Django Reinhardt Birdland NY Festival Nov 6 thru 11th 2007
An absolutely amazing show. Kudos and thanks to Pat Philips and Ettore Stratta for producing this show. The performers were; Samson & Dorado Schmitt, Kruno Spisic & David Reinhardt guitars, Florin Niculescu violin, Ludovic Beier accordion & accordina, Brian Torf Bass & musical director.
The format is reminiscent of the legendary JATP concerts; a core group of players with a guest artist each night. The first set would begin with Samson, Brian and Kruno playing a few numbers as a trio, they would be joined by Ludovic, [exit Kruno], Dorado and Florin would join the group etc. This 'mixing and matching' helps to keep things flowing and it also affords exposure to up-and-coming players like David and Kruno. The special guests were all excellent; Houston Person and Joel Frahm played Sax. Both Houston and Joel played with a great deal of sensitivity, never overpowering the rest of the band, yet swinging hard. David Reinhardt demonstrated modernist sensiblilities & beautiful tone on a Gibson 175. At one point he was playing "The Days of Wine & Roses," with Samson, Ludovic, Houston and Brian, Ludovic kicked into a Hammond B3 MIDI patch on his accordion, sounding like the Wes Montgomery organ trio meets Gypsy Jazz, truly memorable. Harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy "hit one out of the park," to quote Brian Torff. He extracted sounds out of diatonic harmonica that seemed impossble! Samson played astoundingly well. He has flawless Gypsy Jazz guitar technique and has absorbed modern mainstream influences, including, to my ears, players like George Benson. I think that he'll be a very important player on the scene in the future. Dorado was terrific, composer, guitarist, violinist, singer and seemed to me to be an earth force filtered thru a personality[!] One night he and Florin were playing, singing and writing down parts near the bar between sets. They premiered the piece in the next set, a hauntingly beautiful tango, composed by Dorado, dedicated to Ettore Stratta, perfomed on 2 violins duet by Dorado and Florin, it was absolutely stunning. Florin and Ludovic are always astounding. Brian played great solos, and held it all togther with a great sense of humor. Samson loved the Modele Jazz that we presented him with, and it was a blast to hear him performing with it in the show. Dorado was so impressed with the guitar that he bought a M. Jazz for himself from Tony Walker, one of the owners of Manouche Guitars.Tony was in NY with wife Tricia for the festival. Special thanks to Rodrigo Shopis for last-minute guitar work, installing a pickup, etc. Please check out his beautiful guitars. Thanks also to Jerry Lacay allowing us the use his first rate photographs. Jerry can be reached at; Jerryilacay@aol.com