Django Celebration #02

Description

The Django Celebration collection honors the legacy of Django Reinhardt through a series of intergenerational encounters. This meeting between Tchavolo Schmitt and Fanou Torracinta is no coincidence. As a young guitarist, Fanou shared a pivotal summer tour with Tchavolo that shaped the course of his career. Thirteen years later, Fanou has built a solid stage experience enriched by albums under his own name. Tchavolo, for his part, remains a reference in the world of gypsy jazz with his characteristic style, combining rhythmic power and harmonic boldness. Both men share a strong taste for waltzes and beautiful melodies, reflecting their backgrounds (Manouche culture for one, Corsican tradition for the other). The two artists also present themselves as true explorers of the purely acoustic resources of the instrument (attacks, timbres, resonances...). This dimension is particularly evident in the solo guitar introductions or cadences of one or the other (Danse Norvégienne, Love Me Tender…), illustrating this quest for sound, of which Django Reinhardt was himself a pioneer, while cultivating the art of the prelude and the coda. The program includes classics by Django (Daphné, Stompin' at Decca...), reinterpretations of standards (Confessin', I can't give you anything but love, Stardust…), along with two ballads, one from the classical repertoire (Grieg's Danse Norvégienne) and the other from the great American songbook (Elvis Presley's Love Me Tender). A gem! Tchavolo and Fanou, like their master, favor an art of exchange and complicity, fully illustrated by their version of Daphné or I can't give you anything but love.