Customer Reviews

Gypsy Guitars

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this CD is one of the best gypsy jazz guitar CDs you'll ever hear !!! besides great standard Django-styled jazz guitar work, Angelo Debarre plays several suites of more traditional gipsy music giving the listener a more comprehensive "tour de force" of non-flamenco european gypsy guitar styles... Angelo Debarre is definitely one of the very best contemporary guitarists in the modern gypsy jazz scene & this CD is one of his best... one of the new classics of poet-Django gypsy jazz guitar recordings

Here is Angelo Debarre's first record.Born August 1962,he was 27 when this session was recorded.Backed by Frank Anastasio,son of the famous french guitar maker,on bass,and by Serge Camps on guitar,this young gipsy player gives us a magnificent record.With this first record,Angelo joined the elite of gipsy jazz,a very small group of geniuses including Dorado Schmitt,Tchavolo Schmitt,Fapy Lafertin and Hans'Che Weiss;and also,sometimes,when they feel like really playing the thing,Raphael Fays,Bireli Lagrene and Stochelo Rosenberg (who both committed amazing music and very boring things).Of course,in this "elite" club,I only speak of actual musicians.If not,this club would also include Bousquet,Tchan-Tchou Vidal,Henri Crolla (not a gipsy),Matlo,Baro,Sarane and Challin Ferret,and of course,Joseph and Django Reinhardt.
But let's go back to this album.A superb one: here are three outstanding "valses manouches"(gipsy waltzes),Tchan-Tchou's sublime "la gitane",Django's rare "chez Jacquet"(which was never recorded by the Master;considered as a jazz artist,he was not allowed by his producers to record waltzes,even if he composed the most magnificent of all gipsy waltzes,"Montagne Sainte-Genevieve",named after a quarter of Paris,on the left bank),and Fapy Lafertin's extremely difficult "Valse de Bamboula"(Bamboula was the nickname of a gipsy player;this is not an insult,as "bamboula" is the french equivalent to american's "negro").Here are Django's great "Blues en mineur",Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle rose",the classics "after you've gone" and "deep purple",the boring "Cherokee"(yes,I hate this tune,as I hate "green dolphin street","Stella by starlight" and even Duke's "satin doll",I apologize,but I really can't find any interest in these tunes - and I forgot "Tea for two",except if it's played by Monk or Tatum),and finally there are great csardas and hungarian tunes.
Here is a majestic record of gipsy jazz;and you can buy any record by Angelo (and he didn't made a lot),it'll always be wonderful.His most recent record,"Come into my swing",recorded a few month ago and just issued,is another marvel.Here is a rare moment of music,something you don't have to miss.

This is quite simply an astonishing album. The guitarwork by Angelo Debarre and Serge Camps is beyond comparison. They play a variety of jazz manouche classics, including Paul "Tchan Tchou" Vidal's "La Gitane," and traditional Gypsy songs, czardas, and horas. Wow!

i own over 60 cd's of gypsy jazz. this one is in my top 10 favorite. of all the cd's this one is presented the most formally, as a classical stringed instrument concert would be presented, with perfection. if your into classical music AND gypsy jazz, this would be a great match for you.

This is as good as guitar playing gets, period! Delicate, ethereal, beautiful and emotionally charged, this music sounds fresh no matter how many times you listen to it.