CD review – Entre Ciel et Terre

 

This is the latest CD from Angelo Debarre and Ludovic Beier which was released in October 2006. You will probably have read my reviews of their previous studio CDs Entre Amis and Come Into My Swing and know how excellent those are. This one continues that very high standard and perhaps even raises it. many of the tunes are more arranged than on the previous CDs with some very inventive twists to familiar tunes. The CD leaps into life with ‘Caravan’ taken at a cracking pace. Less familiar Django tunes, such as Rue Vingt-Six and Hungaria, get outings and there is a version of Donna Lee taken at a speed approaching that of light. All the playing is top notch but there is a passage in Ludovic Beier’s solo on Django’s Tiger which I play over and over again trying to convince myself it’s true – it sounds as though the accordian has taken off by itself and everyone else is tryng to catch up yet it is also completely musical. My only slight reservation is that Angelo Debarre is listed as playing all guitars (except for one track where his youngest son plays rhythm guitar) which means there must be a fair amount of multi-tracking in the studio, something I don’t feel is right for this type of music, but if I hadn’t read the sleeve notes I don’t think I would have noticed.

Video feedback on gypsy jazz guitar technique

How often do you look closely at how you are playing gypsy jazz guitar? Whenever I learn a new guitar technique I look very closely to see that I have got it right before I start regular practice, because regular practice programmes in the technique – bad technique gets programmed in just as easily as good. Gypsy jazz guitar has a number of fundamental techniques which have to be programmed in absolutely correctly otherwise huge problems emerge later when you try to use them at fast tempos or for a whole gig. The plectrum rest stroke (of which more soon) and the loose wrist (not arm) action for rhythm guitar are quite difficult to learn intially and there is considerable scope for error. Sometimes I play in front of a large mirror to check my technique but recently I have been using a video camera which is more useful because you can look at the replayed images with full concentration. I mounted the camera on a tripod and turned the viewing screen round so it was facing me, it was easy to set up and use.

I learnt a lot from looking at a few minutes of clips – I still move my forearm more than I should when playing rhythm guitar but this only happens at high tempos, I angle my plectrum correctly for rest strokes on the upper strings but don’t have enough angle on the lower strings (which is a counterintuitive finding) – all things that I can easily correct before I do more practice but which I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed. I recommend a session of video feedback every couple of months to check for creeping bad habits – but I won’t be posting mine on YouTube!

CD review – Come Into My Swing by Angelo Debarre & Ludovic Beier

 

 

This CD chronologically came before Entre Amis but I heard it later. Usually a review of ‘more of the same’ might be thought damning but here it is the highest of praise because it means that it is a CD of some of the best gypsy jazz guitar and accordeon playing around. Once again it is a simple line up of lead guitar, accordeon, rhythm guitar and double bass but the playing is anything but simple. There is a good mixture of Django standards and original compositions, the latter being so good that there is no noticeable difference as you listen though the tracks. Some highlights for me were What is This Thing Called Love (with the bebop head Hothouse tagged on the end) and a very spritely rendition of Stomping at Decca. Highly recommended.

CD review – Memories of Django by Angelo Debarre & Tchavolo Schmitt

 A CD with Angelo Debarre and Tchavolo Schmitt on it is never going to be bad but listening to this I fell that someone, either the producer or the guitarists could have made a bit more effort. The tunes are all either very popular Django tunes (Minor Swing, Nuages) or well-worn jazz standards (It Had to Be You, All of Me) and they haven’t been arranged in any interesting ways. What you do get is some good gypsy jazz playing from two great guitarists and there is some interest in comparing Tchavolo’s Alsace style with Angelo’s more sophisticated Parisian style, neither better than the other just different.

CD review – Entre Amis by Angelo Debarre & Ludovic Beier

This is a very hot gypsy jazz CD. Everyone I have played it to have been completely blown away by the playing and have wondered why they have never heard of Ludovic Beier (most have heard something of Angelo Debarre). The band is a straight gypsy jazz lineup with Angelo Debarre on lead guitar, Ludovic Beier on button accordeon, with two rhythm guitars and a double bass. The tunes are mainly gypsy jazz standards (Douce Ambiance, Yeux Noirs, Troublant Bolero, China Boy) with a few originals including solo tracks by each of the lead musicians. Angelo Debarre is on excellent form as usual playing anything from blisteringly fast swing through to ballads with a beautiful solid tone and clear articulation. I had not heard Ludovic Beier until this CD and he is a complete revelation, I have never heard an accordeon played like this. He too can play at amazing speed but the thing I was most impressed with was his thematic development in solos – taking a little motif and carrying it through a number of different chords changes. When trading 4s and 8s with he appears to be able to reproduce anything that Angelo plays at will. These players are astonishing virtuosos who never lose sight of the fact that they are playing music – very highly recommended

CD review – Franco-American Swing by John Jorgenson

This gypsy jazz CD is a bit different. It features the great guitar playing of John Jorgenson but in an unusual setting – many tracks have full string orchestra arrangements provided by the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. It is nice to listen to music that has been so carefully arranged – a pleasant change from many albums which are close to jam sessions. Whether a string orchestra in the background is to your taste is an entirely personal preference and I suspect that listeners will fall into love it or hate it camps without much in between. On the tracks without the strings John Jorgenson plays nearly everything himself. I had being listening to the title track for months admiring the almost klezmer style clarinet as well as the guitar before I found out from the sleeve notes that John Jorgenson plays that, and the tenor saxophone on that track. He also plays vibes and percussion on other tunes – and most of us struggle to pass muster on just the guitar!

Gypsy jazz lick 1

Thinking about my post on gypsy jazz scales it seemed to me that it would be better if I could produce examples of arpeggio licks for readers to try. After a little fiddling around here is my first one (as described in the earlier post). It is simply the notes of a C major triad (or any other major triad if you slide it up and down the fretboard) with additional notes a semi-tone below each. The numbers show the order in which the notes should be played.

You could play this lick in a number of different rhythms and articulations. Each note could be one beat so the lick spreads across 2 bars, or each note could by a swung quaver in which case it would fit into one bar. Each note could be picked, or just the first note of each pair and then hammer-on the second. I find it easiest to play this with just the first two fingers of my left hand, as Django would have done.

You can also try starting on the triad note (i.e. number 2 in the diagram) going down a semitone and then back up to the triad note again, probably with a triplet rhythm.

Notice how the triad notes in this lick are the top four notes of a straightforward C major bar chord:

Gypsy jazz scales

One interesting feature of writing a blog is that you get information about the search terms which people have used to get to your site. One of the most popular search combinations that finds this site is ‘gypsy jazz scales’ so I thought I had better post my view on this subject:

There are no scales in gypsy jazz

Of course without qualification this might seem a little extreme but I am sure that if all novice gypsy jazz guitarists started from this premise then they would get going a lot faster, I know that I would have saved a lot of time learning any sort of jazz guitar style if I had initially ignored scales but it is especially relevant to gypsy jazz guitar.

If one looks at the general pattern of notes played in gypsy jazz the overwhelming pattern is of arpeggios with chromatic decoration – by that I mean the standard arpeggio notes of a chord, e.g. C E G for a C major chord, with other notes just above and below them.

Take a very common, and great sounding, Django lick which just consists of the three note of a major arpeggio (or more strictly major triad) and the notes a semitone below each of these – B C, Eb E, F sharp G, B C  – that sounds like authentic gypsy jazz doesn’t it?  It is very easy to see how this relates to the C major chord on the fretboard especially if you start on the B at the 9th fret on the D string and so it is very easy to see when you might use that lick simply by playing through the chords of the tune. If instead you analysed these notes in terms of a scale you would get – root, minor third, major third, flattened fifth, perfect fifth, major seventh – which doesn’t make any sense at all.

So my advice to any gypsy jazz guitarist just starting out is to ignore scales and practice lots of arpeggios. The triads – root,  third and fifth are a good starting point and then later add major sixths (sevenths don’t feature much in gypsy jazz, especially minor and major sevenths). You have to be careful how you choose to play the arpeggios, the temptation on the guitar is always to start on the bottom string and work across the strings but in gypsy jazz many arpeggios in solos will start on higher strings and go up and down the fretboard rather than across. For this reason it is best to get one of the excellent tuition books that are available and start from there. At the moment I am getting a lot of use out of Robin Nolan’s Essential Gypsy Jazz Licks which contains many of the most important decorated arpeggio patterns but I will be reviewing some alternatives to that on the site soon.

Book review – Django by Michael Dregni

 

Django Reinhardt didn’t spend a lot of time filling in tax forms, buying houses, giving statements to Congressional committees or writing books (thankfully because that left plenty of time to record the wonderful legacy of gypsy jazz he left us) so getting the information to write his biography has always been very difficult. Up until now there haven’t really been any biographies that could be viewed as close to the truth. Charles Delaunay’s attempt is very entertaining but has a particular bias. This biography written by Michael Dregni and published by Oxford University Press in 2004 has good claim to be the first critical biography of Django. The amount of information is amazing and I am sure took years to acquire. The biography follows a fairly strict chronological order and finishes with a section on gypsy jazz after Django’s death which is fascinating. Michael Dregni takes care to set the social and musical context of each section of Django’s life which is very useful especially for the section where Django travels to America to play with Duke Ellington. All in all an essential read for Django fans.

CD review – Move by Bireli Lagrene

I have had this CD for a while now but was listening to it again today and reminding myself how good it is. The band is Bireli, Hono Winterstein on rhythm guitar, Franck Wolf on various saxophones and Diego Imbert on double bass. Many of the tunes are core gypsy jazz repertoire – Clair de Lune, Troublant Bolero etc., but others are originals or bebop tunes (like the title track). The opening track is a quirky blues head written by Diego Imbert with an idosyncratic rhythm which then launches into storming swinging blues changes. Bireli really lets rip on this with some wild outside playing but holds it all down with some classic blues and gypsy jazz phrases. There isn’t a bad track on the CD and I have been listening to it for months without any lessening of my enjoyment – highly recommended.