The Django Festival All Stars • Evolution

Django Reinhardt (1910-53) was one of jazz’s most original and brilliant guitarists, certainly the top guitarist to emerge during the 1930s. But despite that, at the time of his death at the age of 43, he had relatively few followers. Charlie Christian was the dominant influence on jazz guitarists of the 1950s while Reinhardt’s own sound and style could only be heard now and then in the playing of Les Paul, Charlie Byrd, and a few European players. Somewhat miraculously things changed in the 1980s when he was suddenly discovered by many younger guitarists, particularly in Europe. Soon there were many Django Reinhardt festivals and seemingly scores of guitarists who were able to sound just like Django. It had taken 30 years for his playing to be revived in a big way.

The Django Reinhardt NY Festival, which takes place at New York’s Birdland, was founded in 2000 and has become a very popular annual event. The Django Festival All Stars, which was formed in 2002, was originally led by guitarist and violinist Dorado Schmidt and included his son guitarist Samson Schmidt, and the superb accordionist Ludovic Beier. The band has changed personnel a few times since then. Recently they released their fifth album (Evolution) which is the first one to feature all originals from the musicians as opposed to swing standards. The current band group is comprised of Samson Schmitt as guitar soloist, accordionist Beier, violinist Pierre Blanchard, rhythm guitarist Francko Mehrstein, and bassist Antonio Licusati.

The dozen selections on Evolution are in the tradition with very fast tempos utilized on such numbers as “Rire Avec Charlie,” “Casse Noisette,” “Balkanic Dance,” and “Swing And Ready.” The flawless unisons played by the virtuoso musicians at the blazing tempos and their heated solos are quite impressive. Beier on accordion is often the solo star, and he somehow sounds like a harmonica player on “Around Toots” in the Toots Thielemans tradition. The group also plays with sensitivity on the occasional ballads.

I have no doubt that Django Reinhardt would have loved to sit in with this group.

The Django Festival All Stars • Evolution
Motema MTM-0470
www.djangofestivalallstars.com

Scott Yanow

Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings. Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.