Charm City Django Goes Online

6th Annual Charm City Django Jazz Festival

FRI FEB 26-SAT FEB 27 7:30 pm Friday | 11 am Saturday | 7:30 pm Saturday night

If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to see world-class musicians, support a Baltimore events venue and stay COVID safe, you should look into the 6th Annual Charm City Django Jazz Festival. 2020 and the start of 2021 has been a hard year for musicians and music fans. Normally a festival could be packed by the best artists in range for all the biggest fans in range –– event coordinator Michael Joseph Harris, hard-pressed with the question of how to keep his festival going this year, devised an idea that found opportunity amidst the strong limitations of keeping people safe from the COVID pandemic. Harris decided, as no one was to be leaving their homes, it would have to be held through video –– thus presenting the opportunity to get many of the best artists globally to participate in the festival. When online; more people can play and more people can listen. 

Friday night will kick off with a quartet of top north American and European musicians who have been interpreting the music of eastern Europe for over a decade. The quartet will feature Jimmy Grant (Guitar), Tommy Davy (Guitar), Balder ten Cate (Cimbalom) and Felix Kochendörfer (Double Bass). Their program will pay tribute to the late guitarist Matelo Ferret and his stylings on Russian and Hungarian music.

Their performance will be followed by violin virtuoso Luanne Homzy accompanied by the Miklos Lakatos Gypsy Orchestra presenting a highly technical "blokk" of Hungarian nota, andalgo and csardas. This will feature Luanne Homzy (violin 1), Lakatos Miklós (Violin 2) Rontó Róbert (Viola),  Vadász Károly (Cimbalom), and Losó Lajos (Bass). 

Following them will be the amazing London Django Collective. This group consists of the best of the best that London has to offer in the Django tradition with influences of world music and modern jazz. The collective appears in different configurations blessing us with material from their five-part album series showcasing compositions of the collective. The collective consists of clarinetist, Giacomo Smith, known in the scene as the best clarinetist in the game (I may also include that he is secretly quite a talented pianist) — guitarists Harry Diplock, Jeremie Coullon, Robin Katz and Kouroush Kanani, three brilliant guitarists each with a range of influences and tone evident in their playing — bassists Pete Thomas and Simon Read — and violinist, podcast host and TikToker, Matt Holburn. 

Anyone who is deep into the Jazz Manouche world knows this next group, father and son Mogeli and Justin Geisler’s trio. The Geislers, broadcasting from the Netherlands, comes from a long tradition of Sinti musicians following in the footsteps of Django and beyond. The father and son duo have been live-streaming a bit recently and really know how to put on a hell of a show from their living room. 

Probably my most anticipated act of the night is the reunion of “Les Violons de Bruxelles.” This group turns the Django style on its head. A Jazz Manouche group usually consists of three guitarists, a bass and violin. This group shows one guitar, Renaud Dardenne —  bassist, Sam Gerstmans — violist/violinist, Alexandre Tripodi — violinist Renaud Crols — and bandleader, singer and violinist Tcha Limberger. They play Choro, Tango, Romane Gillia, Swing, and much more. Honestly, I have no idea what to expect, other than simply amazing, from this group of inventive musicians. 

Finishing Friday night will be the Adrien Moignard Trio. Adrien Moignard is an “I should quit guitar” kind of musician. Moingard played a central role in Cyrille Aimee’s former band and has a permanent spot with the “Selmer 607” ensemble –– look these both up, you won’t be disappointed. His trio pays homage to Django while covering a wide variety of material. His last album featured a beautiful rendition of Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover." Alongside him are two Parisian musicians that you’ll find on all the best manouche records. Mathieu Chatelain will be playing rhythm guitar and Jérémie Arranger will play bass. 

Saturday will feature zoom workshops and events all day from amazing musicians, educators and academics. 

11 am | Jason Anick Jazz Violin

NOON | Guitarists Russell Welch & Molly Reeves New Orleans swing guitar

1 pm | Evan Price from Hot Club of San Francisco Violin in the style of Stephane Grappelli

2 pm | Mandolinist Isaac Eicher Swing techniques 

3 pm | Guitarists Jimmy Grant & Tommy Davy Traditional Hungarian music on guitar

4 pm | Guitarist Christine Tassan An introduction to Gypsy Jazz 

5:30 pm | Django Reinhardt and Gypsy Jazz: History and Practice with Siv Lie

(NOTE Registration for this virtual lecture is FREE thanks to the generous support of the Maryland Traditions program of the Maryland State Arts Council)

Closing off Saturday will be an interesting project from the Hot Club of Baltimore that will want to be seen by any Django or Manouche fan. It will be streamed live from the stage of the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, M.D. 

Festival coordinator, Michael Joseph Harris, writes, "Our night will be a homage to Volume 1 & 2 of Django and His American Friends LPs which included thirty-two selections recorded between March 2, 1935, and April 5, 1938, featuring Reinhardt and several of Europe's best jazz players in collaboration with tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, reedman Frank "Big Boy" Goudie, multi-instrumentalist Benny Carter, trumpeter Bill Coleman, trombonist Dicky Wells, cornetist Rex Stewart, clarinetist Barney Bigard, violinist Eddie South and pianist Garnet Clark.” 

In this ensemble, we’ll see a mix of some of Baltimore’s finest Manouche and Trad-Jazz players including, Greg Boyer - trombone, Alex Norris - trumpet, Grant Langford - sax, Michael Joseph Harris - guitar, Mike Kuhl - drums, Todd Simon - piano, Blake Meister - bass, Kris Belgica - rhythm guitar and Max Jacobs - violin. 

This same group will pay homage to a repertoire common amongst Manouche themselves. Django, his contemporaries, and many who came after him were fans of what has since been called the “Jazz Waltz" (like "Bal-Musette'' but swinging). Traditional waltzes will be featured from the works of Romani composers such as Django Reinhard, Tchan Tchou Vidal, Fapy Lafertin and the Ferré Brothers.  More traditional Valse Musette pieces will also be heard from French composers, Gus Viseur, Tony Murena and Jo Privat.” 

Information about tickets and pricing can be found here.