CITYFOLK MONTHLY - August 2008

The music we today call “gypsy jazz” is more properly known as jazz manouche, due to the music’s French origins. The style is rooted in the popular French musette tradition, to which Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) added elements from American jazz and swing of the 1920s and 1930s—he was especially influenced by the records of guitarist Eddie Lang and violinist Joe Venuti—and the gypsy guitar styles he had heard since his birth.

Born in Belgium, Reinhardt was a Sinto, a member of the Sinti ethnic group. Sinti are generally called “gypsies” in English, but that’s not technically accurate. The Sinti and the Roma (as “gypsies” are correctly known) share common roots in India, or maybe Pakistan, but they are now understood to be two distinct ethnic groups. A nomadic people, the Sinti had migrated as far west as Austria and Germany by the Middle Ages, at which point they divided into two groups: the manouche, who moved into France, and the other heading off to Eastern Europe. By the time Reinhardt was a young boy, the Sinti were only semi-nomadic, their caravans mostly parked on the outskirts of cities and towns.

Jean-Baptiste “Django” Reinhardt grew up around Paris and was playing professionally in the city at a young age, proficient on violin, banjo, guitar and the hybrid banjo-guitar. At the age of 18, shortly after he had made his recording debut playing banjo, Reinhardt was seriously burned in a fire. His left hand, the hand with which he noted the guitar, was badly damaged and disfigured. After healing, Reinhardt had full function in only two fingers on that hand, the index and middle. Reinhardt had to relearn the guitar, but within only a few years, he could play more guitar with two fingers than most people could with two dozen.

Reinhardt formed the band that would define gypsy jazz, the Quintette du Hot Club de France, in Paris in 1934. The band included Reinhardt on lead guitar; Django’s brother Joseph Reinhardt and Roger Chaput on rhythm guitars; violinist Stéphane Grappelli; and bassist Louis Vola, and is one of the very few successful bands in jazz history made up exclusively of string instruments. The quintet is also the most important jazz ensemble from Europe.

The trailblazing Quintette du Hot Club recorded extensively after a successful debut in 1935. Reinhardt would later record with clarinet, saxophone, piano and drums, and with such esteemed American jazz musicians as Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter and Rex Stewart, but it is the early recordings by the original all-string quintet that are most treasured by modern listeners.

The Hot Club had a unique sound that was popular on both sides of the Atlantic. The solo voices in the band were Grappelli’s violin and Reinhardt’s lead guitar, with the two rhythm guitarists and the bassist providing a driving, percussive accompaniment. The band occasionally recorded with vocalists (including Freddie Taylor and Jean Sablon), but the bulk of its repertoire was instrumental. Reinhardt was also a songwriter and several of his tunes have become jazz standards, including “Minor Swing,” “Nuages,” “Djangology,” “Belleville,” “Minor Swing” and “Swing 39,” the last two co-written with Grappelli.

Reinhardt spent the World War II years in Paris. He was lucky to have survived the war, as he was twice-cursed under Nazi logic. The Holocaust claimed more victims than the six million Jews most people know about. The Nazi’s racialist policies concerning “ethnic purity” also included the Porajmos, the Romani name for the program aimed at eliminating the Roma from Europe as part of Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Estimates of how many Romani men, women and children perished in the Nazi death camps run as high as 500,000.

The second strike against Reinhardt was that he performed jazz music, which was officially forbidden under Nazi control. He was reportedly protected from persecution, and the grim fate that befell most of his family, by an avid fan who was an officer in the Luftwaffe (the German air force), who bore the nickname of Doktor Jazz.

Reinhardt reunited with Grappelli after the war and they continued to record and perform—including a trip to the U.S. in which they played Carnegie Hall and toured with Duke Ellington’s orchestra—until the guitarist retired in 1951. Reinhardt died two years later.

Guitarists of every style, generation and nationality have cited Django Reinhardt as a major influence. The list includes Chet Atkins, Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Julian Bream, Derek Trucks, Mark Knopfler, Les Paul, Joe Pass, Peter Frampton, Jeff Beck, Wes Montgomery, Mark O’Connor, George Benson, Homer Haynes, Diz Disley, Richard Thompson and hundreds more.

The music of the Hot Club has also been a profound influence upon mandolinists Jethro Burns, David Grisman, Sam Bush and Andy Statman; and fiddlers Bob Wills, Johnny Gimble, Jesse Ashlock, Kenny Baker, Darol Anger, Vassar Clements and on and on. The original mid-1970s edition of the David Grisman Quintet (with guitarist Tony Rice and violinist Darol Anger) introduced many people to the Hot Club sound and feel. There are several similarities between bluegrass and gypsy jazz, from the obvious to the obscure, and bluegrass instrumentalists have long been attracted to the style.

Gypsy jazz has continued to evolve in the years since Reinhardt laid down his guitar, though many aspects are as they were. The guitar and the violin are still the most common “lead” instruments, though accordion and clarinet are increasingly common. Much as bluegrass mandolin playing continues to be shaped by the late Bill Monroe, the sound of the guitar in gypsy jazz, and the specific way in which it’s played, are based directly on the playing of Reinhardt.

Most jazz guitarists from the 1930s to the present have played amplified, hollow-body archtop guitars. Reinhardt’s guitar was a different kind of beast. He played an unamplified Selmer guitar (often a Modele Jazz) made in France and designed by an Italian luthier named Mario Maccaferri. These guitars produced a sharp, dry, percussive tone with little sustain, almost a brittle sound, especially when compared to the rich, resonant, rounded and sustained notes produced by the electric archtop guitars played by the majority of jazz guitarists in the U.S.

Reinhardt’s choice of the Selmer-Maccaferri guitar probably had as much to do with availability as any other aesthetic factor, but that choice has shaped other guitarists’ choices for decades now. Modern-day players can choose from vintage guitars of that style and era or new guitars ranging from low-end models made in Asian factories to high-end models created by luthiers in Europe, Canada and the U.S.

The rhythm guitar(s) in a gypsy jazz group play a strumming pattern called “Le Pompe,” an up-down down strum similar to the “boom-chuck” pattern played by bluegrass rhythm guitarists. “Le Pompe” fills the role played by drums in other groups. In a somewhat illogical homage to Reinhardt, many rhythm guitarists avoid barre chords and limit themselves to chords that Reinhardt could have played with his damaged left hand.

One of the countless thousands of musicians around the world influenced by Reinhardt's playing is multi-instrumentalist John Jorgenson. Jorgenson, who will appear with his Quintet at the Canal Street Tavern on October 18, has toured and recorded with Benny Goodman, Luciano Pavarotti and Bonnie Raitt among many others and has been working as a professional musician since he was 14. He earned three consecutive “Guitarist of the Year” awards from the Academy of Country Music and has garnered numerous honors from guitar and music publications. He is the only musician on the face of the earth who can claim simultaneous membership in the bands of pop superstar Elton John and bluegrass banjo legend Earl Scruggs. In fact, Jorgensen has played at least a bit of everything, but the music that is closest to his heart is the gypsy jazz he performs with the John Jorgensen Quintet.

While the John Jorgensen Quintet is in the vanguard of the modern gypsy jazz movement, the quintet is far from alone in its quest for la groove manouche. Other prominent groups and guitarists include the Hot Club of San Francisco and Pearl Django in the U.S.; and Biréli Lagrène, Jimmy Rosenberg, Romane, Stochelo Rosenberg, Tchavolo Schmitt, Angelo Debarre, Moreno and Jon Larsen in Europe. The annual Festival de Jazz Django Reinhardt at Samois-sur-Seine, France, provides both a good introduction to the music and a comprehensive overview of the style as it exists today.

Douglas Lora was born in Washington D.C. but grew up in Brazil where he studied guitar from an early age. He met the other half of the Brasil Guitar Duo, João Luiz, as a teenager. They have been playing together for more than a decade now, and their rapport onstage shows it. Originally their focus was on classical music, perfecting a repertoire of guitar duos by composers such as Bach and Scarlatti. Over the last few years, they began to add traditional Brazilian music to the mix, tackling passionate rhythms such as samba and baião with the same precise technique they bring to classical works. Lora, who is also a songwriter, recently completed a Master’s degree at the University of Miami. You may have seen him on stage at the 2007 Cityfolk Festival as a part of Rob Curto's Forro for All.

RECORDING I'M LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW: Bach: 6 Partitas by Andras Schiff

LAST THREE BOOKS I'VE READ: Brazilian Literature - Clarice Lispector's Livro dos Prazeres, Joao Guimaraes Rosa's Grande Sertao Veredas, and Douglas Hoffstander's Godel, Escher and Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

WHAT I ENJOY MOST ABOUT MAKING MY LIVING AS A PERFORMER: Traveling to new places, meeting new people, communication extra-verbal

TOUGHEST CROWD I'VE FACED: Thousands of people waiting for the main attraction, country music, while we were opening the show playing Brazilian folk music, in Brazil

FAVORITE LIVE MUSIC EXPERIENCE (in the audience): The opera Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, performed in Brazil, amazing experience

FAVORITE LIVE MUSIC EXPERIENCE (on stage): Concerto for 2 guitars and orchestra by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Houston symphony

FAVORITE COMFORT FOOD: Rice and beans, typical from Brazil

FAVORITE PASSTIMES: Cinema movies

MATERIAL CULTURE--RIPS, CLIPS AND CREASES: Festival Wrap-Up

It was a pleasure to work with the artists who participated in Rips, Clips & Creases: The Art of Paper, this year’s material culture display at the Cityfolk Festival. Each of them did an amazing job of explaining and demonstrating his or her art form, including the techniques used and traditions followed. Mary Gaynier even provided paper, patterns, hole punches and scissors for a wonderful make-it-take-it project, much enjoyed by all the visitors to our area.

One of the highlights for me was witnessing Omowumi Lynnette Largent’s powerful dance performance and call-and-response song that helped tell the traditional story behind her unique paper costumes based on African stories and myths. [Photo by SWAE.biz]

I definitely did not get to spend enough time with Catalina Delgado Trunk and Christopher Gibson, who came from New Mexico to show their spectacular papel picado creations. They told me many times what an interesting and beautiful city Dayton is, and how much they enjoyed the Festival (not to mention a very funny story about a lettuce omelet!).

It was great fun to have Andy Espino join us as a last-minute addition. His original, site-specific artwork on the columns of the Wright State University Center for Creative Excellence – a combination of cut paper and painter’s tape with a graffiti aesthetic – was really spectacular. [Photo by Dennie Eagleson]

The location was ideal, and we really appreciated all the support we received from our sponsor, NewPage Corporation.

CULTURE BUILDS COMMUNITY: A Look Back As We Move Forward

When Cityfolk kicked off the Culture Builds Community program in 2005, Program Coordinator Kelsa Rieger predicted that one of the biggest challenges to success would be ensuring that the program “reflects the myriad of voices, ideas and visions present in our community.”

Since then, Cityfolk has presented more than 20 different artist groups, reaching over 1,000 participants in the Twin Towers community. The artists have included world-renowned musicians such as Jean Paul Samputu and Ingeli, Simon Shaheen, and Santiago Jimenez, Jr.; nationally recognized Ohioans such as Rhythm in Shoes and the Comet Bluegrass All-stars; and even put the spotlight on young talented and developing artists from the community such as local young jazz protégés, the Serious Young Musicians, and Twin Tower’s homegrown Mexican folkloric dance troupe, Sol Azteca. The artists have represented African, Appalachian, Middle Eastern, African American, and Latin American traditional cultures through nearly every artistic media including music, dance, storytelling, and visual/material art. [Images shown here are from a July residency with Appalachian storyteller and musician Randy Wilson.]

According to East End Executive Director, Jan Lapore-Jentleson, the CBC program “not only succeeded in reflecting the diverse cultures of our community; it also achieved the even more complex goals of enhancing communication, learning, and respect across the various racial and ethnic groups in our community.”

After more than two years of bringing people together through traditional food, music and dance, it is clear that Twin Towers/East Dayton community members have gained a stronger sense of pride in their own cultures, developed delight and excitement for experiencing one another’s traditions, and gained a deeper sense of appreciation for the multi-cultural nature of their community.

These results, according to Rieger, only prove what she has long believed, that “art and culture have the unique ability to highlight and express shared human qualities between people who appear to speak very different verbal and cultural languages.” Rieger is equally excited about another key measure of success in community – arts work, which is the development of an established leadership that is willing and able to carry the project into the future. Today in Twin Towers, community leaders are poised and eager to continue planning cultural celebrations, artist residencies and cultural learning opportunities in their neighborhood. In fact, community leaders in East Dayton have already taken the initiative to begin planning their next cultural project.

So, does this mean that Cityfolk is ready to step aside and let the program run itself? Not even close! In fact, Cityfolk has exciting new plans in the works for the Culture Builds Community program. Over the next 3 years, Cityfolk intends to expand CBC into several more neighborhoods, develop new partnerships with community-oriented agencies across the Miami Valley, and forge deeper connections between the CBC program and the Cityfolk Festival. Planning is underway to create a component of the annual event that would allow CBC community partners to converge to share and present what they have learned and created through the CBC program over the course of the year.

During the next four months, Cityfolk will focus primarily on strategic planning, partnership building, and fundraising for CBC, while we continue to deliver cultural projects in the community on a smaller scale. By the beginning of 2009, implementation of “CBC Phase 2” will begin in earnest.

In order to help us deliver all of these new CBC ambitions, we are pleased and excited to announce the newest addition to our Cityfolk team. Tierra Blackwell, a graduate student at the University of Dayton, will be completing a 2-year graduate assistantship through Cityfolk’s Culture Builds Community program.

Cityfolk was one of several local non-profit agencies choosen by the Fitz Center for Leadership in Community for their new Graduate Community Fellows (GCF) program at the University of Dayton. The GCF program will give fellows the opportunity to connect classroom learning to educational experiences within the Dayton community through meaningful and substantive roles within nonprofit agencies. Blackwell was chosen from a large field of applicants as one of four other graduate students for the fellowships, and Cityfolk was her top choice among the non-profit agency partners.

“We’re very excited about having Tierra join us in our effort to take the CBC program to the next level,” said John Harris, Cityfolk’s Executive Director. “Her enthusiasm for the program and her fantastic talents will be a real asset to Cityfolk over the next two years.”

As we close out a successful pilot phase, we look forward to an exciting year ahead for Cityfolk and the Culture Builds Community program.

TEACHERS CORNER: WOEA Day Workshop and Concert Ticket Discounts

WOEA Day Workshop Highlights Connections Between Jazz And Drawing

On October 17, Cityfolk and the Dayton Visual Arts Center collaborate to highlight improvisation in both drawing and the American musical art form of jazz. Participants will create wall drawings while learning about the life of Dayton-born jazz composer Billy Strayhorn, pictured here, long time musical right arm of pianist/bandleader Duke Ellington. Kathleen Thum and Dave Barber will discuss historical precedents and explore how the nature of color and improvisation manifests itself in music and visual art. Activities such as collaboration and improvisation will be experimental and unpredictable. The session will include live music and excerpts from Robert Levi’s documentary film about Strayhorn, Lush Life. The workshop will take place at DVAC in downtown Dayton and the $25 cost includes lunch.

Explore A World Of Music And Dance With Your Students!
Cityfolk Concert Discounts Available For Miami Valley Teachers
Soweto Gospel Choir

Soaring harmonies from France and South Africa; the best in jazz and Irish music; a one-of-a kind collaboration between Native American hoop dancer Dallas Chief Eagle and Dayton’s own Rhythm in Shoes; these are just a few of the experiences Cityfolk will offer in a sensational slate of discounted concerts during Cityfolk’s 2008-2009 Season of Events.

It’s easy to get rolling: choose from any concerts on the list below, then call Cityfolk Director of Programs Dave Barber at 937-223-3655 extension 3015. We will buy your ticket, discuss the size of your student group, and work with you to arrange an affordable discount for your students. [Soweto Gospel Choir pictured here; photo by Jay Town]

For all the details about these programs, download this pdf. We look forward to seeing you there!

PROFILE BEHIND THE SCENES: Cityfolk Board Member Matt Dunn

Matt Dunn has volunteered for Cityfolk for many years. Currently, he is member of Cityfolk’s Board of Trustees where he serves on several committees, and he's the Finance Director for the Festival. Matt has a long history working with non-profits and he is also a musician and vocalist. He plays piano and organ and used to play low brass instruments such as baritone, tuba, and sousaphone. He has been both a choir director and accompanist in local Catholic churches and is frequently a soloist at a variety of events. Matt also sings with the group Jubilee. Matt’s full-time job is in the Montgomery County Community Development Office.

RECORDINGS I'M LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW: Voz d’Amor by Cesaria Evora, Gaelic Storm by Gaelic Storm, El Carnaval de la Vida by Celia Cruz, Celtic Woman, and the soundtrack to Wicked

LAST THREE BOOKS I'VE READ: When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris, A Wolf At the Table: A Memoir of My Father by Augusten Burroughs, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INTERESTED IN CITYFOLK?: Back in 2002 when the organization was struggling and doing some re-organizing. I was a member of the "transition team" and an ex-officio member of the Finance Committee. Those responsibilities led to me being involved with Cityfolk's budget and made me directly responsible for the finances at the 2003 Festival (which I've been doing ever since).

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CITYFOLK EXPERIENCE?: My favorite Cityfolk experience is walking the grounds during the Cityfolk Festival and realizing a few things of which to be proud: 1) the number of people it takes to pull off such an event (we can always use more volunteers!), 2) the value the organization brings to the community through its diverse programming, and 3) seeing and experiencing so much diversity in one place and everyone having a good time.

WHAT I ENJOY MOST ABOUT PERFORMING: Meeting/being in front of new groups of people and seeing smiles on their faces because I know they are enjoying themselves.

TOUGHEST CROWD I'VE FACED: Family and Friends especially if they expect me to entertain upon request!

FAVORITE LIVE MUSIC EXPERIENCE (in the audience): Being in an audience at a concert influenced by Celtic music, African music, or Appalachian music and feeling the rhythm in a way that connects me to the rest of the audience regardless of all the diversity present.

FAVORITE LIVE MUSIC EXPERIENCE (on stage): Being so into the music and being one with the audience I could stop singing and the people carry on without me.

FAVORITE COMFORT FOOD: Anything chocolate.

FAVORITE PASSTIMES: Volunteering for various organizations, enjoying a good margarita or glass of wine with friends, blogging at www.lifeindayton.com, hanging out on Saturday mornings at the Second Street Public Market.

DREAM VACATION: Australia/New Zealand are currently at the top of my list!

September 1999 marked my first visit to an amazing World Music festival that is practically right next door in Bloomington, Indiana. The Lotus World Music and Arts Festival offers a diversity of music that truly roams all over the globe. Through my years at Cityfolk, I had already heard a pretty broad range of traditional music, but Lotus has introduced me to many new sounds and cultures.

Bloomington is a cool little college town (home to Indiana University) that is teeming with musicians and artists, great restaurants and fun little shops. It has a Yellow Springs kind of feel to it: funky, off-beat, tolerant, creative and earthy. The festival happens in several indoor and tented venues in walking distance from each other, so the shops and restaurants are often set up on the sidewalk, adding to the celebratory atmosphere. Churches, bars, the convention center, a theater and the art center have all played host through the years. [Photo by Geoff McKim]

Whether because of the divesity of the student population, the curiosity of Bloomingtonians about other cultures or just following their own good taste, Lotus' organizers are free to be adventurous, and book artists from far-flung places because they're fantastic, not because they're well-known in the midwestern US. Each year, at least one group leaves me riveted, soaking in a sound that's richly new to me. Some of my best memories are dancring to the Moroccan trance music of Nass Marrakech, hearing fado singer Cristina Branco in a church that was the perfect place cradle for her voice, being packed into a small upstairs bar to hear Scottish rock from Shooglenifty and later the French lounge sounds of Paris Combo, marveling at how rich one fiddle and voice can be as Bruce Molsky sang southern Appalachian music, joining the wild crowd enjoying Funkadesi, and experiencing a new (to me) instrument of nyckelharpa from Vasen of Sweden.

Lotus started in 1994, a modest one-night event. It has grown to a four-day event with concerts, special events, and educational programs throughout the year. The staff is small but mighty, with a legion of dedicated volunteers who make it all happen (sound familiar?). The festival is a visual feast as well as a musical one, thanks to artist-made fabric wall-hangings as backdrops for the stages, scores of colorfully decorated poles that festival-goers can carry in a street parade, and large flags marking the various venues. [Photo by Levi Thomas]

I can't say enough good things about Lotus, and about Bloomington. I have great memories of each trip I've made there, and always look forward to my next visit. This year's festival will be on October 2 - 5. Let this year's artist roster convince you to make a road trip!

From time to time, stories on NPR, in the New York Times and in other places catch the eye (or ear) of the Cityfolk staff. These are stories about traditional music, handicrafts, ways of life...stories that deepen our understanding and appreciation for the folkways of the world. We will keep bringing as much of this to Dayton as we can; in the meantime, take a listen to this:

If you find a story that you'd like to share with other Cityfolk ENews readers, please send us the link and we'll put in the hopper for possible inclusion.

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