Santa Fe Django Festival

MichaelHorowitz

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MICHAEL
HOROWITZ

BY KEVIN HOPPER

The footprint that Django Reinhardt
left on the jazz world is nothing short of mammoth. To this day, there
are numerous bands paying homage to the gypsy jazz (or jazz manouche)
sound he helped establish in the early 30s with his Quintette
du Hot Club de France. In fact, as musician and Reinhardt
adherent Robert Brochey related recently, there
exists an entire modern day gypsy jazz corridor in North America.

“It starts in Central California, north of Los
Angeles,” Brochey explained over a recent cup of coffee. “Definitely up
into San Francisco, Sacramento, Northern California, up into the
Northwest and British Columbia. Then it goes across Canada through
Quebec. Quebec is just a hotbed, because it’s a French
[music].”

Brochey, who is also the North American marketing agent for
British guitar makers Manouch (sponsors of the Santa
Fe Django
Festival), further explained that the corridor then dips back down into
Northeastern United States and into many of the larger metropolitan
areas in the Midwest. Brochey is so involved with the gyspy jazz
movement that he wants to extend this corridor to include the
Southwest. And like many other places along the corridor, Brochey has
created a Django Festival, which will be held over
two days in Santa Fe
over Labor Day weekend.

HOT
CLUB OF SAN FRANCISCO

“I want this to be an annual thing,” Brochey
said as he pulled out a stunningly beautiful Manouch guitar to
demonstrate not only the capabilities of the guitar itself (similar to
the guitars Reinhardt played), but to give me a sampling of the style
of music that has seen somewhat of a resurgence in the past decade.

“But until it becomes more mainstream, I thought it would probably be
more appealing to people who just love music and maybe know who Django
Reinhardt is. So I didn’t want to make it a huge event.”For the
festival, Brochey has brought in some jazz manouche heavyweights
including The Hot Club of San Francisco (featuring
the multi-talented
Paul Mehling) and Seattle’s Djangomatics, a trio led
by author and
ethnomusicologist Michael Horowitz who also owns the
publishing company
DjangoBooks.com.

Mehling’s group, which formed in 1991 (before gypsy
jazz’s resurgence), tours internationally and has seen its fair share
of Django Festivals.“Oh yes, it’s almost become a fad,” Mehling said of
the surge in popularity of Gypsy Jazz.

“Both of these bands that are
coming,” says Brochey, “are really, big-time gypsy jazz bands. These
guys know what they’re doing.”Both acts will be offering workshops
during the festival and will perform numerous sets. Local gypsy jazz
act Le Chat Lunatique has been recruited to play in
between sets by the
two headliners and an original Manouche guitar (valued at just under
$2,000) will be raffled off. Only 200 seats will be available for each
day of the festival and ticket price includes food.

Santa Fe Django Festival

4p & 7p Sat., Sep. 2

Featuring The Hot Club of San Francisco

4p & 7p Sun., Sep. 3
Featuring

The Djangomatics

Additional performances by Le Chat Lunatique on both
days

Workshops from 12-2p on Sat & Sun
La Fonda,

100 E. San Francisco in Santa Fe 505.982.5511
$40 per day or $65 for two days

Tickets available by calling 800.901.7674, at Encore Music (5314 Menaul
NE, 888.0722) or online at manouchenorthamerica.com

From: [url=http://www.local-iq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=298&Itemid=28]local-iq[/url]

bbwood_98

we should all be going! this is a great setting- and la fonda is a cool place- as is santa fe- some other great music there too . . . plus the best guaqamole in the US! have some for me Mr. horowitz!
B.