Gypsy Jazz Licks

To go with the release of his new album, First Light, we ask gypsy jazz expert and GT tutor John Wheatcroft, to demonstrate six favourite licks in this fascinating style.

Long-standing GT tutor John Wheatcroft’s new album, First Light, explores his life-long passion for the music of the gypsy jazz genius, Django Reinhardt, but with a sound also inspired by more modern jazz influences, from players such as Michael Brecker, Joe Diorio, Allan Holdsworth and many more. ‘It’s all fair game,’ say John. ‘I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to perform with many of the truly great current gypsy jazz guitarists from within this tradition, such as Stochelo Rosenberg, Paulus Schafer, Angelo Debarre and more, and universally they have all been very welcoming and really seem to enjoy hearing different ideas brought into this style.’

Recording for First Light started during lockdown, after John recovered from a particularly traumatic battle, including a spell in hospital due to Covid 19. Fortunately, he has now made a full and complete recovery, but the experience definitely made an impact on the music. ‘I had a lot of time on my hands to take stock, so one thing I decided was to not over-obsess about the creative process and just let the music I make be what it is. With both the compositions and the selection of the right improvised takes, I definitely adopted a more organic and spontaneous mindset here. Surprisingly, for me at least, removing the desire to produce a perfect take in every way got me so much closer to what I was after, and produced a more direct, honest, engaging and hopefully entertaining result.’ The six cohesive musical phrases that follow are loosely divided into three topics with a pair of examples for each. We begin with some classic gypsy jazz ideas, similar to what you might hear Django employ on his early recordings with the Quintette du Hot Club de France or from the more traditional players within this style. The next couplet of ideas explores common techniques from this idiom. We round things off with two lines indicative of classic and modern vocabulary, taken directly from John’s playing. While this style might not be something you regularly play, we’re certain that there will be ideas that you can transfer to your lick repertoire. It’s great to explore new genres with a view to borrowing a technique here, or a concept there, so feel free to mix and match ideas, integrating them into your style to expand its range of colours. As always, make sure to transpose these lines into new keys, explore a range of fretboard positions and try these out on any guitar or with any guitar tone that you see fit. As always enjoy!

NEXT MONTH Ant Law joins GT to bring us some cool licks using the interesting 4ths Tuning