Rhythm Future Quartet, Travels

Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli and the Hot Club group gave us some of the most original and inspired original jazz of the swing era. Django was a guitarist of gigantic originality and artistry, Grappelli was one of the jazz violin innovators of the era and a beautifully skilled artist, and the ensemble gave us a sound we now call "Gypsy Jazz."

It took a while but in this century Gypsy Jazz has blossomed into a movement that honors that legacy with varying degrees of effectiveness and by now shows signs of becoming a style that continues to evolve and sound fresh. No better an example of how Gypsy Jazz can go into innovative directions than with the Rhythm Future Quartet and their album Travels (Magic Fiddle Music CD).

It has the Hot Club instrumentation, with Jason Anick on violin and Olli Soikkeli on lead guitar, backed nicely by rhythm guitarist Max O'Rourke and bassist Greg Loughman.

Anick and Soikkeli take the legacy of Grappeli and Reinhardt along with prodigious technique and build something new overtop it all. New compositions by all four, and a cover or two break ground on this, their second album.

The band takes Gypsy Jazz into the present with a less strictly Hot Club demeanor at times, though the inspiration is still very present underneath it all. The originals extend it nicely and the Anick-Soikkeli front line gives us some uncanny virtuosity that channels the masters and remakes them into a modern image, all the while showing the dexterity such music demands.

It is a wonderful album!

Sultans of String, "Move"

Today the review is a quickie, not because the music is not interesting, but because my schedule is making demands on me this morning.

Sultans of String is a Canadian group--six string violin, two guitars, bass and percussion. On Move (Factor-Outside MCK 2050), their third album, they combine gypsy swing with mid-eastern, Latin and bossa strains, among other things, for an appealing eclectic mix. The (mostly acoustic) guitarists and violinist are rather good and they cover lots of ground.

It is quite pleasant.

Les Doigts de l'Homme Rechannel Django Reinhardt with Joyous Elan on "1910"

Django Reinhardt in his Hot Club of Paris phase has been increasingly the point of reference to a select but growing body of outfits dedicated to hot swing. One of the very best out there is Les Doigts de l'Homme, as heard in their new CD 1910 (Alma 61412). They have the patent chunk-chunk-chunk-chunk foursquare acoustic rhythm guitar backdrop down pat. Layered overtop is some excellent lead, sometimes doubled up for two-part duet pyrotechnics in the arranged realm, other times pure single-acoustic kick.

Olivier Kikteff is responsible for the Danjangoesque solos and he is quite impressive in that role. The repertoire covers a number of songs done by Django, some standards, and some surprises. Throughout the groups honors the master by showing that they can grow the style again today, incorporate some of the present into it, and generally play the heck out of whatever they attempt.

It's irrepressibly fabulous Djangology. Django would be proud. By the way 1910 refers to the year of Reinhardt's birth. That would make him 101. He lives on here.