An homage to 100 years Django by Fapy Lafertin-Koen de Cauter-Joep Peeters and le Jazz Manouche.

Django's musical heritage revived at a concert in The Volckaert in Dongen (The Netherlands).
An homage to 100 years Django by Fapy Lafertin-Koen de Cauter-Joep Peeters and le Jazz Manouche.
Hans Koert
A Spectaculair concert, een hommage aan 100 jaar Django Reinhardt ( A spectacular concert, an homage to 100 years Django Reinhardt) the concert was billed beforehand - a provocative remark. On Friday evening, the 19th of November, 2010, an homage to the music of Django Reinhardt, who passed away 100 years, was scheduled at the Theater Dongepark / De Volkaert in Dongen, a place near Breda in the southern part of the Netherlands.

Django Reinhardt was born in a caravan in a shantytown in Liberchies, near Charleroi in Belgium, January 1910 and grew up as the son of a gypsy entertainer, called "Negros" or "La Belle Laurence" and a guitarist and basket maker. He raised wit


Le Jazz Manouche anno 2010, as Joep had labelled this one night band, started its first set with Avalon and I Surrender Dear. The former, originally part of Puccini's opera La Tosca, and made popular by Al Jolson, was recorded by Django in 1935. On stage just a quintet with Fapy Lafertin on solo guitar, Koen De Cauter on the soprano saxophone and a rhythm section featuring Joep Peeters ( piano), Richard Frijters (double bass) and Peter Den Boer (drums).

Koen and Fapy are good friends and colleagues (almost "twins", as they were born almost on the same day (!)) since they were school kids in the 1960s, when Fapy, aged ten years old, played with Bamboula Ferret and his Ensemble in Emiel De Cauter's café De Klokkeput in Sint Martens Latem near Ghent( Belgium). Een fantastische tijd ( = A great time), Koen told me during the break.

That guitar playing peer fascinated Koen and he took up the guitar. Both Fapy and Koen became friends and joined the band of Piotto Limberger where they learned to play in the old Romani-musical tradition. In the mid 1970s both Koen as Fapy decided to modernize their music and they deci


During the first set Joep enlarged its ensemble with more instruments, like in Speevey or Speevy, a 1937 Reinhardt-Grappelli composition, with saxophonist Robert Veen and cornet player Jon Birdsong and the tune Margie, as an homage to Andre Eykan, saxophonist who recorded it with Django in 1940. The tunes Honeysuckle Rose and Crazy Rhythm where selected to honour the 1937 Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter recordings and Joep invited for that his reed section on stage, featuring Robert Veen, Ronald Jansen Heijtmajer and tenorist Antoine Trommelen.

The brass section,


The first set was finished with the great tune entitled Place de Brouckere, in a great arrangement by Robert Veen - for me one of the most fascinating tunes of this concert in a great Robert Veen big band arrangement with atonal blue notes and surprising accents. Why don't we hear those arrangements more often played live?

During the break Koen and I shared our fascination for Oscar Aleman, the great Argentine guitar player often compared to Django. Een fantastische gitarist, maar anders dan Django. Hij maakte schitterende muziek, zoals het nummer Scartunas (= A great guitar player, unlike Django, but he made wonderful music, like Scartunas ). Django was heel serieus als hij speelde. (= Django was very seriously when he played) Ik hou van de Argentijnse taal en de ritmen - de tango, de milonga - je weet wel, maar ook die uit Brazlië: de samba, de Baion. Maar niet de bossa nova - veel te gemaakt ( = I love the Argentine language and its rhythms: the tango, the milonga, you name it, but I also like to play music from Brazil: Samba and the Baion, but not the bossa nova - too artificial). En hoe zit dat met Choro? I asked (= And what about Choro?). O ja geweldig, maar ik zou er niet mijn hele ziel en zaligheid in willen leggen ( = Yes, great music, but I wouldn't sell my soul for it). Koen has a program nowadays in which he performs Argentine tango's and rhythms with musicians like Juan Masondo ( guitar) and Alfredo Marcucci (bandoneon). I love to hear that .....!

After the break some more great tunes were played, like the Artie Shaw's composition Moonray, although never recorded by Django; a great swinging tune. The vocal group, the Peeters Sisters joined in some tunes like Exactly Like You. A strange addition to the concert, in my opinion, not because their musical skills ( They really can sing!), but because the fact that Django never recorded with such vocal groups. Fact was, that these young women lowered the average age of the band substantial and it seemed that some soloist grew wings.


Nuages, although a fully instrumental composition by Django, became enlarged with a recently discovered vocal version entitled the Bluest Kind Of Blues, sung by Chris Peeters. The concert was finished with the well known Tiger Rag, not the Django version Django's Tiger as Joep announced, but, never mind, the audience liked it. The encore was for the well known Django standard Manoir de mes Rêves, which Joep translated as 't Kietelkot, a local name of a whorehouse.

An unique concert with seldom heard compositions, played by Django in larger ensembles - indeed Toon Oomen and Joep Peeters were right to label this concert beforehanded as a Spectaculair concert - a concert with the best followers of Django's musical heritage, Fapy Lafertin and Koen De Cauter, accompanied by a dozen professional musicians who know how to play it.

Some concerts become legendary, recorded or unrecorded. I think about the Joe Henderson concert I recently reviewed, but also performances like the legendary concert of the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra in the Turfschip in Breda in 1978 a few miles away from Dongen. I'm sure - Within a few years people wil ask you about this: Did you join that concert? Wow! This Homage to 100 Years Django was such an historical event.

If you love hear the music played at the concert, the best album to listen to seems to be the new album, entitled Django! A Tribute - 100 Years Django Reinhardt by Koen De Cauter, Fapy Lafetin & Group ( W.E.R.F. 083 )
Hans Koert
Hans Koert
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Django Reinhardt was born 100 years ago in a caravan at the shantytown in Walloon (Belgium). Le Jazz Manouche Anno 2010 directed by Joep Peeters honoured the music of Django at a concert in Dongen, in the south of the Netherlands, with a large band featuring some great musicians like Fapy Lafertin, Koen De Cauter and Robert Veen, an homage to the music of Django - a historical and legendary event. Keep Swinging joined the concert and reviewed it. If you don't to miss it follow the blog at Twitter or ask a free newsletter.

Retrospect
Oscar Aleman Choro Music Flexible Records Hit of the Week-Durium Friends of the Keep Swinging blog Keep Swinging Contributions
keepswinging@live.nl

Django Reinhardt was born 100 years ago in a caravan at the shantytown in Walloon (Belgium). Le Jazz Manouche Anno 2010 directed by Joep Peeters honoured the music of Django at a concert in Dongen, in the south of the Netherlands, with a large band featuring some great musicians like Fapy Lafertin, Koen De Cauter and Robert Veen, an homage to the music of Django - a historical and legendary event. Keep Swinging joined the concert and reviewed it. If you don't to miss it follow the blog at Twitter or ask a free newsletter.
Retrospect
Oscar Aleman Choro Music Flexible Records Hit of the Week-Durium Friends of the Keep Swinging blog Keep Swinging Contributions
Labels: django reinhardt, Fapy Lafertin, Joep Peeters, koen de cauter, robert veen
1 Comments:
Thanks a lot for a great review of a remarkable concert event paying homage to Django's legacy. Not the same old story, but with focus on the not-so-often heard music from Django's book. I should have been there and joined the event, I know, but as you know - "It's a long way to Tiparary" .... I'll stay put with the great cd covering most of the arrangements played at the concert, that's it.
Jo
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