SAt MAY 5 2 018
Django A G OGO
Acclaimed guitarist
StÉphane Wrembel presents a celebration of the music and spirit of
Django Reinhardt
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T H E TO W N H A L L . O R G
DJANGO REINHARDT 1910 – 1953 Django Reinhardt was probably the first guitar hero. A gypsy who started out on banjo, he became a sought-after child prodigy in the French musette world only to see his career interrupted when his caravan caught fire, almost killing him. Left with only three working fingers on his fretting hand, Django switched to guitar and soon perfected a technique that allowed him not only to keep playing, but had him also reach new virtuosic highs. Beyond the dramatic legend of the maimed guitarist and nonchalant Gypsy, lies a deep and ferociously curious musician. He went from the Romani music world to musette balls, and then Louis Armstrong and hot jazz. He played with Duke Ellington, tried electric guitar (he didn’t like it much at first) and Charlie Parker’s recordings converted him to bebop. He played Bach of course, but was also profoundly influenced by Ravel and Debussy. In short, he was a true musician whose personality was far more complex than his legend would have it. Django a GoGo celebrates the legacy of the multifaceted musician - beyond the caricature of the Gypsy virtuoso and his three fast fingers. While Wrembel and guests all owe a great debt to Reinhardt’s style, their interests remain multiple. Like their hero, the range of their musical interests is infinite and they know to keep the music alive by always rejuvenating it with new borrowings and new points of views. Portrait of Django Reinhardt by Irene Ypenburg
S AT U R D AY M AY 5 • 2 0 1 8
T H E TOW N H AL L P R E S E NTS
Django A G OGO
Acc la i me d g ui ta ri st
StÉphane Wrembel p r e s en ts a c e le brat i o n o f t he m us i c a n d s p i ri t o f
Django Reinhardt WITH
STOCHELO ROSENBERG SIMBA BAUMGARTNER PAULUS SCHAFER OLLI SOIKKELI SARA L’ABRIOLA NICK ANDERSON THOR JENSEN ARI FOLMAN-COHEN DAISY CASTRO PIERRE “KAMLO” BARRÉ AND SPECIAL GUEST
SAM BUSH
97 Years! THE TOWN HALL 123 W 43rd st nyc LARRY ZUCKER, Executive Director M.A. PAPPER, Artistic Director JEFF MANN, Marketing Director BILL DEHLING, Technical Director GINA THOMPSON, Production Manager CINDY BYRAM PR, Publicity LEIA-LEE DORAN, Designer
ABOUT THE PROGRAM Guitarist Stephane Wrembel caps Django A GoGo 2018, his week-long celebration of gypsy jazz master guitarist Django Reinhardt, with a spectacular allstar concert at The Town Hall
Photo © Irene Ypenburg
Perhaps best known for “Bistro Fada”, from the GRAMMY-winning soundtrack to Woody Allen’s 2011 Academy winning film, Midnight In Paris, Stephane Wrembel will be sharing the stage with some of the best contemporary exponents of Reinhardt’s style including Stochelo Rosenberg, Simba Baumgartner (Reinhardt’s great-grandson), Paulus Schafer, Nick Anderson, Thor Jensen, Pierre “Kamlo” Barré, Sara L’Abriola, Olli Soikkeli and violinist Daisy Castro. Special guest for the Town Hall show will be the brilliant bluegrass mandolin player Sam Bush. A master of Reinhardt’s style, Stephane Wrembel has several CDs on his own label, exploring and updating his legacy: The Django Experiment I, and The Django Experiment II, both released in 2017, and his latest release The Django Experiment III. The New York Times writes: “Perhaps the most creative improviser in Gypsy jazz today, Mr. Wrembel plays the guitar with a rich and colorful lyricism.” For Wrembel, who started Django A GoGo as “a very small event” in 2004, soon after moving to New York, “the question has always been how to pay tribute to someone like Django,” he said. “This is not a retro thing. I don’t have any nostalgia,” he noted, emphatically. “Django to me is like a Debussy, a Ravel or a Chopin. You don’t need to put on a wig to play Mozart. That’s not what Mozart is about, his music is eternal. I don’t pay tribute to Django Reinhardt the guy, but to his music. Something special went through him and whatever it was, it’s still alive in the music and it can be expressed in so many ways.”
It’s in that spirit that Wrembel called on the GRAMMY-winning bluegrass mandolin player Sam Bush to be part of the celebration. Dubbed “the Father of New Grass”, Bush has established himself as roots royalty, revered for both his solo and sideman work, which includes time with Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett and Béla Fleck. “I know his music and he’s a perfect fit,” said Wrembel. “Of course, the guitar and the mandolin are cousins -- and then bluegrass has a certain intention that connects with Django’s music. There is something about life, nature and Django’s music, perhaps it’s the playing under the stars, around the fire. So while these genres have different repertoires, the intention is the same. But you need the right people to make that connection.” “Stochelo Rosenberg, Simba Baumgartner, Paulus Schafer are the greatest players in the world in the Django Reinhardt style, so Sam is going to play some Django Reinhardt music. But then, these Django masters are also going to play a few bluegrass and Americana songs. So you’ll get to hear the interaction between these two worlds. “ Anchoring the concert, Wrembel will be appearing with his band, featuring long time collaborators Thor Jensen on guitar; Ari Folman-Cohen on bass and Nick Anderson on drums. Born in Paris and raised in Fountainbleau, the home of Impressionism and Django Reinhardt, Wrembel first studied classical piano, beginning at the age of four. But in his mid-teens, he discovered that he had an affinity for guitar. A Pink Floyd fan, he “spent hours learning David Gilmour’s style,” he said. “So I had a classical background, a passion for rock music, and then I found out about Django. I fell in love with the very strong impressionist feel in his music.” Reinhardt was a Sinti, (a Roma group from Western Europe) and his style is rooted in Sinti music. Not a Gypsy himself, Wrembel immersed himself in Sinti culture, spending “six, seven years going to the camps, playing for Gypsy weddings, parties, playing with Gypsy friends,” he said. “By going there I started learning what it really means to play Sinti style guitar. I learned from the masters, from Angelo Debarre and Serge Krief, and I played in the campsites a lot. That’s how you learn this music, because it’s a specific to a culture. Music is not only the notes. Without the culture, something is missing.” Wrembel later enrolled in Boston’s Berklee College of Music in 2000, from which he graduated summa cum laude two years later, recorded his debut album, Introducing Stephane Wrembel, and moved to New York in 2003. He has since recorded four more albums (Woody Allen also used “Big Brother,” from his third album Barbes-Brooklyn, in his 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and also started Django A GoGo. The camp was a success, and while it started modestly, “every year it grew. Then we took it on the road. Now we have a whole guitar camp!” The performance at the Town Hall on May 5th is the culminating event in the Django a GoGo 2018 festival, which includes a music camp, jam sessions and live showcases in Wrembel’s home base of Maplewood, New Jersey.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS SAM BUSH If joy were a person, he’d bring both peace and frenzy. He’d be full of music, light, and energy that soothes even as it stirs us up. Eyes closed, wire-rim glasses in place, mandolin pressed against his ribs, joy would be Sam Bush on a stage. Dubbed the Father of New Grass, Bush has established himself as roots royalty, revered for both his solo and sideman work, which includes time with Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett and Béla Fleck, Grammy Award winning artists. But instead of kicking back and soaking up honors such as an Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award and suite of Grammys and International Bluegrass Music Association Photo © Shelly Swanger
trophies, Bush still strives relentlessly to create something new.
STOCHELo ROSENBERG Stochelo is a legend in the Django Reinhardt style. He is one of the grand masters of this style, and one of the founding fathers of the revival of this style in the early 90s. His album Seresta is still considered today as one of the landmarks of Gypsy Jazz. Stochelo’s knowledge of Django’s music, his virtuosity, creativity and versatility are unique in the world. Photo © Robin Señorón
SIMBA BAUMGARTNER Guitarist Simba Baumgartner is the great grandson of Django Reinhardt and lives in Samois-sur-Seine, France. The brilliant guitarist is thrilled to be a part of Django A Gogo 2018, his debut musical performance in North America.
Photo courtesy of the artist
ABOUT THE ARTISTS Cont’D PAULUS SCHAFER Paulus Schäfer (born 1978) is today one of the most talented Gypsy Jazz guitarists from The Netherlands. Born into a Dutch Sinti (Gypsy) community, he grew up listening to records of his idol and fellow Sinti, Django Reinhardt. Being a musician in high demand, Paulus is often to be found on stage with world class musicians such as The Photo courtesy of the artist
Rosenberg Trio, Biréli Lagrène, Al di Meola and Larry Kill.
OLLI SOIKKELI Born in Nurmes, and based in New York City, Olli Soikkeli has been mainly inspired by Gypsy Jazz since his discovery of Django Reinhardt. After touring extensively across Europe, he decided to move to New York City and has since played legendary venues such as Birdland Jazz Club, Blue Note and Lincoln Center.
Photo © Johannes Kaarakainin
PIERRE “KAMLO” BARRÉ Rocked in the cradle of a resolutely Mediterranean culture, Pierre ‘Kamlo’ Barré borrows from the universal nomadic music-language of Andalusia, the Arabs and Hungarian or Romany gypsies. He studied the Oud, Spanish guitar and Flamenco, before immersing himself into the Gypsy Jazz world and the music of Django Reinhardt.
Photo courtesy of the artist
SARA L’ABRIOLA Sara L’Abriola was born into a musical family in Garrison, New York. Her father, Art, is an award-winning sound designer and composer, and her mother is a singer/ guitarist who among other gigs performs with the trio, MotherLode. Under Stephane Wrembel’s guidance, Sara began transcribing Django Reinhardt’s solos and developing solid Gypsy jazz technique. But here’s Sara, at 19 years old, proving that she has more than mere technique and vocabulary at her fingertips—she has something to say.
Photo courtesy of the artist
ABOUT THE ARTISTS Cont’D DAISY CASTRO Daisy Castro is a unique and incredibly powerful voice in the violin world today. She was first introduced to the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli on a trip to France at an early stage. Daisy is happy to be among the new generation of players to help bring this beautiful music from the past into the future, respecting the Photo © Ann Castro
tradition while adding a modern edge.
THOR JENSEN Thor Jensen is a New York based guitarist with a unique sound that seamlessly integrates his masterful technique with the styles that influence him, allowing him to traverse genres from Gypsy Jazz to Rock and Roll, Blues, Country and Funk. In 2015, Jensen was invited to join Stephane Wrembel’s band as the rhythm guitarist.
Photo courtesy of the artist
ARI FOLMAN-COHEN Ari Folman-Cohen supplies a solid, creative and melodic function to any musical endeavor in which he finds himself. He began his musical career in New York City in 2006, and has since established himself as a go-to bass player for a wide array of music, both on upright and electric bass. He is a member of the Stephane Wrembel Band and also juggles a busy schedule supporting many singer/ songwriters, jazz, experimental and world musicians in the New York area and beyond.
NICK ANDERSON Photo courtesy of the artist
Nick Anderson is a New York based drummer who has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Central America, and Africa. Reviewers have described Nick’s playing as “downright lyrical, transcending the seeming constraints of the nonpitched drumset,” (Rochester City Newspaper), and he’s been referred to as “an ideal timekeeper with his light, sophisticated playing making the music dance,” (All About Jazz). The Berklee College of Music and NYU educated musician is currently performing projects ranging from jazz, free improv, ska, country and rock with groups such as Stephane Wrembel Band, Zephania and the 18 Photo © Martin Phillips
Wheelers, and Pangari & the Socialites.
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