DFNW 2006 observations

wayne nakamura

I just flew in from Las Vegas and boy are my arms tired!

This was my first DFNW. I'll definitely return. The setting is so beautiful and the entire festival is contained within a few square blocks.

Unfortunately, Michael Collins and I missed our flight. The security people in Buffalo had never seen Shatten pickups before, and when they x-rayed my guitar case, they called everyone over and pondered what the weird looking things in the case pocket were. Actually with the wires and the adhesive mounting putty I guess I can understand their concern. It does x-ray like a detonator and some c5 plastique. Finally one security guy said "they're pickups for the guitar". By the time all was settled our flight had left. So we arrived 13 hrs late, at 4:30 am instead of 3:30 pm the previous afternoon. We missed Kruno's set which was a real disappointment.

We spent the rest of the weekend trying to catch up on sleep and still see all we could.

Many highlights, but my favourite moments were: listening to Tschavolo, Samson and Andreas pass the guitar back and forth outside WICA. I don't think these guys had slept for days and the liquid inspiration was flowing! Andreas would show Tschavolo licks he had learned from him and Samson would grab the guitar and play Andreas songs that he had learned. Samson would play beautiful chord melody and then re-tune during the solo. Then he would pass the guitar to Andreas and he would start playing without knowing what the tuning was. Great fun. Tschavolo would sing beautiful ballads, calling out the chords as Andreas tried to anticipate/follow.

Someone mentioned the video of Dorado teaching Samson Minor Swing as a child and Samson played a short excerpt verbatim. Many laughs.

I got a chance to tell Tschavolo that he was my hero. big hugs and kisses and then Tschavolo showed me the django tattoo over his heart and said, "my hero". Great moment.

Another highlight was going into the soundcheck for Whit Smith and seeing Matt Munisteri playing rhythm guitar. Matt and I had met in Quebec City in 2000 at the Angelo show. He remembered me right away and was very open and friendly. I don't think anyone was prepared for how great a player Matt is. The after show response in the lobby was very positive. I think the Brits call it "gobsmacked". Mark Schwartz of Hot Club Pacific said "that guy Matt is definitely a world-class player" and I couldn't agree more.

MichaelC had brought his just finished favino and i brought my new 12 fret Selmer Dhole. MC had the opportunity to completely spec a Selmer and my guitar was the first he has made using all of those specs. We even reproduced the selmer logo for the headstock. TedG did a double-take when I pulled it out of the case. Matt and Whit played them for about half an hour in the dressing room before the show and it was a proud moment for both of us to hear players of that caliber filling a small dressing room with the tremendous tone that these guitars can produce. It felt like a musical shower. Ted G got up and grabbed the d-hole and started playing All of Me and Matt and whit jumped in and traded 8's and Michael Collins was beaming like a father watching his son throw the winning touchdown!

If you ever go to one of these things and you want to catch all the good stuff, stick close to Ted G or Archtop E. Those guys are always in the middle of everything!

It was wonderful to meet everyone. Michael H, Teddy G, Alain C, Pat C, Michael S, Andreas O, Tschavolo S, Samson S, Dorado S, Shelley P, JTwilliams etc, etc. All wonderful inclusive and knowledgable people. SP makes great guitars!

Wayne Nakamura

oh, and a thousand kudos to Nick Lehr and his team. They put on a great show and DFNW is a tough act to follow.

wayne nakamura

For those of you who would like to know more about Matt Munisteri, here's his website. Check out the video

http://www.mattmunisteri.com

Wayne Nakamura

Josh Hegg

Wayne,

It was great to meet you and Michael! Great to get the book and have a chance to talk with both of you about guitars on the building level. Hope you both plan on making it an annual event!


Cheers,
Josh

MichaelHorowitz

Thanks Wayne...it was great to meet you and Michael. Michael's Selmer Guitar book looks great...I'll get it up for sale pronto!

'm

wayne nakamura

Thanks for the kind words and it was great, not only to meet you, but to play with Josh and to listen to you play Michael. It was a lot of fun and a real eye-opener. There's just so many good players out there, and not just the ones we see on stage. Even the players, who are not as accomplished, are inspiring with their knowledge, passion and stamina.

I've got to find more time to practise and go through my Djangobooks. Watching Samson et al play those beautiful solo chord melodies was very inspiring and I've got to put some serious time into "Unaccompanied Django".

I really want to thank both of you and **** as well for the support and effort you've all put into making the GJ scene as vibrant as it is. I can't think of any other artist, other than DR, who has generated such a strong following and you are all a fundamental part of the growth.

Now if I could just get my hands on Gypsy Rhythm I'll be really spending a lot of time in the woodshed!

Keep 'em coming!

WN

Phil

Hi Wayne and others... Wayne it was great to meet you and jam with you...I also did a double take on your "Selmer" guitar! Nice one!

DFNW was really incredible. I also very much enjoyed the moments of hanging around outside the WICA theatre & experiencing the "real-life Tony Gatliff film" which occured in seeing Tchavolo, Dorado & Samson just relaxing, making music and enjoying life. To see them at the festival was something special, they have a wonderful 'joi de vie'. Both their shows were somethingspecial...(apart from the poor sound ...where were the sound guys??).

Andreas Oberg's second show was one of the greatest exhibitions of
jazz guitar improvisation that I've had the pleasure to witness,
incredible spontaneous creativity!!

Was great to see Opus 4 perform their traditional gypsy show. Serge
Camps is wonderful entertainer. Come back soon Serge!

Kruno - was fantastic...and his suprise vocal on "Cry Me a River"
was magic!

Robin Nolan keeps reinventing himself! He did a top notch show on a
Gibson semi-acoustic archtop.

Billet-Deux did a great set at both shows, creating a their own
special blend of chamber gypsy-jazz.

There was alot more, but even though it's hard to believe,
DjangoFest gets better and better.

Thank you Nick! Cheers to all old and new friends that I met...keep
on jammin'! Latcho Drom.

Cheers

Phil

I've got some incredible photos...not sure of the best place to share them. I often find it difficult to post photos on this site? I got a great "captured moment" photo of the moment that Wayne describes about Dorado hearing of the video of him teaching Samson...it's a wonderful proud photo of Dorado. Cheers. Phil

MichaelHorowitz

Hi Phil...you should be able to just attach your photos to your message. You can also upload them to the encyclopedia as well. Or just send them to me and I'll post them.

Thanks!

'm

Phil

Here's a group shot taken Sunday afternoon...cheers, Phil

Cuimean

That's a pretty incredible collection of footwear.

Collinsguitar

Howdy Folks!

Ahhhh Djangofest Northwest, what a great time we had at that wonderful event. It was really cool to meet so many of you whom I've read posts on these forums over the past few years, and finally get a chance to hear some of you play.
All of the shows I caught were great in their own way (too bad about the sound at the high school during the schmitts show....it still kicked booty though).
It was really nice to meet those of you who attended the setup class as well. I am looking forward to attending next year if possible. I am just hoping they can get Bireli to come next year.
It was really cool that Nick invited the Whit Smith Trio back for next year, although I would really like to see them on Friday or Saturday, so we could get a chance to see them jam with the really hot players.
A special thanks to all of you who purchased books and Favino plans.
It was especially good to meet Nick Lehr, ****, Shelly Park, Doug Martin, Hideo T, Archtop Eddy, Josh Hegg, Pat M, Andreas Oberg, and so many of you whom shall remain nameless due to my bad memory.
Looking forward to next year, this year I promise to practice!

Michael Collins

Collinsguitar

Oh yeah, before I forget.
It was nice to see Shepp and the boys from Amerinouche (some of the nicest guys you could ever meet).
Also, A big thank you to Casey Rider for the absolutely cool CD. You are a great songwriter man!

Miguel