just didn't seem to give a damn about stage and performance protocol. Like they decide "oh I wanna smoke" or "I wanna be over here now" they just got up and walked offstage. And of course they would come back and totally BURN on some number. Awesome! Exactly like everything I've ever heard or seen about Django.

Tchavolo and Florin were amazing and Dorado played a very pretty Nuages. But, like I said, everyone played something great at least once over the course of the evening.

Went with 2 friends and had great seats. Can hardly wait for Birdland in November.

plankity

czecko wrote:

I thought the whole band was great! And their antics onstage and (what we guessed)off were really funny. They had us laughing for most of the 2nd set. I don't know what joke Florin and Dorado were sharing but they couldn't stop laughing through one song (body and soul?)...

We were talking with Joel Frahm in a dressing room about pianist Barry Harris' bebop academy, which meets on Tuesday nights not far from there when he said, "I should really pay attention to what's going on..." and he walked into the backstage area... mere moments later, we heard him kick off Body and Soul -- very sweetly... for us, this was quite hilarious because he literally only had time to walk to the stage and begin blowing! The band must have been wondering and waiting... though I doubt this was the joke being shared.

Norman CT/USA

plankity

Andreika wrote:

I would travel anywhere to see Debarre, Tchavolo and Niculescu together. Perhaps at Birdland this November?

Andreika:

No Angelo but I think you should pack your bags for this one (a week from tomorrow - August 12)

http://www.djangostation.com/breve.php3?id_breve=820

Tchavolo with Florin, Marcel Loeffler (accordeon), Christophe Lartilleux (guitarre - from the band Latcho Drom) and no other than David Reinhardt (DR's grandson and Babik's son). What a line-up!

Norman CT/USA

PS: Birdland looks like Stochelo with Dorado, Samson, Florin, Ludovic, Torff and others

czecko

plankity wrote:

We were talking with Joel Frahm in a dressing room about pianist Barry Harris' bebop academy, which meets on Tuesday nights not far from there when he said, "I should really pay attention to what's going on..." and he walked into the backstage area... mere moments later, we heard him kick off Body and Soul -- very sweetly... for us, this was quite hilarious because he literally only had time to walk to the stage and begin blowing! The band must have been wondering and waiting... though I doubt this was the joke being shared.
Norman CT/USA

Joel Frahm sounded great that night as well.
Norman you seem to have the inside scoop on this stuff, do you think he will be at Birdland as well? He was a really nice addition to the rest of the performance.

Great that you can hang with those guys like that. I bet it's a lot of fun.

plankity

czecko wrote:

Joel Frahm sounded great that night as well.
Norman you seem to have the inside scoop on this stuff, do you think he will be at Birdland as well? He was a really nice addition to the rest of the performance.

Great that you can hang with those guys like that. I bet it's a lot of fun.

Czecko: Joel was outstanding! I was so glad he was on the bill because he sounded very cool last year at Birdland and the Gypsies dug what he does (and Pat takes a lot of crap for putting American jazzers onstage with these guys).

Currently, I have Pat's ear so I get to tell her what I hear, what would be nice, where we blew it, where she blew it and where they blew it.

I will petition her for more Frahm -- he really played the Zoot role to a tee, didn't he? All of Me was too much!!! And Body and Soul was just perfect!

And hanging with the Schmitts, etc was very amusing, language barrier notwithstanding.

Norman CT/USA

PS: so far the Americans for Birdland are Ken Peplowski and James Carter - last year they had a different guy every night

NewcastleBud

Man, what a show! I had great seats (second row, dead center, close enough to hear Tchavalo snort between lines!) I drove from Virginia and I can say with absolute certainty that it was well worth the trip!! Everybody onstage played incredibly but for me, the two things that stand out are Tchavalo's first tune (J'attendrai, ofcourse) and Dorado's beautiful solo on Nuages. I got a chance to hang out a bit with the guys after the show but it amounted to a bunch of nodding and smiling as my French is virtually non existent ( Where's DennisC when you need him?)