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| Django Reinhardt NY Festival “Celebrates 25 Years” @ Birdland November 5-9 Django Reinhardt NY Festival "Celebrates 25 Years" @ Birdland November 5-9 Featuring DORADO SCHMITT and SONS SAMSON & AMATI with LUDOVIC BEIER Plus Francko Mehrstein and Gino Roman DJANGO FESTIVAL ALLSTARS "A Gypsy Jazz Festival" And Tour With Special Guests: November 5: Bruce Harris / Trumpet 6: Helio Alves/ Jazz piano 7: Tatiana Eva-Marie / Vocalist 8: Ute Lemper / Songstress 9: Lucy Yeghiazaryn /Vocalist Twenty-five years ago in 2000, Producers Pat Philips and Ettore Stratta brought the idea of a Django Reinhardt Festival to Birdland. The rest is history. It became the first-ever Django Festival in the area, one of the longest running music projects at Birdland and all of New York. Gratitude goes to Gianni Valenti, owner of Birdland, for keeping it thru hard times such as 9/11, and thanks to the artists for being brave enough to fly to NY a few weeks later from France. The Festival took on its own concept after a few years when legend Dorado Schmitt (Guitarist/Violinist ) came to town and captivated audiences. This led to him being featured with tours across the US, performing at top festivals, concert halls, and clubs. Samson Schmitt, then 21, was his father's rhythm guitarist and his son Amati was just born. Each has grown up on the Birdland stage to become brilliant, award-winning musicians. Ludovic Beier, discovered by the Producers from a CD when he was 21, is considered one of the world's top accordionists in the world and will join the 'family'. The Festival has featured the Schmitt family along with Beier, and great violinist Pierre Blanchard who could not be here for this celebration but will return in the summer along with top bassist Antonio Licusati. Nightly, the concept has featured Jazz icons as special guests such as Ken Peplowski, Paquito D'Rivera, Anat Cohen, Cyrille Aimee, Stefon Harris, Houston Person, Randy Brecker, Joel Frahm, and others. It's a treat for the audience to see the brilliance of jazz musicians, meeting for the first time, calling a number, and going for it with amazing on-the-spot talent. Legendary 'Dad' has taken up the Violin and passed the guitar work to his sons. Beier, an accomplished musician, is now a well-known composer /producer in France. Blanchard is busy with orchestral work, and Licusati an in-demand bassist. Each with their own careers in France, they come to America as 'one': The Django Festival Allstars have been well received for their original music, exciting musicianship, and brilliance as a Band, to standing ovations. When the Festival started in 2000, the legendary Nesuhi Ertegun was in the audience, "I haven't seen this much excitement since I was a young man in the business." The crowds were lined up all the way to Eighth Avenue and beyond. Come to Birdland to enjoy the Celebration and share in the joy of The Django Reinhardt NY Festival and the musical style of the great gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt where his sound is brought to the present with a look back at some Django favorites. …"blinding technique, solid entertainment" - NY Times "The highpoint of the entire Playboy Festival at the Hollywood Bowl was The Django Festival Allstars" - LA Scene "I don't think I've ever heard better music" - The SUN write your comments about the article :: © 2024 Jazz News :: home page |