A seven-day festival across six venues in London… stars from the ‘gypsy jazz’ scene such as violinist Tcha Limberger and guitarist Stochelo Rozenberg – “second to none, a phenomenal guitarist who’s a joy to watch,”… the fourth Gypsy Jazz Festival of London has many treats in store.
Gypsy jazz – a name to which we will return – denotes both an ethnic cultural heritage and a particular musical style. There’s a whole historical hinterland too, and a public perception of the form that connects – accurately or not – furiously-paced guitar and violin-led tunes, Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli and the Hot Club de France to dark cellar clubs, chequered tablecloths and cooly brilliantined Gitanes-smoking gitans, probably in Paris.
It’s also a style that’s big on delight, with the players routinely performing jaw-dropping feats of musical legerdemain that provoke sustained suspension of disbelief from an audience continually shaking its head in wonder. How on earth did they do that? And then do it again, but differently? When I saw the guitarist-brothers Boulou and Elios Ferre play in Bristol years ago, the level of genius on display was so high that the whole room seemed to be floating on a fluffy cloud of amazement. Boulou took the lead for the first set, and didn’t just make his Maccaferri talk: it practically sang bel canto, while dour Elios played the straight man on rhythm guitar. Then after the interval they swapped roles and Elios was revealed as the star. “I’ve been playing guitar for twenty-five years” said a West Country voice near me at the end. “I’m going home now to smash it up.“
That gypsy jazz remains a vital contemporary form rather than a museum piece is evident from the forthcoming Gypsy Jazz Festival of London taking place in a variety of venues across the city from May 6-12, and from the activities of its energetic curator, Tobie Medland, who coincidentally is another big Ferre Brothers fan. For Tobie, a violinist, producer and boss of Future Fable Records whose festival acts as a bridge between the international stars of the genre and young, mainly London-based musicians of all stylistic stripes, gypsy jazz is essentially a modernist form with all sorts of connections across many musical styles, including hip-hop. As a non binary person, Tobie is also responsive to the need for jazz to be as welcoming a home as possible for the LGBTQ community, and for women. As a consequence the festival represents a kind of queer intervention into what can sometimes be an intimidatingly monocultural jazz-world for performers and audience alike.
Accordingly, the line-up represents a broad stylistic church uniting a range of artists from different traditions. Notable highlights include legendary guitarists Stochelo Rosenberg – often regarded as the greatest inheritor of the Django tradition – and Paulus Schafer from the Dutch Sinti community, who appear at LSO St Luke’s on Saturday 11 May. “I’d definitely recommend going to see Stochelo”, says Tobie Medland. “He’s second to none, a phenomenal guitarist who’s a joy to watch.” The duo are augmented by Tobie himself on violin and bassist Simon Read, with support from the great English accordionist Karen Street and her quartet, L’Esprit du Jazz.
There’s also the acclaimed Scottish violinist and singer Seonaid Aitken with her Glasgow-based band Rose Room, who open the festival on Monday 6 May at Crazy Coqs in Soho, and rising star guitarists Gismo Graf, who appears at Chelsea’s the Pheasantry on Wednesday 8 May, and Jean-Marie Ekay, who plays Dalston’s Vortex with his trio on Thursday 9 May. “I’d also recommend seeing John Wheatcroft at Toulouse Lautrec on Tuesday 7th”, says Tobie. “He’s a fantastic British guitarist who writes original music drawing on his work in the modern, fusiony jazz scenes.”
As to the nomenclature, the festival is sensitive to negative perceptions that the term gypsy may appear to some people as a slur – those infamous “Big Fat” television programmes have a lot to answer for – but this is emphatically not the case according to the curator. “It is the term preferred by the Sinti people of Central Europe for Gadji and non-Romanes speaking people to use”, Tobie Medland says. “This is mainly because it avoids confusion, particularly with regards to misnaming diverse groups of people – Sinti are not Roma, for example, though both are Romani. It’s complicated and possibly imperfect, but we’re always ready should the weather change.”
FESTIVAL FULL LISTING
Monday 6 May. Seonaid Aitken’s ‘Rose Room’ at Crazy Coqs, Soho
Tuesday 7 May. John Wheatcroft Trio at Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club, Kennington/Elephant & Castle
Wednesday 8 May.Gismo Graf Trio + Matt Holborn/Janos Kallai Trio – Pizza Express The Pheasantry,
Thursday 9 May. Jean-Marie Ecay Trio at Vortex Jazz Club, Dalston
Friday 10 May Tcha Limberger’s ‘Viper Club’ – World Heartbeat Auditorium, Nine Elms/Battersea
Saturday 11 May. Stochelo Rosenberg/Paulus Schafer Quartet + Karen Street’s L’Espirit du Jazz – LSO St Luke’s, Old Street
Sunday 12 May. Adrien Moignard/Daniel John Martin Quartet at Pizza Express the Pheasantry, Chelsea
