Gypsy Jazz...

You may have got the idea there is all kind of music at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival if you follow these reports posted here. Here's a couple of bands I'll lump under the name gypsy because if not directly inspired by that pre war genre it is music inspired by a traveling, listening spirit.     

This band was called Tatiana Eve Marie and the Avalon Jazz Band. They are based in New York and are the prime example of the Paris Hot Jazz scene of the 30s and 40s as influnced by Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. Look it up, you might like it.

The Avalon Jazz Band.

Tatiana Eve Marie. 

Gypsy Jazz Guitar. Django only used his thumb two fingers on his fretting hand. The other two fingers were paralyzed in the 1920s when the gypsy wagon he lived in caught fire. Never say can't. 

String bass

Fiddle

Here's the drummer. At the jazz fest I'm always on the look out for the guy doing something unusual. This drum kit is two small cymbals, a wood block and you may not be able to tell it but that's washboard laid flat. Sounded like a full set to me. This is a little lesson for you kids out there. You can go buy that name brand instrument you see your favorite guy or gal playing in TV but I got news for you. You won't sound like what's on TV. Throw together something odd or broken and make the music in your heart.   

This was the Tangiers Combo. Their web pages lists their inspiration for sound as French bal musettes, Latin waltzes, the great American songbook and Caribbean beats to connect South Louisiana, North Africa and 1930s Paris.  

I enjoyed the string bass sound. He had the much sought after tuba tone. You know, it sounds like a tuba but it's not. I guess you don't know. As I listened to this band I thought to myself I think I could cover these bass lines on tuba or bass. Makes me wonder how things would have been if I had fell in with a band like this instead of spending so many hours trying to cop "Whipping Post." 

When you saw jazz I bet you thought this was about Kenny G. 

Most people say there is no new good music. How about go out and catch some different music.