Greetings, and thanks for your interest in Django in June’s 2022 concerts. We are so pleased to be back after having to cancel two years in a row!
Every year, Django in June brings serious students of the Gypsy jazz tradition to Northampton for a week of djamming and study with world class musicians. On Friday and Saturday night those same artists offer us all a grand finale at Northampton’s historic Academy of Music theater. We’ve done our best to describe this year’s program below, but it is safe to say that whether we mention them here or not, many of the other artists we’ll have in town for “Django Camp” will be making appearences at these concerts. Django in June is delightfully unpredictable that way. Join us!
Both shows start at 7:30
Tickets are $30 advance / $35 at the door
Debi Botos first got our attention as a participant at our “Django Camp”, the week-long music camp to which our concerts are the grand finale. She quickly moved from student to teacher, and now makes the leap to performer. Here’s your invitation and opportunity to see why.
Debi lives in Toronto now, and has most of her life. But her family’s roots are in Rakamaz, Hungary, a village located where the rivers Tisza and Bodrog converge. Her mother would sing nóta and csardas around the house; her father, brothers and uncle are professional jazz musicians. Add to those influences a passion for the music of Django Reinhardt and you have the makings of this, the opening set of Django in June 2022: classic Django tunes, Debi’s exquisite originals and deep-rooted Hungarian Gypsy Csardas and Nota. She’ll be accompanied by Sami Arefin on guitar, Zach Serleth on bass, and special guests who promise to offer something different for us and something wonderful for you.
Rhythm Future Quartet hails, mostly, from our own backyard, with three of its members based right here in New England. For years they have set the standard in this region and well beyond for a what a serious jazz manouche ensemble could do. All its members are old friends of this event, and all have played our concert stage with other artists. But in lo these many years they have never had the opportunity to share the brilliant work they do together with you, our local audience, as Rhythm Future Quartet. Tonight, their opportunity becomes yours. Here’s how they describe themselves, fairly and well:
The acoustic jazz ensemble, Rhythm Future Quartet, has a straightforward agenda: to keep the spirit of Gypsy jazz alive and expanding in today’s musical universe. The virtuosic foursome, named for a Django Reinhardt tune, offers up a newly minted sound, influenced by the classic Hot Club of France, yet wholly contemporary. Led by violinist Jason Anick and guitarist Olli Soikkeli, the quartet performs dynamic and lyrical arrangements of both Gypsy jazz standards and original compositions that draw upon diverse international rhythms and musical idioms. With Max O’Rourke on second guitar and Greg Loughman on bass, Rhythm Future is dedicated to expanding the boundaries of a vital musical genre.
If Matt Munisteri is not already familiar to you we encourage you to visit this page of his website, where some brave writer tackles the job of summing up an unusualy rich and varied career. Here we’re going to focus on the custom-fit program Matt would like to share with our Django in June audience. He calls it “Django de mes Reves”. (Django of my Dreams.) Expect him to bring on stage the sidemen of his dreams from our Django Camp roster of artists. Here’s Matt at the mic to tell you what he has in mind:
Django Reinhardt’s prodigious recorded output cemented the repertoire that today comprises the canon of “Gypsy jazz”. This is truly astounding given that he was only only 43 when he died! I’ve occasionally lapsed into a daydream…What other thousand tunes might Django have heard and played, but never recorded? What other musicians might he have encountered and jammed with at the height of Paris’s influence on the world stage? How much larger might the Gypsy jazz canon be if he’d lived to record another 30 years?
In this set I will shamelessly indulge this fantasy and only play tunes that Django never recorded…but that he could have, and that I can’t help but wish he had! Each composition is only included because 1) it’s true to the period and place, 2) it’s under-performed, 3) I completely adore it, and 4) I believe it would have proved a fascinating vehicle for Django’s genius.
Last time Duved Dunayevsky was here, in 2017, he was still a relative newcomer to the Paris Gypsy jazz scene, one he was taking by storm. By now he has made the transition from “emerging” to “established” artist whose voice is clearly his own, and yet strikingly reminiscent of Django Reinhardt’s in the 1930’s. In 2015 he received a visa of “Talent and Competence” from the French government and moved to Paris where he formed Duved‘s Hot Five, and more recently, Duved’s Transatlantic Five.
That latter ensemble is designed to accommodate a shifting roster of artists from both sides of the aforementioned Atlantic, but always includes violinist Daniel Garlitsky. Born in Moscow, Daniel graduated from—and now teaches violin at—the Paris Conservatory. He has performed world-wide for over two decades. An artist of exceedingly broad range, Garlitsky shifts from swinging Gypsy jazz to early baroque compositions performed on traditional instruments with grace and passion. Timeless music is just that to an artist: always new, always engaging. Join Duved Dunayevsky and Daniel Garlitsky as they close out Django in June 2022 in timeless style.