Violin & Mandolin
Jason Anick started attending Django in June when he was in college and this event was in diapers —some 14 years ago. Back then, DiJ was but a weekend event and he was at Hartt Conservatory. In the intervening years Jason has gone from from student to teacher, from an aspiring artist to an established one, from young to… well, he’s still young.
Jason has worked as a sideman for many fine artists—Stevie Wonder, Tommy Emmanuel, John Sebastian, The Jim Kweskin Jug Band and John Jorgenson to name just a few. But mostly his own groups keep him busy. These days those groups include the Jason Anick Acoustic Trio, the Anick/Yeager Quartet and the Rhythm Future Quartet. Most Gypsy jazz fans have come to know of him in recent years through his work with the last of these, an A-list ensemble he founded with Finnish guitarist Olli Soikkeli. Here they are playing the Gypsy jazz national anthem in performance at Scullers. (Bandmate Max O’Rourke also joins us on staff this year.)
An experienced educator, Jason has taught jazz violin and mandolin for years at Django in June, other camps, workshops, and clinics all over. He currently teaches in person at Berklee College of Music. in writing through Fiddler Magazine, and on video through Christian Howes’ Creative Strings Academy.
Jason will split his time between teaching mandolin and violin at Django Camp this year: first two days on violin, then (swapping places with Aaron Weinstein) taking a mando chair beside Matt Flinner. Here he is playing a composition he wrote for one of our first mandolin instructors at Django in June, the late, great John McGann.