Gypsy Project

Bireli Lagrene | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 20, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dreyfus
• ASIN: B00005RFJB
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,881 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Gypsy guitarists like Biréli Lagrène grow up learning Django Reinhardt's solos the way Americans cut their teeth on "Louie, Louie" or "Stairway to Heaven." Perhaps that's why Gypsy Project, Lagrène's first recording of acoustic, Hot Club-style jazz since his debut as a teenage guitar prodigy in the early 1980s, feels like a homecoming. Lagrène's band may replicate the three guitars, bass, and violin lineup of the original Hot Club quintet, but this is no mere exercise in nostalgia. Lagrène and violinist Florin Niculescu imbue standards like "Embraceable You" and "Lime House Blues" with a blend of jazzy sophistication and bittersweet romanticism that is undeniably Gypsy in character. It's as if they are wrapping the hard lessons learned in centuries of difficult wandering within bonbons like Charles Trenet's "La Mer." The music on Gypsy Project has a certain charm, but when Lagrène accents the melody with an unexpected string bend or rhythmic flourish, he reveals surprisingly complex emotions lying just beneath the surface. --Michael Simmons

Product Description

Much to the delight of his long-time fans, Bireli Lagrene returned to the Django-influenced sound in 2000, first as a sideman on Didier Lockwood’s "Tribute to Stephané Grappelli" and later at the four day Django Festival at the Birdland jazz club in New York City. "Gypsy Project" is Bireli’s first full-length album of Gypsy music in almost 20 years. With a healthy dose of Django music, it also features a scintillating collection of other Gypsy-Swing favorites. With an all-string quintet reminiscent of Django’s groups of the late 1940’s, and a special guest appearance by Richard Galliano, this record is sure to amaze!

Bireli Lagrene - Guitar Diego Imbert - Bass Holzmano Lagrene - Guitar Florin Niculescu - Violin Hono Wintersetin - Guitar Special Guest - Richard Galliano (Accordion on "Daphne")

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hot Stuff in the Style of the Hot Club!, August 23, 2002

By 

VG (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gypsy Project (Audio CD)

Gypsy Project is the soundtrack for the story of the return of the prodigal son. Alsatian Gypsy guitarist Biréli Lagrène first wowed the world in the 1980s as a child prodigy playing the music of Django Reinhardt, as well as his own Gypsy jazz compositions. Upon hearing Lagrène?s stylish melody lines and innate sense of swing, the legend goes that Django?s brother, Joseph Reinhardt, broke down in tears and declared him the true successor to Django.
Lagrène released his first album, Routes to Django, in 1980 when he was but fourteen years old. He followed this debut with a never-ending cycle of tours and a handful of other LPs, including 15, Down in Town, and Swing ?81. By the mid-1980s, he was burnt out on emulating his cultural and musical hero, and began looking for new challenges.
Lagrène set aside his Favino-built Selmer copy and picked up an electric guitar. Alongside bass wonder Jaco Pastorius, he crafted an electric jazz-rock fusion sound that made Lagrène a star to a whole new galaxy of fans.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, Lagrène wearied of fusion as well. He turned his hands to a more mainstream style of jazz and released several records, including Acoustic Moments, My Favorite Django, Duet with Sylvain Luc, and Blue Eyes, a Gypsy tribute to Frank Sinatra. In addition, he teamed up with the Jimi Hendrix of the accordion, Richard Galliano, on albums such as New York Tango.
Now, Lagrène has suddenly returned to his roots. At the urging of his old fans and after seeing the growing commercial success of Gypsy jazz prodigies such as Jimmy Rosenberg, Lagrène is back with an album of glorious Django-style jazz.
Lagrène is joined here by a stellar cast. Accordionist Galliano and Romanian jazz violin virtuoso Florin Niculescu add their touch to several tracks. The rock-solid rhythm work of guitarists Hono Winterstein and Holzmano Lagrene as well as bassist Diego Imbert also shines.
But it?s Lagrène who is in the spotlight, and his guitarwork is creative, fun, energetic, and emotionally charged. Part of Lagrène?s genius in playing Gypsy jazz was that he didn?t seek speed at the expense of melody and swing. This holds true on this new album as well, with many songs played at Django?s original tempo?which is a good bit more relaxed than many pyrotechnicians play them today.
Gypsy Project is also Lagrène?s first Gypsy jazz studio recording, as all of his early albums were live releases. It?s good to have the opportunity to hear Lagrène loud and clear.
Part of the beauty of his sound lies in his choice of guitar. He first sought to borrow the Selmer #504 of Django, but when that proved impossible, he selected one of the new ?legacy? guitars built by French luthier Maurice Dupont. Using aged, forty-year-old woods and the original Selmer tooling, Lagrène?s top-of-the-line Dupont has a sound that is full, warm, and majestic.
With Gypsy Project, the prodigal son has returned. Welcome back!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute superb fuuuuuuun !!!!!!!!!!!!!, July 5, 2004

By 

Jazzcat "stef" (Genoa, Italy Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gypsy Project (Audio CD)

This album is so well played, so respectful of the Django tradition and in the meanwhile innovative, so romantic, so meaningful, so intense, so technical, so satisfying, so clever, so funnyyyyyyyyyyy, so well recorded, it's such a value in the end it is ridicolous. It is absolutly breathtaking and spectacular!! I did buy this one, the other Bireli's album "live with friends" and the dvd. Bireli is stellar but Niculescu the violin player, man he's a monster musician (really). Consider that I really DON'T like violin but he plays magnificiently and I can't do nothing but change my mind about violin. This Django project it's one of the most satisfying jazz event of the recent years. When I think how much boring has become Jazz lately I find this album of music which has 60 years (!!!!) incredibly refreshing. Compare the Joy you feel in this album with a lot of sad, minimalist, sterile albums from some "modern" Jazz record companies...(I don't want to point out any of them but you know how many boring recent Jazz albums are out there on the shelves). This one blow them away!!!
WOWWWWWWWWWWWWW UN-BE-LIE-VA-BLE, FUN FUN FUN!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of gypsy jazz, January 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Gypsy Project (Audio CD)

There have been many who've tried to play in the style of the great Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, but Bireli Lagrene and Florin Niculescu are among the very few who can actually pull it off and make it sound natural. Far from being mere imitators, these are great musicians in their own right, and they have the self-confidence to just be themselves and simply play great music --- rather than shooting for any new speed records, like many overawed Django imitators tend to do. Lagrene actually sounds more like Django on guitar than any other modern-day musician I've heard, and Niculescu is no slouch on violin either. Whether or not you're familar with the music of Reinhardt and Grappelli, this CD stands on its own. If you like "gypsy jazz," or just old-time "string swing" music, you're sure to love Lagrene and Niculescu. If you haven't heard Reinhardt and Grappelli, though, that's the place to start --- and you're in for a treat! Check out the wonderful (and bargain-priced) 5-CD box set called "Django Reinhardt: The Classic Early Recordings in Chronological Order," or at the very least the single-CD "Best of Django Reinhardt."