Gypsy Jazz: Bringin’ It Back… Hopefully
Last week’s street faire brought us joyous smells of hemp, Indian food, and (of course) our favorite Eugene-only Off The Waffle.
So, after grabbing myself a chill winter-cap (it’s really colorful) and buying some gifts for friends and family, I had to make a quick stop to grab Off’s infamous “The Bully” … my dream waffle filled with strawberries and chocolate chips. As I was standing there, this faint little hit of honkey-tonk type country created this waffle-house atmosphere. I had to know what that music was and where I could buy it.
I asked the kindly young woman, who handed me my delicious waffle, what they were currently listening to. A man in the back checked his iPod and said “It’s called Gypsy Jazz.”
Okay, before I get any further, I’ll kind of let you in on where i first heard this so-called “gypsy jazz.” The year was 1999 and love was in the air. I only presume. I was only 7 years old. Anyways, a cute little movie called Toy Story 2 had just come out and, being a diehard fan from the beginning, I had to see it. About midway through the movie, a sweet little song called “Woody’s Roundup” (written by a band called Riders In The Sky) is played on the TV. Now, it’s not exactly country because it lacks the twangy-ness, and it’s not folk, because… well, it just isn’t. So this was my first encounter of what I would later find out was called “gypsy jazz.”
So I did a little research last night and realized that “gypsy jazz” was a form of jazz more commonly played in France than anywhere else. So if you watch French movies with café’s in them, you will most likely hear a little bit of this music. It consists of a sort of swing-dancing sound but without the brass band (like most big bands in the 30s and 40s). The main elements are the guitar and the violin, and it’s called “gypsy jazz” because of this… assuming that all gypsies played guitar and violin….
The most famous person I could find in this genre was a man named Django Reinhardt (1910-1953), who played a mean guitar. Most people who know about “gypsy jazz” refer newbies to this man and his work, and after a night of listening to it I can see why they consider him a genius. His riffs are incredible, and his music is just so upbeat that even the hip-hop music fans in the Earl lounge wanted to dance… well maybe not… but I hope they wanted to.
Here’s a little clip from YouTube that I found of one of Django’s songs… this is probably my favorite one, but there are so many to choose!
If you want more of this music, iTunes has a huge “iTunes Essentials: Gypsy Jazz” set you can download.
My goal now is to bring it back. Who doesn’t want to swing dance down the street while walking to their next class? Let’s make this Eugene’s new thing!
