Immersive Gypsy Jazz Study?

MichaelHorowitz

I did exactly what Paganini suggests....I lived in Amsterdam and hung around with the guys there. It's actually a pretty small scene there but there are some great players like Robin, Rieiner, John, Jan, etc...not too many gigs going on but stuff happens at the Molentje, Casablanca, and Captian Zeppos. (This was back in 2002, so it may have changed somewhat).

I took the train down to Eindhoven (Gerwen and Nuenen camps) all the time and it was pretty easy. The Limbergers live close to Den Haag which is were I also spent a lot of time. It took a while to get to know all the Sinti people and gain their trust, but once they the knew me I was always welcome. I think they are a little more used to people coming to learn from them now so it might not be as hard...but when I did it everyone was surprised that an American wanted to learn guitar from them!

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Mark DS

Thanks for the advice everyone! If it is at all possible for me to relocate to Holland I would be working in Brunssum close to Maastricht at the US Air Force base. I am not sure how long of a train ride this would be to Eindhoven (looks like maybe 45 minutes?), so it might be possible to live closer to Eindhoven or maybe hop up there for the weekends.

MichaelHorowitz

By American standards everything is close! The whole country is the size of NJ.

Mark DS

Haha this is true! One thing I found there though is that when used to everything being so close, even a half hour train ride both ways starts to feel like a long trip!

billyshakes

Mark,

If you are going to be working in Brunssum, you will be very close to Lollo Meier. He lives in a little town called Born, which is about 17 kms away. I was working just across the border in Geilenkirchen and took lessons from him as often as I could. It is fairly easy to travel around the area via train or car (you'll have gas ration coupons, I suspect). That being said, I would probably just find a place nearby so you don't have a long, crazy commute every day.

As I said, Lollo will practically be in your back yard. He usually does shows in the area (a sort of "Gypsy Night" with others). There is also a festival in Tilberg in the spring and Django in Liberchies is only about an hour and a half to the west. You're going to a good area as it is very centrally located and easy to travel everywhere. The city of Sittard has a neat downtown (good farmers market too once a week) and is very close to Born. You might consider living there. Maastricht is slightly bigger but I don't think there is a great scene there. Have fun...and maybe you can talk the CFN radio manager, Olaf Guillaume, into letting you host a gypsy jazz radio show!

Any more questions about the area, just shout.

Simonius

I think if you want to learn to play, you just have to have that guitar in your hands as much as you can, listen to records, watch dvd's et cetera, and just enjoy it.

I live in Holland and I'm surprised at the lack of interest for gipsy jazz in this country. The Rosenberg's live in Gerwen and Nuenen, and many other great gipsy players live there too, but I don't get the impression there's a very active 'scene'. Perhaps in Amsterdam, but not much either. You really have to know people and know where to go if you want to hear and play the music here.

For an active 'scene', you need ambitious people that really want to make a name for themselves. And that's what you see a lot more in Paris, young people, trying very hard.

It may sound strange, but most of the gipsy players aren't at all ambitious, and they don't have to be. They see music as something they do in church and with their family. They're hardly aware their playing is so incredible. Take the Rosenberg Trio for example, they were practically begged to record their first CD. If your last name is Reinhardt or Rosenberg, people will book you without even hearing you first.

If you wanted to go anywhere, you should go to Paris, you have a lot more oppurtunities there.

Jazzaferri

Like all big cities Paris can be a bit expensive to live in however a truly wonderful city and one can live pretty reasonably with a bit of research and effort