The Gypsy Jazz Experience

Research Part 1: Gypsy Jazz

Gypsy Jazz music was popularized by a man named Django Reinhardt during the 1930's. Django was born on January 24th, 1910 in a French gypsy camp. Django a guitar player and would perform with an accordionist named Guerino as a teenager. When Django was eighteen he was badly burnt while bending over to look at celluloid flowers that he and his wife made. The wick of the candle he was using fell and ignited the flowers, sending the caravan the two lived in up in flames. Despite this, "Django created a whole new fingering system built around the two fingers on his left hand that had full mobility. His fourth and fifth digits of the left hand were permanently curled towards the palm due to the tendons shrinking from the heat of the fire"(Dinkins). Django would discover Jazz music around 1930, where he encountered the music of Emile Savitry and "he immediately fell in love with the music; this hot jazz was very reminiscent of the Gypsy spirit of virtuosity and improvisation"(Chang). In 1934 Django would form his band, calling it The Quintet of the Hot Club of France. The band involved fourteen performers, including Django, Stephane Grappelli, Roger Chaput, and Louis Vola. The band would regularly feature a main guitarists, a bassist, a violinist, and two rhythm guitarists who doubled as percussion from time to time. The group toured Europe during the second world war, and Django himself briefly toured America with Duke Ellington before he returned to France. Django died on May 16th,1953 when he suffered a stroke. As Django passed away, the style of music which he popularized grew and grew, and is still popular to this day.

Research Part 2: The Red Hot Ramblers

The Red Hot Ramblers are the group that performed at Heritage on the night of the concert. They are an "authentic 1920s jazz ensemble in every way. They exemplify red hot syncopation, stompin' rhythms, and lyrical melodies associated with the Jazz Age"(The Bash). The band has three members: one on guitar, one on tuba, and the last singing and playing the trumpet and trombone. Their music was lively and energetic, and is very highly rated and appreciated by those who listen. The band has been together since 2012 and has a 5 star rating on The Bash, a gig rating website. They play strictly Gypsy Jazz music and travel all around, in a one hundred mile radius around the city.

Setting

The concert was at Heritage, a restaurant about ten minutes southeast of campus. The restaurant reminded me of poetry night at a coffee house; dimly lit and extremely quiet. The rustic feel of the restaurant evoked a calming feeling in an unknown environment. The band consisted of three white men in their 30's or 40's wearing dress pants, dress shirts, and ties. They looked extremely professional and quite honestly confused me, as I had not assumed a Gypsy Jazz band to be dressed so professionally. My friends and I sat about six feet out and to the left of the stage. There was plenty of open room in the venue, eliminating feeling of claustrophobia and allowing the audience to relax in an unfamiliar situation. The band did not interact with the audience much, stopping to talk a little bit about the specific pieces they were playing, and to remind the audience to drop money in the guitar case. As the band was approaching the stage to continue their set, they presented themselves with confidence and swagger. The audience was mainly adults in their 20's to 50's, and evenly split between men and women. Most audience members crowded around the bar to grab a drink and enjoy the show, while my table ordered food. This made the music more enjoyable. As described in the research, the band consisted of a guitar player, a tuba player, and the singer, trombone and trumpet player. As my table was sitting and enjoying the show, I was a little uncomfortable. Eventually I warmed up tot he new environment and really enjoyed the music. Being a part of the live event is drastically different than listening to a song on your phone. This is because the live music allows you feel included in the performance. Live music also highlights the skill of the performers, as multiple takes are needed while performing. Gypsy Jazz also uses a lot of improvisation, meaning the performance of each song slightly varies and will never be exactly the same.

Music

In this video, The Red Hot Ramblers are performing their rendition of the Cantina Song from Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope. The Ramblers performance of this song was a truly enjoyable one, as they used a lot of improvisation to fill in and add their own flair to an already amazing song. The trombone player was a little inconsistent with his timbre, at times sounding full and others sounding thin. The dynamics of the piece were pretty constant, at times lowering but mainly staying at a medium volume. The pitch of the trombone varied, lowering and raising throughout the song, while the tube and guitar stayed pretty constant in their pitches. One thing I did notice was that they only used instruments with definite pitches. The texture of the song was homophonic, with the trombone playing the melody while the guitar and tuba played the harmony. The song is also in quadruple meter.

Interviews

The first woman is name Gianna Salamone. She and her friend, Nadya Behrens, are two Temple students that decided to attend the event with Gianna's father, Drew. Gianna, 19, decided to attend the event to expand her musical horizons. She thoroughly enjoyed the event and plans on attending more shows similar to the one performed by The Red Hot Ramblers. Nadya, 18, described the show as "an eye opening experience" and like a "trip into a whole different world of music".

Personal Feelings

Personally, I really enjoyed the concert and I would absolutely go again. There is true beauty in the amount of improvisation that was incorporated into the performance, and I found it to be extremely entertaining and fascinating.

Significance

The performance of The Red Hot Ramblers and the research conducted while completing this review can be viewed as a cultural reflection of Gypsy music and Jazz music. Django Reinhardt fell in love with Jazz and combined the style of music with the improvisation and instruments of gypsy music to popularize the genre. The style of music was also performed at clubs, and this reflects the setting of the performance that I attended.

Bibliography

• Chang, Denis. “Django Legacy – The Birth of Gypsy Jazz.” Denis Chang, 9 Aug. 2015, denischang.com/index.php/2015/08/09/django-legacy-the-birth-of-gypsy-jazz/.

• Dinkins, Joseph. “Django Reinhardt.” Django Reinhardt, www.redhotjazz.com/django.html.

• Jessica, et al. “GigMasters.” GigMasters, 11 Nov. 2018, www.thebash.com/20s-band/red-hot-ramblers.