Customer Reviews

Tribute to Stephane Grappelli

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As a person that had followed Stephane Grappelli for years, I was very curious on how an old associate of Stephane would handle a tribute (Grappelli died in the late 1990's). This is a tribute that Stephane would be proud of.

Didier has a deeply soulful approach to his music. It is as if his very voice is singing outloud in a clear, witty and emotional depth with the style of Grappelli laced throughout. You can tell he loved Stephane very much. Completely accessible to the listener. Still one of my favorite CD's, it lasts through many, many hours of hearing it over again. I hope he does another.

this CD has a refined, understated beauty to it's beauty-full music- especially Lockwood's soul-fully soft approach to jazz violin... Didier's sublime "ghost" harmonics in his playing hold as much emotion as most gypsy jazz player's "arpeggio-itis" & more complicated "riffing"...less is more in this wonder-full session w/ Lagrene 'n' Pederson being extremely sensitive to the nuances of Didier's subtle virtuosity with their deft dexterity & adroit accompanyment... Florin Niculescu is still my favorite contemporary gypsy jazz violinist [check out his playing on "Night & Day" with Sylvain Luc on Bireli Lagrene's Gipsy Project DVD = PHEW !!!]BUT Lockwood's approach to the violin & this recording is unique & dynamic... never have i heard a jazz violinist achieve so much emotion with so little sound- especially on the ballads of this fine recording... a wonder-fully relaxing CD with a grrreat feel to it's Music. Grappelli would have been honored by this tribute !!!

A friend introduced me to this as one of his favourite albums of all time. I was surprised having never heard of it but I listened to it and had to get a copy. It's difficult to track down in the street stores. Some lovely variations on well known tunes. This review probably isn't very inspiring but the album is.

This gem by Lockwood is a must-have for both Gypsy Jazz aficionados and fans of the late Stephane Grappelli. You can't go wrong with a lineup of top cats like violinist Lockwood, Gypsy Jazz guitarist Lagrene and double bass virtuoso Orsted Pedersen, and this is quickly apparent in the very first tune, "Valseuses." Just listening to the arrangement for Valseuses is a perfect study of how this string trio (not to be confused with the traditional violin, viola, cello definition) can make a tune shine without help from any other instruments (for my money, the intro to the tune is stunning in its simplicity). And, yeah, as is surely expected, these cats can swing!