Gypsy jazz
Encyclopedia
Gypsy jazz is an idiom
often said to have been started by guitar
ist Jean "Django" Reinhardt
in the 1930s. Because its origins are largely in France it is often called by the French name, "Jazz manouche," or alternatively, "manouche jazz," even in English language sources. Django was foremost among a group of Gypsy guitarists working in and around Paris
in the 1930s through the 1950s, a group which also included the brothers Baro
, Sarane, and Matelo Ferret and Reinhardt's brother Joseph "Nin-Nin" Reinhardt.
Many of the musicians in this style worked in Paris in various popular Musette
ensembles. The Musette style waltz remains an important component in the Gypsy jazz repertoire. Reinhardt was noted for combining a dark, chromatic
Gypsy flavor with the swing articulation of the period. This combination is critical to this style of jazz
. In addition to this his approach continues to form the basis for contemporary Gypsy jazz guitar. Reinhardt's most famous group, the Quintette du Hot Club de France
, also brought fame to jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli
.
played acoustically without a drummer, facilitating the use of the acoustic guitar as a lead instrument
. Guitar
and violin
are still the main solo instruments, although clarinet
and accordion
are also common. The rhythm guitar
is played using a distinct percussive technique, "la pompe", that essentially replaces the drum
s. Most gypsy jazz guitarists, lead and rhythm, play a version of the Selmer-Maccaferri guitar
design favored by Reinhardt himself.
Although many instrumental lineups exist, a group including one lead guitar, violin, two rhythm guitars, and bass is often the norm. Ensembles aim for an acoustic sound even when playing amplified concerts, and informal jam sessions in small venues or meetings such as annual the Django Reinhardt festival at Samois-sur-Seine
are very much part of the scene.
In Eastern
gypsy jazz, rhythm section
is most likely covered by one or two cymbaloms, or (less frequently) a cymbalom and/or drums
and an acoustic guitar (the cymbalom accompaniment
technique is called in Romanian
"ţiitură"). An upright bass
fills out the ensembles.
styles; it is what gives the music its fast swinging feeling. The strumming hand, which never touches the top of the guitar, must make a quick up-down strum followed by a down strum. The up-down part of la pompe must be done extremely fast, regardless of the tempo of the music. It is very similar to a grace note
in classical music
, albeit the fact that an entire chord is used. This pattern is usually played in unison by two or more guitarists in the rhythm section.
and minor chord
s are almost never played, and are instead replaced by major 7th chords, major 6th chords, and 6/9 chords. Gypsy reharmonisation is often aimed at giving a minor feel even where a song is in a major key, for instance the substitution of a minor 6th chord for a Dominant seventh. Dominant seventh chords are also altered by lowering the 9th and 13th scale degree.
or decorated
arpeggio
. Decorations often introduce chromaticism
—for instance, mordent
s and trill
s. Particularly characteristic is a figure where successive notes of an arpeggio are each preceded by an appoggiatura-like grace note one semitone
below. Other decorations include tremolo
and string bends on the guitar, staccatto (or pizzicato
on the violin), ghost note
s, harmonic
s, octaves, double stops etc.
Arpeggios on the guitar are typically executed as patterns running diagonally from the lower frets on the lower strings to the upper frets on the upper strings. Such patterns tend to have no more than two stopped notes per string, relating to the fact that Django could only articulate two fingers on his fretting hand.
Commonly used scales, in addition to arpeggios, include the chromatic scale
, melodic minor scale, dorian mode
and diminished scale.
Chromatic runs are often executed very quickly over more than one octave. A particularly characteristic technique is the glissando
, in which the guitar player slides a finger along a string, with a precisely timed tremolo picking out individual notes, in order to get a fast, virtuosic sound. Diminished runs, in which the shape of a diminished seventh chord
is played in all inversions, one after the other, is another widespread gypsy jazz technique. Diminished 7th arpeggios are also used over dominant 7th chords. (Example: If an A7 is being played, a diminished run starting on C# would be played, creating an A7b9 sound over the dominant chord.) Guitarists often intersperse melodic playing with flamenco
-esque percussive series of chords to create a varied solo .
The plectrum technique of gypsy jazz has been described as similar to economy picking
. Notes on the same string are played alternately
, but when moving from string to string, the same direction will be maintained, with the further requirement that a rest stroke will be performed.
For instance, on switching from the G to the B string, the plectrum will move in the same direction and come to rest on the E string. This technique enhances both volume and speed.
, which are fairly distinct from the standards tunes of mainsteam jazz. However, contemporary ensembles may adapt almost any type of song to the style.
Gypsy swing standards include jazz hits of the '20s and '30s, such
as "Limehouse Blues", and "Dinah
"; Bal Musette numbers, often waltzes; original compositions by Django Reinhardt, such as "Nuages
" and "Swing 42"; compositions by other notable gypsy swing players; and jazzed-up versions of gypsy songs, such as "Dark Eyes
".
Much of the repertoire is in minor keys, and the dorian
and harmonic minor modes are frequently heard, lending a distinctively dark and modal sound to the tunes which contrasts with the uptempo and spirited performance style. One popular example is Django's tune "Minor Swing
", perhaps the most well-known Gypsy jazz composition. Slower ballads and duets may feature rubato playing and exotic harmonies.
, Andreas Öberg
, Frank Vignola
, George Cole
. Touring gypsy jazz musicians often include workshops with performances. Players who have written study guides include Martin Norgarrd, Tim Kliphuis
, Andreas Öberg
, Ian Cruickshank, Robin Nolan, Denis Chang, Michael Horowitz and Patrick "Romane" Leguidcoq.
as this is where the style originates. Tim Kliphuis
, Stochelo Rosenberg
, Biréli Lagrène
, Joscho Stephan
and Angelo Debarre
are perhaps the most famous performers today. There is also a substantial American Gypsy Jazz movement headed by groups like Pearl Django
, John Jorgenson
Quintet, Frank Vignola
and George Cole
.
In New Zealand, Club Manouche are based in Auckland. From Christchurch, ensembles include Fiona Pears, who blends gypsy jazz with celtic and folk music, La Petite Manouche, who blend gypsy jazz with modern jazz in a guitar duo setting, Swing 42, and Rhythm Futur.
, Belgium
and is commemorated by a yearly Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival
held there. Some modern players such as Philippe Catherine, whom Charlie Mingus nicknamed "young Django" and Fapy Lafertin
also hail from Belgium.
The Netherlands
is home to a number of contemporary players such as the Rosenberg family (Jimmy, Nou'sche, Nonny and Stochelo), Lollo Meier, Fapy Lafertin
Quintet, the Robin Nolan Trio and the Tolga Trio.
Other outstanding contemporary Manouche instrumentalists in the Django Reinhardt
/Le Jazz Hot Tradition, as heard annually at the Festival de Jazz Django Reinhardt at Samois-sur-Seine
, France, include Django's grandson David Reinhardt, Dorado Schmitt, Tchavolo Schmitt
, Jon Larsen
, Angelo Debarre
, Babik Reinhardt
, Moreno, Patrick Saussois, Dario Pinelli
, Ritary Gaguenetti, Robin Nolan, John Jorgenson
, Samson Schmitt, Mandino Reinhardt, Stephane Wrembel
, Evan Perri, Biréli Lagrène
, Florin Niculescu
, Angelo Debarre, / Tchavolo Hassan, / Angelo Licusatti , and Marius Apostol, also Thierry "Titi" Robin and the late Mondine Garcia
.
Some cafés where Jazz Manouche can be heard regularly include 'Au Clairon des Chasseurs' in Place Tertre, Paris, and 'la Chope des Puces', Saint Ouen.
, and many more. Today gypsy-jazz has its share in cultural life in Germany, thanks to the activities of the late Eberhard Tscheuschner, who was the founder of the Djangofestival in Burgthann, the restless Bernhard Gierstl (Hot Club News), and Norman Ort, who runs the site gypsyguitar.de, not only for business reasons, but to keep a music alive. The main events are the annual Django Memorial Festival in Augsburg (organised by Bernhard Gierstl), the Djangofestival in Burgthann/Nuremberg, the Sinti-Festivals in Hildesheim and Koblenz.
DjangoFest NW, a celebration of Gypsy Jazz, takes place each September at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley, Washington, which typically features such performers as John Jorgenson
, The Rosenberg Trio, Dan Hicks
, Pearl Django
, Argentinean ex-pat and guitar virtuoso Gonzalo Bergara, Hot Club of San Francisco, Hot Club Sandwich, Canadian guitarist Marc Atkinson, and "modern gypsy-jazz" by Billet-Deux.
Every year, in August, New York's Lincoln Center hosts a Concert at Rose Hall, and the world famous Jazz Club, Birdland
, in New York, features a week long Gypsy Jazz concert series in November.
Jersey City is the home to Manouche Bag, who perform gypsy jazz with the traditional guitars and double bass but add their own twist with the addition of vocals, saxophone, and melodica.
The Hot Club of San Francisco has been bringing Gypsy Swing to America (and beyond) since 1990. Paul "Pazzo" Mehling is credited with being one of the earliest influences on American interest in the Django Reinhardt resurgence. Instructional videos & DVDs have encouraged and launched many of the US guard of Django disciples including the Clearwater Hot Club,the Golden Gate Hot Club and Duo Gadjo. They have the distinction of being the first American gypsy jazz ensemble to play at the prestigious Festival du Django Reinhardt in 2000 at Samois sur Seine, France.
In Atlanta, the Bonaventure Quartet, play their own style of gypsy jazz featuring mostly original music with vocals.
In Cincinnati and the midwest, the fire of the Hot Club of France is kept burning by the faux Frenchmen, who bring their own unique interpretation to gypsy jazz.
In Chicago, Alfonso Ponticelli plays with his band Swing Gitan weekly at a classic bar called The Green Mill. The Gypsy style played by them include numerous jazz standards and several original compisitions. Also based in Chicago, lePercolateur is a popular gypsy-inspired group that performs a variety of original songs, gypsy jazz standards and songs from the American songbook in the gypsy jazz style.
In Detroit, The Hot Club of Detroit is the band that specializes in performing Gypsy-style swing jazz music, mostly modern interpretation of repertoire of Django Reinhardt.
In Minnesota, guitarist and composer Reynold Philipsek
performs gypsy jazz music as a solo artist, and with Minnesota gypsy jazz acts East Side, The Twin Cities Hot Club, and Sidewalk Café.
George Cole
and his group Vive Le Jazz have been touring nationally, most recently playing at Carnegie Hall in 2008. His original Gypsy Jazz inspired music was chosen for a Grammy
's showcase. He plays an original Selmer 520 that Django Reinhardt
used on tour in France in the 1940s.
Los Angeles, hometown of the "Birth of the Gypsybilly" created by The Vignatis, a blend of Gypsy Jazz Guitar and Rockabilly Guitar.
Also in Los Angeles, Nicky English performs Django influenced rock music that has been featured on NPR and in several independent film scores.
Pearl Django
from Tacoma, Washington
(from Seattle now) is combo
that specializes in performing their version of Gypsy swing.
Canada
is home to player and teacher Denis Chang, luthier and rhythm guitarist Shelley D. Park and
ensembles Van Django and The Lost Fingers.
Hot Club Edmonton, based out of Edmonton, AB, Canada, plays a style of gypsy jazz fused with Western Canadian folk music.
Nova Scotia is home to Swingology.
Philadelphia. PA. - http://www.hotclubphilly.com.
The Hot Club of Philadelphia was founded in 2001 by guitarist Barry Wahrhaftig and violinist Mark Campiglia. Joining them are acoustic bassist Jim Stager and rhythm guitarist Barry Wahrhaftig, as well as plenty of special guests, including the legendary Howard Alden on seven string guitar. This Gypsy Jazz outfit is dedicated to “playing and preserving the music of Django Reinhardt while adding their own style in the process.”
subgenre known as muzică bănăţeană (i.e. music in the Banat
style), still practised to date. It has a different approach to lăutari
(Gypsy folk) music. In muzica bănăţeană, some traditional instruments (kobza
, cimbalom) are replaced by electric guitar
s and synthesizer
s, while others are kept (fiddle, accordion, alto saxophone, taragot), thus creating an eclectic
type of sound (beside the unexpected timbre combinations, contrasting textures
from these instruments are also featured.) The repertoire mixes together café concert, old-school jazz standards, folk and pop-folk music. The Western manouche style is reinterpreted mostly through the sârbă
rhythm, actually very close to it, but syncopated differently in lead instruments. Throughout the years, muzica bănăţeană has gradually become fond of the manea
rhythm, which sounds more like the twist
when played in the Banat style; however the swung sârbă was not abandoned.
Muzica bănăţeană was politically censored
throughout the 1980, so that only bootleg recording
s survive of those years. According to the Romanian Ministry of Culture, the reason for banning it was its impure nature, threatening the national folk music. However, other lăutari music was widely recorded and performed in Communist Romania
. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989
, numerous musicians who weren't previously permitted to record on the national record label
Electrecord
, saw their debuts released. Perhaps the best known ensemble of the 1990s to perform Gypsy jazz was that of Banat-style singer Nicolae Guţă
, whose repertoire has been compared by critics with Django Reinhardt
's; besides, the modern sound was also appreciated positively. Guţă's Gypsy jazz was issued on foreign discs and caught interest in European countries, mostly France. By late 1990s Guţă renounced jazz music and started singing manele
music instead. However, his recent compositions hint a possible returning to his jazz "roots." Another widely appreciated singer of muzică bănăţeană is Sandu Ciorbă.
Damian Draghici
, born in Bucharest, Romania in 1970, is a virtuoso musician particularly associated with the Romanian Pan pipes (Nai) and is possibly the most noted exponent of his particular instrument in the world, having focused new international attention on the ancient Romanian pan flute.
In 2006 Draghici decided to return to his roots, by putting together a new group with “his gypsy brothers”, as he likes to call them. One of the purposes of the band “Damian & Brothers - Filarmonika Rromanes” is to change the international perception and the stereotypes on Roma (Gypsy) minority, through their music. The impact and the huge popularity achieved until now are a confirmation of their common effort.
The official recognition of Damian Draghici
efforts and dedication to promoting Roma minority came on 20 March 2007 when he was designated by the President of Romania as Romania’s Ambassador for the Rroma minority in the European Year of Equal Opportunities for all.
On December 17, 2009 after 3 years and 600 concerts all over Europe, Damian and Brothers, the project was finished and the band had the last concert in Bucharest in front of 4000 fans, being sold out.
Instrumental Gypsy jazz was developed in early 2000s by artists such as clarinetist Mieluţă Bibescu and his band (featuring traditional lăutari instruments, such as the cymbalom and double bass
). Their jazz combines melodic patterns
featured in swing jazz, bossa nova
and lăutari music; Bibescu's band sometimes improvises over classical music
"standards."
Romanian quartet Hot Club de Bucharest showcases a more "traditional" approach of gypsy jazz. The band performs regularly in Bucharest
; its repertoire comprises gypsy jazz standards, as well as new compositions written in a similar style. Another Bucharest based band are Swing en Vogue.
's Hot Club de Norvège
is based there. Gypsy guitarist Andreas Öberg
is based in Sweden. Jens Fuglsang's Rêve Bohème is based in Denmark, while Finland is home to Jazzpartout and Djangodelic.
, both of whom played with Stephane Grapelli. The UK is the birthplace of Amsterdam
-based Kevin and Robin Nolan and is still home to guitarists Gary Potter, Nils Solberg, Pete "Tiger" Shepperd, Dave Kelbie, Andy McKenzie, Jonny Hepbir, Stu Blagden, Robin Katz, Dan Clark and Jason Henson, and violinists Daniel John Martin, Mike Piggott and Ben Holder.
John Etheridge
combines jazz-rock fusion with forays into Gypsy Swing. Martin Taylor has worked with Stephane Grappelli
and performed a widely-heard Djangoesque piece
for the "Papa and Nichole" TV advertisements for Renault.
London has a specialist Gypsy Jazz venue, Le QuecumBar, which concerts featuring some of the world's musicians. Regular gypsy jazz sessions are held at the Briars Hall Hotel in Lathom near Ormskirk
, Lancashire
(Beaufort Jazz ), Northampton
(the Black Cat) and Brighton and Hove (Club Chat Noir at the Hanbury Club ). There are study groups in Marlow
and Penzance
(both called 'Club Django').
‘The Gypsy Jazz Guitar Festival’ was held from 1997 to 2000 and a series of festivals called L'Esprit Manouche was held in Moseley
, Birmingham in 2003/4/5. The International Gypsy Guitar Festival is currently being held at the end of July every year in Gloucestershire
.
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
often said to have been started by guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist Jean "Django" Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
in the 1930s. Because its origins are largely in France it is often called by the French name, "Jazz manouche," or alternatively, "manouche jazz," even in English language sources. Django was foremost among a group of Gypsy guitarists working in and around Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in the 1930s through the 1950s, a group which also included the brothers Baro
Pierre Ferret
Pierre Joseph Ferret was a Gypsy jazz guitarist and composer. He was known by his Gypsy nickname "Baro," which meant "Big One" or even "King" in Romany. Through his brother Jean "Matelo" Ferret, Baro met Jean "Django" Reinhardt, and the two became both friends and notorious rivals...
, Sarane, and Matelo Ferret and Reinhardt's brother Joseph "Nin-Nin" Reinhardt.
Many of the musicians in this style worked in Paris in various popular Musette
Bal-musette
Bal-musette is a style of French music and dance that first became popular in Paris in the 1880s.Auvergnats settled in large numbers in the 5th, 11th, and 12th districts of Paris during the 19th century, opening cafés and bars where patrons danced the bourrée to the accompaniment of musette de...
ensembles. The Musette style waltz remains an important component in the Gypsy jazz repertoire. Reinhardt was noted for combining a dark, chromatic
Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone apart. On a modern piano or other equal-tempered instrument, all the half steps are the same size...
Gypsy flavor with the swing articulation of the period. This combination is critical to this style of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. In addition to this his approach continues to form the basis for contemporary Gypsy jazz guitar. Reinhardt's most famous group, the Quintette du Hot Club de France
Quintette du Hot Club de France
Quintette du Hot Club de France was a jazz group founded in France in 1934 by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and active in one form or another until 1948....
, also brought fame to jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
.
Instrumentation and lineup
The original Quintette du Hot Club de FranceQuintette du Hot Club de France
Quintette du Hot Club de France was a jazz group founded in France in 1934 by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and active in one form or another until 1948....
played acoustically without a drummer, facilitating the use of the acoustic guitar as a lead instrument
Lead instrument
Lead instrument is the name given to someone who is the most advanced player of their instrument in their ensemble. This is also referred to as the first chair, principal, first position, or first ....
. Guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
are still the main solo instruments, although clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
are also common. The rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
is played using a distinct percussive technique, "la pompe", that essentially replaces the drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s. Most gypsy jazz guitarists, lead and rhythm, play a version of the Selmer-Maccaferri guitar
Selmer-Maccaferri Guitar
The Selmer Guitar is an unusual acoustic guitar best known as the favored instrument of Django Reinhardt...
design favored by Reinhardt himself.
Although many instrumental lineups exist, a group including one lead guitar, violin, two rhythm guitars, and bass is often the norm. Ensembles aim for an acoustic sound even when playing amplified concerts, and informal jam sessions in small venues or meetings such as annual the Django Reinhardt festival at Samois-sur-Seine
Samois-sur-Seine
Samois-sur-Seine is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.It is located near Fontainebleau.-Culture:...
are very much part of the scene.
In Eastern
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
gypsy jazz, rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
is most likely covered by one or two cymbaloms, or (less frequently) a cymbalom and/or drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and an acoustic guitar (the cymbalom accompaniment
Accompaniment
In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...
technique is called in Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
"ţiitură"). An upright bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
fills out the ensembles.
Rhythm
Rhythm guitar in gypsy jazz uses a special form of strumming known as "la pompe", ie "the pump". This form of percussive rhythm is similar to the "boom-chick" in bluegrassBluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
styles; it is what gives the music its fast swinging feeling. The strumming hand, which never touches the top of the guitar, must make a quick up-down strum followed by a down strum. The up-down part of la pompe must be done extremely fast, regardless of the tempo of the music. It is very similar to a grace note
Grace note
A grace note is a kind of music notation used to denote several kinds of musical ornaments. When occurring by itself, a single grace note normally indicates the intention of either an appoggiatura or an acciaccatura...
in classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, albeit the fact that an entire chord is used. This pattern is usually played in unison by two or more guitarists in the rhythm section.
Harmony
Another important aspect of this style of playing is based on the chord shapes Django was forced to use due to his injury. Standard barre chords are not an acceptable form in gypsy jazz, and these are instead replaced with chords that use just two or three fingers, often with one or more guitar strings muted by the left hand. Standard majorMajor chord
In music theory, a major chord is a chord having a root, a major third, and a perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a major triad...
and minor chord
Minor chord
In music theory, a minor chord is a chord having a root, a minor third, and a perfect fifth.When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a minor triad....
s are almost never played, and are instead replaced by major 7th chords, major 6th chords, and 6/9 chords. Gypsy reharmonisation is often aimed at giving a minor feel even where a song is in a major key, for instance the substitution of a minor 6th chord for a Dominant seventh. Dominant seventh chords are also altered by lowering the 9th and 13th scale degree.
Lead
Lead playing in this style has been summarised as ornamentedOrnament (music)
In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody , but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central note...
or decorated
Ornament (music)
In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody , but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central note...
arpeggio
Arpeggio
An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...
. Decorations often introduce chromaticism
Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone apart. On a modern piano or other equal-tempered instrument, all the half steps are the same size...
—for instance, mordent
Mordent
In music, a mordent is an ornament indicating that the note is to be played with a single rapid alternation with the note above or below. Like trills, they can be chromatically modified by a small flat, sharp or natural accidental...
s and trill
Trill (music)
The trill is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart, which can be identified with the context of the trill....
s. Particularly characteristic is a figure where successive notes of an arpeggio are each preceded by an appoggiatura-like grace note one semitone
Semitone
A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically....
below. Other decorations include tremolo
Tremolo
Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...
and string bends on the guitar, staccatto (or pizzicato
Pizzicato
Pizzicato is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument. The exact technique varies somewhat depending on the type of stringed instrument....
on the violin), ghost note
Ghost note
Ghost notes are musical notes occurring in a rhythmic figure which are purposely deemphasized, often to the point of near silence. In popular music drumming these notes are played, "very softly between the 'main' notes," most often on the snare drum in a drum kit.A rhythmic figure may be punctuated...
s, harmonic
Harmonic
A harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency, i.e. if the fundamental frequency is f, the harmonics have frequencies 2f, 3f, 4f, . . . etc. The harmonics have the property that they are all periodic at the fundamental...
s, octaves, double stops etc.
Arpeggios on the guitar are typically executed as patterns running diagonally from the lower frets on the lower strings to the upper frets on the upper strings. Such patterns tend to have no more than two stopped notes per string, relating to the fact that Django could only articulate two fingers on his fretting hand.
Commonly used scales, in addition to arpeggios, include the chromatic scale
Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone apart. On a modern piano or other equal-tempered instrument, all the half steps are the same size...
, melodic minor scale, dorian mode
Dorian mode
Due to historical confusion, Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different musical modes or diatonic scales, the Greek, the medieval, and the modern.- Greek Dorian mode :...
and diminished scale.
Chromatic runs are often executed very quickly over more than one octave. A particularly characteristic technique is the glissando
Glissando
In music, a glissando is a glide from one pitch to another. It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, to glide. In some contexts it is distinguished from the continuous portamento...
, in which the guitar player slides a finger along a string, with a precisely timed tremolo picking out individual notes, in order to get a fast, virtuosic sound. Diminished runs, in which the shape of a diminished seventh chord
Diminished seventh chord
A diminished seventh chord is a four note chord that comprises a diminished triad plus the interval of a diminished seventh above the root. Thus it is , or enharmonically , of any major scale; for example, C diminished-seventh would be , or enharmonically...
is played in all inversions, one after the other, is another widespread gypsy jazz technique. Diminished 7th arpeggios are also used over dominant 7th chords. (Example: If an A7 is being played, a diminished run starting on C# would be played, creating an A7b9 sound over the dominant chord.) Guitarists often intersperse melodic playing with flamenco
Flamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
-esque percussive series of chords to create a varied solo .
The plectrum technique of gypsy jazz has been described as similar to economy picking
Economy picking
Economy picking is a guitar-playing technique for a guitarist who uses a pick. A hybrid of sweep picking and alternate picking, economy picking involves using alternate picking except when changing strings...
. Notes on the same string are played alternately
Alternate picking
Alternate picking is a guitar playing technique that employs strictly alternating downward and upward picking strokes in a continuous run, and is the most common method of plectrum playing...
, but when moving from string to string, the same direction will be maintained, with the further requirement that a rest stroke will be performed.
For instance, on switching from the G to the B string, the plectrum will move in the same direction and come to rest on the E string. This technique enhances both volume and speed.
Repertoire
Gypsy jazz has its own set of frequently played standardsJazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...
, which are fairly distinct from the standards tunes of mainsteam jazz. However, contemporary ensembles may adapt almost any type of song to the style.
Gypsy swing standards include jazz hits of the '20s and '30s, such
as "Limehouse Blues", and "Dinah
Dinah (song)
"Dinah" is a popular song. The music was written by Harry Akst, and the lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young. It was introduced by Eddie Cantor in Kid Boots in Pittsburgh...
"; Bal Musette numbers, often waltzes; original compositions by Django Reinhardt, such as "Nuages
Nuages
Nuages Jazz are an Ecuadorian-based jazz group performing mostly in Gypsy and Semitic motifs. They were voted the best jazz group in Ecuador and have released four albums so far....
" and "Swing 42"; compositions by other notable gypsy swing players; and jazzed-up versions of gypsy songs, such as "Dark Eyes
Dark Eyes (song)
Dark Eyes is a Russian song.The lyrics of the song were written by a Ukrainian poet and writer Yevhen Hrebinka. The first publication of the poem was in Literaturnaya gazeta on 17 January 1843....
".
Much of the repertoire is in minor keys, and the dorian
Dorian mode
Due to historical confusion, Dorian mode or Doric mode can refer to three very different musical modes or diatonic scales, the Greek, the medieval, and the modern.- Greek Dorian mode :...
and harmonic minor modes are frequently heard, lending a distinctively dark and modal sound to the tunes which contrasts with the uptempo and spirited performance style. One popular example is Django's tune "Minor Swing
Minor Swing (song)
"Minor Swing" is a popular Gypsy jazz tune by Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. It was first recorded by The Quintet of the Hot Club of France in 1937...
", perhaps the most well-known Gypsy jazz composition. Slower ballads and duets may feature rubato playing and exotic harmonies.
Teaching and learning
The first generations of gypsy jazz musicians learned the style by the 'gypsy method', involving intense practice, direct imitation of older musicians (often family members) and playing by ear, with little formal musical study (or, indeed, formal education of any kind). Since about the late 1970s, study materials of a more conventional kind such as workshops, books and videos have become available, allowing musicians worldwide to master the style. Prominent gypsy-style guitarists who are not ethnically Roma include John JorgensonJohn Jorgenson
John Jorgenson is a US musician. Although best known for his guitar work with bands such as the Desert Rose Band and The Hellecasters, Jorgenson is also proficient in the mandolin, mandocello, Dobro, pedal steel, piano, upright bass, clarinet, bassoon and saxophone...
, Andreas Öberg
Andreas Öberg
.Andreas Öberg is a Swedish guitar player.-Early life:Öberg was born in Stockholm on August 6, 1978. He began playing guitar at the age of 8 years old and studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.- Career :...
, Frank Vignola
Frank Vignola
Frank Vignola is an American jazz guitarist.Vignola began on guitar at age five. While he never listened to jazz exclusively, he has a wide range of influences, such as Les Paul, Eddie Van Halen and Frank Zappa. He later studied at the Cultural Arts Center of Long Island...
, George Cole
George Cole (musician)
George Cole is the producer, composer, lyricist, vocalist, and lead guitarist for the Jazz band George Cole and Vive Le Jazz. He was also a guitarist for the pop rock band Beatnik Beatch and Big Blue Hearts. He played on Chris Isaak's platinum selling Forever Blue album...
. Touring gypsy jazz musicians often include workshops with performances. Players who have written study guides include Martin Norgarrd, Tim Kliphuis
Tim Kliphuis
Tim Kliphuis is a Dutch violinist.He first became known in 1999 when he joined Belgian gypsy guitarist, Fapy Lafertin...
, Andreas Öberg
Andreas Öberg
.Andreas Öberg is a Swedish guitar player.-Early life:Öberg was born in Stockholm on August 6, 1978. He began playing guitar at the age of 8 years old and studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.- Career :...
, Ian Cruickshank, Robin Nolan, Denis Chang, Michael Horowitz and Patrick "Romane" Leguidcoq.
Contemporary Gypsy jazz
Gypsy jazz is thriving today, with fans and practitioners — some faithful copyists, others innovators — found all over the globe. The largest audiences and highest caliber of musicians are still found in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
as this is where the style originates. Tim Kliphuis
Tim Kliphuis
Tim Kliphuis is a Dutch violinist.He first became known in 1999 when he joined Belgian gypsy guitarist, Fapy Lafertin...
, Stochelo Rosenberg
Stochelo Rosenberg
Stochelo Rosenberg is a Sinti-Gypsy jazz guitarist who plays in the Jazz manouche style of Django Reinhardt and leads the Rosenberg Trio.-With The Rosenberg Trio: -Solo Albums:...
, Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène is a French guitarist and bassist. He came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt-influenced style on the classical guitar, as well as for being a jazz fusion virtuoso on the electric guitar...
, Joscho Stephan
Joscho Stephan
Joscho Stephan is a German Jazz guitarist who mainly plays modern Gypsy jazz. In this style he is particularly noted for his virtuosity on the acoustic guitar....
and Angelo Debarre
Angelo Debarre
Angelo Debarre is a Romani guitarist in the manouche jazz style.He began playing at age 8 and in 1984 started his first group, the Angelo Debarre Quintet...
are perhaps the most famous performers today. There is also a substantial American Gypsy Jazz movement headed by groups like Pearl Django
Pearl Django
Pearl Django is a jazz group established in 1994 in Tacoma, Washington by Neil Andersson, Dudley Hill, and David "Pope" Firman. The group's stated focus is to incorporate the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli with American swing music. Initially a trio, they have changed and added...
, John Jorgenson
John Jorgenson
John Jorgenson is a US musician. Although best known for his guitar work with bands such as the Desert Rose Band and The Hellecasters, Jorgenson is also proficient in the mandolin, mandocello, Dobro, pedal steel, piano, upright bass, clarinet, bassoon and saxophone...
Quintet, Frank Vignola
Frank Vignola
Frank Vignola is an American jazz guitarist.Vignola began on guitar at age five. While he never listened to jazz exclusively, he has a wide range of influences, such as Les Paul, Eddie Van Halen and Frank Zappa. He later studied at the Cultural Arts Center of Long Island...
and George Cole
George Cole (musician)
George Cole is the producer, composer, lyricist, vocalist, and lead guitarist for the Jazz band George Cole and Vive Le Jazz. He was also a guitarist for the pop rock band Beatnik Beatch and Big Blue Hearts. He played on Chris Isaak's platinum selling Forever Blue album...
.
Australasia
'Australian' gypsy swing ensembles include Monsieur Camembert and Manouche a Trois.In New Zealand, Club Manouche are based in Auckland. From Christchurch, ensembles include Fiona Pears, who blends gypsy jazz with celtic and folk music, La Petite Manouche, who blend gypsy jazz with modern jazz in a guitar duo setting, Swing 42, and Rhythm Futur.
Benelux
Django Reinhardt was born in LiberchiesLiberchies
Liberchies is a village in the municipality of Pont-à-Celles, in the Belgian province of Hainaut.It is situated along the previous Roman highway Bavay-Tongeren where a vicus was discovered. Geminiacum is the name of the vicus that developed along the Roman highway next to the center of today's...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and is commemorated by a yearly Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival
Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival
The Festival de Jazz Django Reinhardt is held in Samois-sur-Seine, France since 1968. It has become a yearly event since 1984, and it takes place in the last full weekend in June. The Samois festival is seen amongst the Gypsy Jazz community as being the definitive Django festival with people...
held there. Some modern players such as Philippe Catherine, whom Charlie Mingus nicknamed "young Django" and Fapy Lafertin
Fapy Lafertin
Fapy Lafertin is a jazz guitarist of Romani ethnicity, one of the foremost contemporary exponents of the Belgian-Dutch style of Gypsy jazz....
also hail from Belgium.
The Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
is home to a number of contemporary players such as the Rosenberg family (Jimmy, Nou'sche, Nonny and Stochelo), Lollo Meier, Fapy Lafertin
Fapy Lafertin
Fapy Lafertin is a jazz guitarist of Romani ethnicity, one of the foremost contemporary exponents of the Belgian-Dutch style of Gypsy jazz....
Quintet, the Robin Nolan Trio and the Tolga Trio.
France
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
/Le Jazz Hot Tradition, as heard annually at the Festival de Jazz Django Reinhardt at Samois-sur-Seine
Samois-sur-Seine
Samois-sur-Seine is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.It is located near Fontainebleau.-Culture:...
, France, include Django's grandson David Reinhardt, Dorado Schmitt, Tchavolo Schmitt
Tchavolo Schmitt
Tchavolo Schmitt is a noted guitarist in gypsy jazz. He had some success with others in the 1970s, but then settled in Strasbourg and left the professional circuit for a time. He started putting out albums under his own name in 2000...
, Jon Larsen
Jon Larsen
Jon Larsen is an autodidact guitarist, composer, surrealistic painter, and record producer with heavy influence on the revival of Gypsy jazz worldwide...
, Angelo Debarre
Angelo Debarre
Angelo Debarre is a Romani guitarist in the manouche jazz style.He began playing at age 8 and in 1984 started his first group, the Angelo Debarre Quintet...
, Babik Reinhardt
Babik Reinhardt
Babik Reinhardt was one of Django Reinhardt's sons, and a guitarist himself. He did not learn the guitar directly from Django, who wanted him to learn the piano instead, but from various other family members....
, Moreno, Patrick Saussois, Dario Pinelli
Dario Pinelli
Dario Pinelli is an Italian jazz manouche guitarist, born in Manduria, Italy, March 27, 1982.Young concert soloist, playing with the polyrhythmic-polyphonic "striking", that simultaneously creates harmony, bass, and melody...
, Ritary Gaguenetti, Robin Nolan, John Jorgenson
John Jorgenson
John Jorgenson is a US musician. Although best known for his guitar work with bands such as the Desert Rose Band and The Hellecasters, Jorgenson is also proficient in the mandolin, mandocello, Dobro, pedal steel, piano, upright bass, clarinet, bassoon and saxophone...
, Samson Schmitt, Mandino Reinhardt, Stephane Wrembel
Stephane Wrembel
Stephane Wrembel is a French born jazz guitarist currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. Wrembel is best known as a composer and performer of Gypsy Jazz, but is also heavily influenced by world music....
, Evan Perri, Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène is a French guitarist and bassist. He came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt-influenced style on the classical guitar, as well as for being a jazz fusion virtuoso on the electric guitar...
, Florin Niculescu
Florin Niculescu
Florin Niculescu is a Romanian violinist of Romani ethnicity. He is considered to be the best jazz manouche violinist of our days, the successor of Stéphane Grappelli...
, Angelo Debarre, / Tchavolo Hassan, / Angelo Licusatti , and Marius Apostol, also Thierry "Titi" Robin and the late Mondine Garcia
Mondine Garcia
Mondine Garcia , was a French, Parisienne guitarist who specialized in playing traditional French gypsy jazz.-Career:...
.
Some cafés where Jazz Manouche can be heard regularly include 'Au Clairon des Chasseurs' in Place Tertre, Paris, and 'la Chope des Puces', Saint Ouen.
Germany
The German gypsy-jazz scene has a rich history with a variety of famous players such as the late Schnuckenack Reinhardt, Lulu Reinhardt (composer of "Lulu Swing"), Wawau Adler, Titi Winterstein, Zigeli Winter Quintett, Romeo Franz Ensemble feat. Joe Bawelino, Joscho StephanJoscho Stephan
Joscho Stephan is a German Jazz guitarist who mainly plays modern Gypsy jazz. In this style he is particularly noted for his virtuosity on the acoustic guitar....
, and many more. Today gypsy-jazz has its share in cultural life in Germany, thanks to the activities of the late Eberhard Tscheuschner, who was the founder of the Djangofestival in Burgthann, the restless Bernhard Gierstl (Hot Club News), and Norman Ort, who runs the site gypsyguitar.de, not only for business reasons, but to keep a music alive. The main events are the annual Django Memorial Festival in Augsburg (organised by Bernhard Gierstl), the Djangofestival in Burgthann/Nuremberg, the Sinti-Festivals in Hildesheim and Koblenz.
Hungary
The Hungarian group, Hot Club of Hungary plays high quality gypsy jazz in the style of Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli, and the Hot Club of France.North America
Django in June offers a weeklong Gypsy jazz music camp ("Django Camp"), as well as weekend clinics and concerts. Inaugurated in 2004, the event is held on the campus of Smith College in Northampton, MADjangoFest NW, a celebration of Gypsy Jazz, takes place each September at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley, Washington, which typically features such performers as John Jorgenson
John Jorgenson
John Jorgenson is a US musician. Although best known for his guitar work with bands such as the Desert Rose Band and The Hellecasters, Jorgenson is also proficient in the mandolin, mandocello, Dobro, pedal steel, piano, upright bass, clarinet, bassoon and saxophone...
, The Rosenberg Trio, Dan Hicks
Dan Hicks (singer)
Dan Hicks , is an American singer-songwriter working at the intersection of cowboy folk, jazz, country, swing, bluegrass, pop, and gypsy music...
, Pearl Django
Pearl Django
Pearl Django is a jazz group established in 1994 in Tacoma, Washington by Neil Andersson, Dudley Hill, and David "Pope" Firman. The group's stated focus is to incorporate the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli with American swing music. Initially a trio, they have changed and added...
, Argentinean ex-pat and guitar virtuoso Gonzalo Bergara, Hot Club of San Francisco, Hot Club Sandwich, Canadian guitarist Marc Atkinson, and "modern gypsy-jazz" by Billet-Deux.
Every year, in August, New York's Lincoln Center hosts a Concert at Rose Hall, and the world famous Jazz Club, Birdland
Birdland (jazz club)
Birdland is a jazz club started in New York City on December 15, 1949. The original Birdland, which was located at 1678 Broadway, just north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan, was closed in 1965 due to increased rents, but it re-opened for one night in 1979...
, in New York, features a week long Gypsy Jazz concert series in November.
Jersey City is the home to Manouche Bag, who perform gypsy jazz with the traditional guitars and double bass but add their own twist with the addition of vocals, saxophone, and melodica.
The Hot Club of San Francisco has been bringing Gypsy Swing to America (and beyond) since 1990. Paul "Pazzo" Mehling is credited with being one of the earliest influences on American interest in the Django Reinhardt resurgence. Instructional videos & DVDs have encouraged and launched many of the US guard of Django disciples including the Clearwater Hot Club,the Golden Gate Hot Club and Duo Gadjo. They have the distinction of being the first American gypsy jazz ensemble to play at the prestigious Festival du Django Reinhardt in 2000 at Samois sur Seine, France.
In Atlanta, the Bonaventure Quartet, play their own style of gypsy jazz featuring mostly original music with vocals.
In Cincinnati and the midwest, the fire of the Hot Club of France is kept burning by the faux Frenchmen, who bring their own unique interpretation to gypsy jazz.
In Chicago, Alfonso Ponticelli plays with his band Swing Gitan weekly at a classic bar called The Green Mill. The Gypsy style played by them include numerous jazz standards and several original compisitions. Also based in Chicago, lePercolateur is a popular gypsy-inspired group that performs a variety of original songs, gypsy jazz standards and songs from the American songbook in the gypsy jazz style.
In Detroit, The Hot Club of Detroit is the band that specializes in performing Gypsy-style swing jazz music, mostly modern interpretation of repertoire of Django Reinhardt.
In Minnesota, guitarist and composer Reynold Philipsek
Reynold Philipsek
Reynold D. Philipsek Reynold D. Philipsek May 2010 Background information Birth name Reynold David Philipsek Born...
performs gypsy jazz music as a solo artist, and with Minnesota gypsy jazz acts East Side, The Twin Cities Hot Club, and Sidewalk Café.
George Cole
George Cole (musician)
George Cole is the producer, composer, lyricist, vocalist, and lead guitarist for the Jazz band George Cole and Vive Le Jazz. He was also a guitarist for the pop rock band Beatnik Beatch and Big Blue Hearts. He played on Chris Isaak's platinum selling Forever Blue album...
and his group Vive Le Jazz have been touring nationally, most recently playing at Carnegie Hall in 2008. His original Gypsy Jazz inspired music was chosen for a Grammy
National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., known variously as The Recording Academy or NARAS, is a U.S. organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers and other recording professionals dedicated to improving the quality of life and cultural condition for music and its...
's showcase. He plays an original Selmer 520 that Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
used on tour in France in the 1940s.
Los Angeles, hometown of the "Birth of the Gypsybilly" created by The Vignatis, a blend of Gypsy Jazz Guitar and Rockabilly Guitar.
Also in Los Angeles, Nicky English performs Django influenced rock music that has been featured on NPR and in several independent film scores.
Pearl Django
Pearl Django
Pearl Django is a jazz group established in 1994 in Tacoma, Washington by Neil Andersson, Dudley Hill, and David "Pope" Firman. The group's stated focus is to incorporate the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli with American swing music. Initially a trio, they have changed and added...
from Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
(from Seattle now) is combo
Combo
Combo may refer to:*A small musical ensemble, especially in jazz*Combo Waterhole, a real location in Australia, believed to be the inspiration for Waltzing Matilda...
that specializes in performing their version of Gypsy swing.
Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
is home to player and teacher Denis Chang, luthier and rhythm guitarist Shelley D. Park and
ensembles Van Django and The Lost Fingers.
Hot Club Edmonton, based out of Edmonton, AB, Canada, plays a style of gypsy jazz fused with Western Canadian folk music.
Nova Scotia is home to Swingology.
Philadelphia. PA. - http://www.hotclubphilly.com.
The Hot Club of Philadelphia was founded in 2001 by guitarist Barry Wahrhaftig and violinist Mark Campiglia. Joining them are acoustic bassist Jim Stager and rhythm guitarist Barry Wahrhaftig, as well as plenty of special guests, including the legendary Howard Alden on seven string guitar. This Gypsy Jazz outfit is dedicated to “playing and preserving the music of Django Reinhardt while adding their own style in the process.”
Romania
Gypsy jazz came into prominence in Romania around 1980 by means of the pop-folkPop-folk
Pop-folk is the umbrella term for the popular musical genres originating in the Balkans and Eastern Europe that are characteristic by the fusion of commercial folk music and "nightclub" music. The term is used alternatively for Turbo-folk and Chalga and is mostly used in Bulgaria...
subgenre known as muzică bănăţeană (i.e. music in the Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
style), still practised to date. It has a different approach to lăutari
Lautari
The Romanian word Lăutar denotes a class of traditional musicians. Most often, and by tradition, Lăutari are members of a professional clan of Romani musicians , also called Ţigani lăutari. The term is derived from Lăută the name of a string instrument...
(Gypsy folk) music. In muzica bănăţeană, some traditional instruments (kobza
Kobza
The kobza is a Ukrainian folk music instrument of the lute family , a relative of the Central European mandora...
, cimbalom) are replaced by electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
s and synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s, while others are kept (fiddle, accordion, alto saxophone, taragot), thus creating an eclectic
Eclecticism in music
Eclecticism is used to describe a composer's conscious use of styles alien to his nature, or from one or more historical styles. The term is also used pejoratively to describe music whose composer, thought to be lacking originality, appears to have freely drawn on other models .-Sources:* Kennedy,...
type of sound (beside the unexpected timbre combinations, contrasting textures
Texture (music)
In music, texture is the way the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition , thus determining the overall quality of sound of a piece...
from these instruments are also featured.) The repertoire mixes together café concert, old-school jazz standards, folk and pop-folk music. The Western manouche style is reinterpreted mostly through the sârbă
Sârba
A Sârba or Sîrba is a Romanian dance normally played in 2/2 or 2/4 time. It can be danced in a circle, line, or couple formations and was historically popular not only among Romanians, but also Ukrainians, Hungarians, East European Jews, and the Poles of the Tatra Mountains...
rhythm, actually very close to it, but syncopated differently in lead instruments. Throughout the years, muzica bănăţeană has gradually become fond of the manea
Manele
Manele is a music style from Romania, generally associated with the Romani minority, though not exclusively....
rhythm, which sounds more like the twist
Twist (dance)
The Twist was a dance inspired by rock and roll music. It became the first worldwide dance craze in the early 1960s, enjoying immense popularity among young people and drawing fire from critics who felt it was too provocative. It inspired dances such as the Jerk, the Pony, the Watusi, the Mashed...
when played in the Banat style; however the swung sârbă was not abandoned.
Muzica bănăţeană was politically censored
Political censorship
Political censorship exists when a government attempts to conceal, distort, or falsify information that its citizens receive by suppressing or crowding out political news that the public might receive through news outlets. In the absence of unflattering but objective information, people will be...
throughout the 1980, so that only bootleg recording
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
s survive of those years. According to the Romanian Ministry of Culture, the reason for banning it was its impure nature, threatening the national folk music. However, other lăutari music was widely recorded and performed in Communist Romania
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
, numerous musicians who weren't previously permitted to record on the national record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
Electrecord
Electrecord
Electrecord is a Romanian record label founded in 1932. It served as the only record label in Communist Romania. It was then transformed into the national recording company, following the centralization-oriented socialist doctrine...
, saw their debuts released. Perhaps the best known ensemble of the 1990s to perform Gypsy jazz was that of Banat-style singer Nicolae Guţă
Nicolae Guta
Nicolae Guţă , born Nicolae Linguraru on December 3, 1967 in Petroşani, Romania, is a Romani manele and Gypsy jazz singer. He is the father of manele and ethno-pop singer Nicoleta Guţă.-Musical career:...
, whose repertoire has been compared by critics with Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
's; besides, the modern sound was also appreciated positively. Guţă's Gypsy jazz was issued on foreign discs and caught interest in European countries, mostly France. By late 1990s Guţă renounced jazz music and started singing manele
Manele
Manele is a music style from Romania, generally associated with the Romani minority, though not exclusively....
music instead. However, his recent compositions hint a possible returning to his jazz "roots." Another widely appreciated singer of muzică bănăţeană is Sandu Ciorbă.
Damian Draghici
Damian Draghici
Damian Drăghici is a Romanian-Romani musician, best known as nai player, and possibly the most noted exponent of this particular instrument in the world of jazz.- Early life :...
, born in Bucharest, Romania in 1970, is a virtuoso musician particularly associated with the Romanian Pan pipes (Nai) and is possibly the most noted exponent of his particular instrument in the world, having focused new international attention on the ancient Romanian pan flute.
In 2006 Draghici decided to return to his roots, by putting together a new group with “his gypsy brothers”, as he likes to call them. One of the purposes of the band “Damian & Brothers - Filarmonika Rromanes” is to change the international perception and the stereotypes on Roma (Gypsy) minority, through their music. The impact and the huge popularity achieved until now are a confirmation of their common effort.
The official recognition of Damian Draghici
Damian Draghici
Damian Drăghici is a Romanian-Romani musician, best known as nai player, and possibly the most noted exponent of this particular instrument in the world of jazz.- Early life :...
efforts and dedication to promoting Roma minority came on 20 March 2007 when he was designated by the President of Romania as Romania’s Ambassador for the Rroma minority in the European Year of Equal Opportunities for all.
On December 17, 2009 after 3 years and 600 concerts all over Europe, Damian and Brothers, the project was finished and the band had the last concert in Bucharest in front of 4000 fans, being sold out.
Instrumental Gypsy jazz was developed in early 2000s by artists such as clarinetist Mieluţă Bibescu and his band (featuring traditional lăutari instruments, such as the cymbalom and double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
). Their jazz combines melodic patterns
Melodic patterns
In music, a melodic pattern is a repetitive pattern that can be used with any scale. It is used primarily for use in solos because, when practiced enough, it can be extremely useful when improvising.See also: Color ....
featured in swing jazz, bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
and lăutari music; Bibescu's band sometimes improvises over classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
"standards."
Romanian quartet Hot Club de Bucharest showcases a more "traditional" approach of gypsy jazz. The band performs regularly in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
; its repertoire comprises gypsy jazz standards, as well as new compositions written in a similar style. Another Bucharest based band are Swing en Vogue.
Russia
Russia is home to Titi Demeter and Dmitry Kuptsov's Django Band.Scandinavia
There is a yearly Django festival in Norway and Jon LarsenJon Larsen
Jon Larsen is an autodidact guitarist, composer, surrealistic painter, and record producer with heavy influence on the revival of Gypsy jazz worldwide...
's Hot Club de Norvège
Hot Club de Norvège
Hot Club de Norvège is a string Jazz quartet from Norway, established in 1979, by guitar player Jon Larsen with childhood friends Per Frydenlund and Svein Aarbostad...
is based there. Gypsy guitarist Andreas Öberg
Andreas Öberg
.Andreas Öberg is a Swedish guitar player.-Early life:Öberg was born in Stockholm on August 6, 1978. He began playing guitar at the age of 8 years old and studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.- Career :...
is based in Sweden. Jens Fuglsang's Rêve Bohème is based in Denmark, while Finland is home to Jazzpartout and Djangodelic.
South Africa
A young enthusiastic band, Manouche has emerged on the continent of Africa. The band consists of Bernard Kotze (lead guitar, composer), Thomas Hugo (rhythm guitar), Renee Stander (violin), Lize Dekker (accordion, vocals), Eldred Schilder(double bass) and Martijn Van Der Merwe (percussion). Along with their own tunes they also pay homage to artists and composers like George Gershwin, Django Reinhardt, Fats Waller, Edith Piaf etc.Spain
Spain is home to guitarist Biel Ballester and Pere Soto's group Django's Castle, also Valentin Moya trio.United Kingdom
The first generation of British gypsy jazz musicians is represented by Ian Cruickshank and the late Diz DisleyDiz Disley
Diz Disley was an Anglo-Canadian jazz guitarist and graphic designer. He is best known for his jazz guitar playing, strongly influenced by Django Reinhardt, and for his collaborations with the violinist Stéphane Grappelli....
, both of whom played with Stephane Grapelli. The UK is the birthplace of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
-based Kevin and Robin Nolan and is still home to guitarists Gary Potter, Nils Solberg, Pete "Tiger" Shepperd, Dave Kelbie, Andy McKenzie, Jonny Hepbir, Stu Blagden, Robin Katz, Dan Clark and Jason Henson, and violinists Daniel John Martin, Mike Piggott and Ben Holder.
John Etheridge
John Etheridge
John Michael Glyn Etheridge is a British jazz/fusion guitarist associated with the Canterbury Scene....
combines jazz-rock fusion with forays into Gypsy Swing. Martin Taylor has worked with Stephane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
and performed a widely-heard Djangoesque piece
Johnny and Mary
"Johnny and Mary" is a song written by Robert Palmer and was recorded in 1980 at Compass Point Studios, New Providence, in the Bahamas. The song was featured on Palmer's album Clues . "Johnny and Mary" only went to #44 on the UK Singles Chart, but did reach #18 on Billboard's Club Play Singles chart...
for the "Papa and Nichole" TV advertisements for Renault.
London has a specialist Gypsy Jazz venue, Le QuecumBar, which concerts featuring some of the world's musicians. Regular gypsy jazz sessions are held at the Briars Hall Hotel in Lathom near Ormskirk
Ormskirk
Ormskirk is a market town in West Lancashire, England. It is situated north of Liverpool city centre, northwest of St Helens, southeast of Southport and southwest of Preston.-Geography and administration:...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
(Beaufort Jazz ), Northampton
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
(the Black Cat) and Brighton and Hove (Club Chat Noir at the Hanbury Club ). There are study groups in Marlow
Marlow, Buckinghamshire
Marlow is a town and civil parish within Wycombe district in south Buckinghamshire, England...
and Penzance
Penzance
Penzance is a town, civil parish, and port in Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is approximately 75 miles west of Plymouth and 300 miles west-southwest of London...
(both called 'Club Django').
‘The Gypsy Jazz Guitar Festival’ was held from 1997 to 2000 and a series of festivals called L'Esprit Manouche was held in Moseley
Moseley
Moseley is a suburb of Birmingham, England, two miles south of the city centre. The area is a popular cosmopolitan residential location and leisure destination, with a number of bars and restaurants...
, Birmingham in 2003/4/5. The International Gypsy Guitar Festival is currently being held at the end of July every year in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
.
External links
- The most comprehensive archive of gypsy music online
- DjangoBooks.com Gypsy jazz Books, Guitars, CDs, DVDs, and more!
- HotClub.co.uk Information on players, playing, equipment, etc
- DjangoStation Information on Django and the Jazz Manouche : CD, DVD, video, concerts. In French
- Djangopedia - An Encyclopedia of Django's Recordings
- General Information on Django and Gypsy Jazz from Paul Vernon Chester
- Chord diagrams for Gypsy-style guitar
- Links provided by Le QuecumBar (Gypsy Jazz venue, London, UK)
- Gypsy Jazz Method for guitarists
- John Jorgenson demystifies Gypsy Jazz