Pearl Django | |
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Background information | |
Genres | Gypsy swing, swing revival |
Years active | 1994-present |
Labels | Modern Hot Records |
Members | Tim Lerch Michael Gray Rick Leppanen David Lange Jim Char |
Past members | Neil Andersson Troy Chapman Ron Peters Greg Ruby Pete Krebs Dudley Hill Shelley D. Park David Firman Ryan Hoffman |
Pearl Django is a jazz group established in 1994 in Tacoma, Washington by guitarists Neil Andersson and Dudley Hill [1] and bassist David "Pope" Firman. The group melds the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli with American Swing. Initially a trio, they have changed and added members over the years and are now a quintet. Based in Seattle, they have played around the United States, as well as in France and Iceland.
The band has performed at the prestigious Festival Django Reinhardt in Samois-sur-Seine and at Juan de Fuca Festival. [2] They have played with Martin Taylor, [3] Bucky Pizzarelli, [4] and Gail Pettis, a two-time recipient of the Earshot Jazz 'Jazz Vocalist Of The Year' award. [5] The British virtuoso Taylor turns up on three tracks of their 2011 album Eleven. On their twelfth album, Time Flies, released in 2015, all tracks are their own compositions except for one classic bossa nova. [6]
Released | Title | Label | Notes |
1995 | Le Jazz Hot | Modern Hot Records | |
1997 | New Metropolitan Swing | Modern Hot Records | |
1999 | Mystery Pacific | Modern Hot Records | |
1999 | Souvenirs | Modern Hot Records | |
2000 | Avalon | Modern Hot Records | |
2002 | Under Paris Skies | Modern Hot Records | |
2003 | Swing 48 | Modern Hot Records | |
2005 | Chasing Shadows | Modern Hot Records | |
2007 | Modern Times | Modern Hot Records | |
2010 | Hotel New Yorker | Modern Hot Records | Compilation from 1995 to 1999 releases |
2010 | Système D | Modern Hot Records | |
2012 | Eleven | Modern Hot Records | |
2015 | Time Flies | Modern Hot Records | |
2017 | With Friends Like These | Modern Hot Records | All original compositions |
2019 | Pearl Django Live | Modern Hot Records | |
2020 | Simplicity | Modern Hot Records | All original compositions |
Jean Reinhardt, known by his Romani nickname Django, was a Romani-Belgian jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist. He is best known as a founder of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands. He has been called "the grandfather of jazz violinists" and continued playing concerts around the world well into his eighties.
Sweet and Lowdown is a 1999 American comedy-drama mockumentary written and directed by Woody Allen. Loosely based on Federico Fellini's film La Strada, the film tells the story of confident jazz guitarist Emmet Ray who falls in love with mute laundress Hattie. Like several of Allen's other films, the film is occasionally interrupted by interviews with critics and biographers like Allen, Nat Hentoff, Daniel Okrent, and Douglas McGrath, who comment on the film's plot as if the characters were real-life people.
Martin Taylor, MBE is a British jazz guitarist who has performed solo, in groups, guitar ensembles, and as an accompanist.
The Rosenberg Trio is a Dutch jazz band consisting of lead guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg, rhythm guitarist Nous'che Rosenberg and bassist Nonnie Rosenberg. The band is influenced by Django Reinhardt, the gypsy jazz guitarist of the 1930s.
Howard Vincent Alden is an American jazz guitarist born in Newport Beach, California. Alden has recorded many albums for Concord Records, including four with seven-string guitar innovator George Van Eps.
John Paul Pizzarelli Jr. is an American jazz guitarist and vocalist. He has recorded over twenty solo albums and has appeared on more than forty albums by other recording artists, including Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Rosemary Clooney; his father, jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli; and his wife, singer Jessica Molaskey.
Manouche jazz is a style of small-group jazz originating from the Romani guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt (1910–1953), in conjunction with the French swing violinist Stéphane Grappelli (1908–1997), as expressed in their group the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Because its origins are in France, Reinhardt was from the Manouche clan, and the style has remained popular amongst the Manouche, Manouche jazz is often called by the French name "jazz manouche", or alternatively, "manouche jazz" in English language sources. Some scholars have noted that the style was not named manouche until the late 1960s; the name "Manouche jazz" began to be used around the late 1990s.
Christian Escoudé is a French Gypsy jazz guitarist.
George Coleridge Emerson Goode was a British Jamaican-born jazz bassist best known for his long collaboration with alto saxophonist Joe Harriott. Goode was a member of Harriott's innovatory jazz quintet throughout its eight-year existence as a regular unit (1958–65). Goode was also involved with the saxophonist's later pioneering blend of jazz and Indian music in Indo-Jazz Fusions, the group Harriott co-led with composer/violinist John Mayer.
John Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli was an American jazz guitarist.
Hot Club of 52nd Street is a live jazz quartet album co-led by guitarists Bucky Pizzarelli and Howard Alden in tribute to Django Reinhardt, released on May 25, 2004.
Naturally is a studio album by jazz singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli, accompanied by Martin Pizzarelli and Ken Levinsky (pianist). Also on the album is a large horn section with Clark Terry, and his father Bucky Pizzarelli on rhythm guitar.
Jean-Jacques "Babik" Reinhardt was a French guitarist and the younger son of gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt by Django's second wife, Naguine. His elder half-brother Lousson, who was Django's son by his first wife, Bella, was also a guitarist, but the two grew up in different families and rarely met. He was christened Jean-Jacques but generally known by his family nickname, Babik.
Frank Vignola is an American jazz guitarist. He has played in the genres of swing, fusion, gypsy jazz, classical, and pop.
Yasek Manzano Silva is a Cuban trumpet player and composer in Marianao. He has performed with Celia Cruz, Los Van Van, Irakere, Bobby Carcassés and the British bands Manic Street Preachers and Simply Red.
Florin Niculescu is a Romanian violinist of Romani (Gypsy) ethnicity.
Andreas Varady is a Slovak Hungarian jazz guitarist managed by Quincy Jones. Regarded as a child prodigy, he has been influenced by guitarists Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, and George Benson and has been performing internationally since the age of thirteen.
Ian Cruickshank was an English electric and acoustic guitarist most associated with the blues-rock and gypsy jazz genres, also well known in the U.K. as an educator, author and columnist, record producer and record label owner, festival organiser and promoter of artists in the gypsy jazz world. He achieved some success in the 1960s in the Keef Hartley Band playing electric guitar under the pseudonym Spit James before becoming enamoured of the gypsy jazz style originated by Django Reinhardt in the 1930s and devoting almost all of his energies to educating, performing and promoting activities in this area up till his death in 2017. He published several influential books on gypsy jazz, was producer and music co-ordinator for the TV Documentary Django Legacy, was the owner of the Fret Records record label, and organised the UK Gypsy Jazz Guitar Festival annually from 1997 to 2000.
The Hot Club of San Francisco is an American gypsy jazz band. Led by guitarist, songwriter, and arranger Paul 'Pazzo' Mehling, the group uses the instrumentation of violin, bass, and guitars from Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli’s Quintette du Hot Club de France and performs arrangements of gypsy jazz standards, pop songs, and original compositions by Mehling. The Hot Club of San Francisco includes violinist Evan Price, the vocals of various members, and a swing rhythm section. In the book, Django Reinhardt and the Illustrated History of Gypsy Jazz, Michael Dregni refers to the Hot Club of San Francisco as "one of the first American gypsy jazz bands."