Popular tunes that work in Django style

Tele295 · March 2009

klaatu wrote:

I think you meant to say that it did NOT matter what they played as long as they kept the volume down. We've had more people come up to us after a set and say how nice it is to be able to carry on a conversation without shouting.

I-I-I-I'm sure that's what I said, wasn't it? :oops:

Darn rented fingers. Thanks for catching that.

Tele295 · March 2009

klaatu wrote:

Tele295 wrote:

He made the comment that it did matter what they played as long as they kept the volume down.

I think you meant to say that it did NOT matter what they played as long as they kept the volume down. We've had more people come up to us after a set and say how nice it is to be able to carry on a conversation without shouting.

HCQ · March 2009

I think almost anything by Cole Porter works.

"Singing In The Rain" works if I kept it short.

I like Benny Golson and Tad Dameron tunes a lot when in a quasi non-gypsy mode. Quiet and funky.

I also like to switch gears within appropriate tunes with the same or similar chord progressions with so-called shout or quoted choruses.

For example:

"Honeysuckle Rose" = "Scrapple From The Apple"
"How High The Moon" = "Ornithology"
"Django's Castle" ~ "Stompin' At The Savoy"

Lots of tunes fit into this type of thing.

As others point out, set and setting plays a big role what and how to play. How you pace a set in concert with how you focus your musical imagination when and if an audience reacts.

Best,

Bob Holo · March 2009

Some of the coolest non-swing GJ interpretations I've heard have been songs by Stevie Wonder & Sting.

From what I've seen, a lot of gypsies are doing pop songs, just not American pop...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Upm8fq7ZQ

I think there's a bit of a difference in the music scene now as compared to Django's time. There was no question in Django's mind what to play - as jazz musicians were the rock stars of the day and a fairly broad swath of ages and incomes were listening to jazz... and it was like that for a long time... Hot, Cool, Swing, Big Band, Bebop, Straight Ahead etc. But things changed in 1968... and jazz was no longer popular music. Some time along the way, big business discovered money could be made in manufacturing vapidly addictive music and their influence has been singularly destructive to the whole concept of "popular" music because the very essence of what they're trying to do is segment audiences to maximize profit.

Now for teens (the traditionally influential group in adopting new popular music) it's either this American Idolesque garbage or 'Core', which is basically video game soundtrack. It's not music... it's "Music Product(tm) with cross-platform promotional marketing rights".

But yeah, I've heard some gypsy bands do wonderful stuff with Stevie Wonder & Sting... Bossa version of Englishman in New York etc.

klaatu · March 2009

Bob Holo wrote:

" ... It's not music... it's Music Product(tm) with cross-platform promotional marketing rights"

I like that - "Music Product(tm)."

Sort of reminds me of a label on some remotely cheeselike substance I saw once - "pasteurized processed cheese food."

Yum. Just about as satisfying as Music Product.