Your favourite Gypsy jazz mandolin tunes?

simplygoodmusic

Which gypsy jazz tunes have you found work best for mandolin?
Not all tunes, IMO, are suited for that mando voice. I don’t think I’d wanna give Django’s tiger a shot, but other tunes work perfectly.
Personally I found the following to be great-

Lulu Swing
Dark Eyes
Caravan
Danube

And you?

Klezmorim

Some of my earliest exposure to GJ was from listening to David Grisman's mando interpretations of Django's tunes, including:

Minor Swing (recorded once with Grappelli and another time with Svend Asmussen)
Nuages
Swing 42
Sweet Georgia Brown

If you don't already have a copy of Grisman and Grappelli's "Live" recording from September 1979, check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002KMA/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

-k

guitarnowski

I've been adding some mando to my primarily guitar-based music making, and most of it is David Grisman's fault.

I dig it a bunch when it swings.

If you're hip to the world of bit-torrent downloading of live shows of trader-friendly bands (of which David Grisman is one), you can find a couple Grisman/Grapelli shows at these places:

http://bt.etree.org/

http://www.dimeadozen.org (need to register to download)

www.shnflac.net/ (You'll need to set up a log-in name here to even browse)

All three of these sites adhere STRICTLY to only offering the music of bands who don't object to their music being torrented.

There are more sites, of course. These are just the ones I frequent.

jmcgann

Actually, i think all of the GJ repertoire works fine for mandolin. If it works for fiddle , it stands to reason it would work for mando, YMMV.

Playing actual Django solos would be something else though- they are playable on mandolin once you get the ranges sorted out, but the effect of the lines are very different, since Django is truly "a composer who happened to play guitar"- the lines are very "guitaristic" and don't lie as naturally in other tunings or on other instruments...but having said that, I think music is music. I steal from all instruments for the mandolin :twisted: