Does Romane get short-changed?

Ned Boynton · January 2005

I spent a week playing around the SF Bay Area with Romane and Jim Nichols back in '99 and I can tell you that Romane is the real deal. When I met him he was totally under the spell of Jim Nichols - all he wanted to do was play like Jim. I was escorting Romane at the Healdsburg festival and Alan Cola gave him a Dell Arte acoustic guitar and he sat in with Pearl Django and just killed.

Also he's a fine piano player.

Tonecaster · February 2005

I met him at a Chet Atkins festival in Nashville in, I trhink, 93. He was very nice to all the people. He played with everyone. I have one of his CDs and it sounds great.

Russ

spatzo · July 2020

I have had occasions to meet Romane for quite a long time in the past and for me the only problem many people have with Romane is that he was faster realizing ideas than any other and he was everywhere present: he made the first GJ guitar books ever, the first educationnal videos on GJ style, he created a true Django's guitar school in Paris, he published transcription books, he performed concerts and master classes in the USA, he presented Django's repertory with a Big Band with original arrangements (maybe for this Bireli was the first), he published many cd's with original compositions, he was the first to play on a blue guitar, he decided to live in Samois (Django was the first and Babik the second), but above all he really was one of the most influent actors in the Django's music revival of the 90's and gave visibility and nobility to it when that music was only played unadvertised in some obscure gigs in Paris surroundings...

Arrogance? let's better say he always stood up for Django's music with great conviction

A great player and a nice man

Twang · July 2020

I've always really liked his playing. Maybe some would struggle with him, a gadjo, for calling himself Romane. It's a bit...pretentious. It's fine to do it perhaps, as long as you don't take yourself too seriously. It shouldn't matter really, maybe we should all think of pseudo gypsy names for ourselves and we might be able to play as well as him.

Hmm.... idea for a thread there 🤔

Twang · July 2020

The flamenco scene is rife with them, Tomatito, Chicuelo, Chocolate etc

Bones · July 2020

If it sounds good, it is good....

billyshakes · July 2020

@spatzo The other thing I liked about Romane back then were the double CDs he put out. Disc One would be the artist content (whether it was his own original tunes or his interpretations of standards). Disc Two was multi-media with the very same backing tracks from disc 1 along with music transcriptions of the basic songs. I'm thinking Impair & Valse and Acoustic Spirit etc. Back when there were very few instructional materials available (maybe Paul Mehling's video, Robin Nolan's books and the Cosimini books), it was cool to be backed up by Romane's band.

wim · July 2020

He held a Q&A session at Django in June, and answered several questions in good detail (I asked him about the name change, too). Maybe somebody has the video to share...?