It's getting better all the time!
Gypsy Jazz School
In earlier posts I talked about the number of online Gypsy Jazz schools invading the internet nowadays. Stochelo's: Rosenberg Academy , Lollo and Fapy's Gypsy Jazz Academy etc. I enrolled in all of them to take a look at what they had to offer and to make my quest to become a Gypsy Jazz guitar player a little easier, and they did, although the perfect learning formula was not yet achieved.
Stochelo, Fapy and Lollo are great guitar players (the best) but they have one little flaw; they are not really internet teachers. They can show you what they do in close up's and slow-motion, write out tabs, respond to your video's in a great and very helpful way, but still the question remains; Were do I start?
The answer to this question came into my mailbox the other day when Yakoov Hoter asked me to take a look at his Gypsy Jazz School training program.
Finnaly! A comprehensive, step by step, level by level, well arranged easy to understand and clear way to learn all the basics about Gypsy Jazz! No waiting for UPS trucks to deliver your DVD's. No enrollment costs. No monthly paying for your participation in a program. Just easy to purchase and download lessons with a simple and effective name: Gypsy Jazz School created by Yakoov Hoter from the Israeli Gypsy Jazz ensemble; Swing de Gitanes.
I downloaded some of the lessons (this might take some time due to the large filesizes of the lessons) but after one hour I was ready to go. The approximatly one hour lessons supported by a PDF file with notations and tabs break down the whole Gypsy Jazz genre in an understandable way. Lesson one will teach you everything about La Pompe and in following lessons you will learn about chords, progressions, intervals, arpeggios, tremolos, vibratos and teach you how to improvise.
Finnaly by the end of the eleventh lesson you will be able to play beautifull compositions like Kali Sara and J'attendrai.
Gypsy Jazz School Preview Lesson 1
Gypsy Jazz School Preview Lesson 11
You can download every lesson seperately so you can skip what you allready know (Although I think it is important to follow all the lessons to really understand the program, but it's no must.)
In short: At last a well designed Gypsy Jazz learning program thaught by a professional Gypsy Jazz guitarist in English. The lessons are very similar to Samy Daussat's training program's but those lessons are only available in French. And although Denis Chang's video's are now also available for download they are I think less easy to understand for the abosolute beginner than the lessons on Gypsy Jazz School.
Click to read entire weblog!
zaterdag 19 november 2011
donderdag 22 september 2011
Short documentary about Gypsy Jazz I made!
Haven't been practicing my guitar playing lately. This was mostly due to the fact that I was working really hard on this little project:
ORDER THE NEW CD "LE WEEKEND" BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK! This mini-documentary shows the passion that my friend and guitar teacher Thomas Baggerman has for his guitar playing as well as the love and determination he shows to get his Trio's debut album "Le Weekend" recorded. It also shows their last trip to the yearly Festival Django Reinhardt in Samois sur Seine and contains a selection of their newly recorded work. The full 12 minute documentary will be out somewhere in october 2011 so keep your eyes on this blog if you're interested. You can also follow me on Twitter: Alex_Koning for realtime news updates about the project. (Or this VIMEO Channel dedicated to it) Be sure to share a link to this post to all your Gypsy Jazz friends!!! Thank you!
Donations: The short-documentary "Le Weekend" is an independent production financed by myself in order to promote the trio as well as the fabulous Sinti / Manouche Gypsy Jazz music. If you wich to support the promotion of this underexposed musical genre and help me break even on the production costs a donation will be greatly appreciated! (to do so click the PayPal Donate button underneath the video please)
Thank you!
Alex
Click to read entire weblog!
ORDER THE NEW CD "LE WEEKEND" BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK! This mini-documentary shows the passion that my friend and guitar teacher Thomas Baggerman has for his guitar playing as well as the love and determination he shows to get his Trio's debut album "Le Weekend" recorded. It also shows their last trip to the yearly Festival Django Reinhardt in Samois sur Seine and contains a selection of their newly recorded work. The full 12 minute documentary will be out somewhere in october 2011 so keep your eyes on this blog if you're interested. You can also follow me on Twitter: Alex_Koning for realtime news updates about the project. (Or this VIMEO Channel dedicated to it) Be sure to share a link to this post to all your Gypsy Jazz friends!!! Thank you!
Donations: The short-documentary "Le Weekend" is an independent production financed by myself in order to promote the trio as well as the fabulous Sinti / Manouche Gypsy Jazz music. If you wich to support the promotion of this underexposed musical genre and help me break even on the production costs a donation will be greatly appreciated! (to do so click the PayPal Donate button underneath the video please)
Thank you!
Alex
Click to read entire weblog!
vrijdag 22 juli 2011
New Album: Thomas Baggerman Trio "Le Weekend"
ORDER THE NEW CD "LE WEEKEND" BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK! Proudly presenting a short preview on the debut album by Dutch upcoming Gypsy Jazz talent Thomas Baggerman and his trio (my guitar teacher)! The album "Le Weekend" will be released September 2011 and is a subtle mix of Swing, Bossa, Traditional and Ballads. The catchy title track, written by Thomas himself, already created a little buzz on the Samoreau camping site this year at the Festival Django Reinhardt in Samois.
Thomas is a dedicated player with an articulate and meticulous melodic phrasing. Heavily inspired by Stochelo Rosenberg, Adrien Moignard and more recently Les Doigts de L'Homme and of course Bireli Lagrene, his goal to make the guitar weep is one he achieves more and more often.
Hope you will enjoy! I know I did!!
Cheers!
The Gypsy jazz Diaries
more information on the Thomas Baggerman Trio:
www.thomasbaggermantrio.com
And be sure to like their Facebook page to keep you posted on the upcoming release!
Thomas Baggerman Trio on Facebook
PS: Very proud to say also; I made the video ;-)
Click to read entire weblog!
donderdag 30 juni 2011
Second time Samois was great!!!
Check out pictures of our trip to Samois this year, were we visited the annual Festival Django Reinhardt!
Follow this link to see the entire photo album!!
Click to read entire weblog!
Follow this link to see the entire photo album!!
Click to read entire weblog!
woensdag 16 februari 2011
Nuages
Gypsy Jazz needs more musicians and less soldiers. (Adrien Moignard)
A little update on my going along my Gypsy Jazz quest; I enrolled in two wonderfull online Gypsy Jazz courses: http://www.gypsyjazzacademy.com/ and http://www.rosenbergacademy.com/ Both of them help me make loads of progress due to the clear interfaces and wonderfull interaction with teachers like: Fapy Lafertin, Lollo Meier and of course Stochelo Rosenberg. Theire lessons (and those of my personal real life teacher Thomas Baggerman and jam buddy Frédéric Zolnet) combined with feedback from fellow students finaly made me realize a great but yet simple point: Start with an relatively easy song and play it untill it's absolutely right.
So I got rid of all the finger breaking solos and started on a low-tempo version of Nuages I found in Samy Daussat's book: Astuces de la guitare Manouche vol. 2 and I started practicing on vibrato, timing, pronounciation of the notes, slides, bends and hammer on's (but not after I got the rythm section right). Then I watched and listened to recordings by Stochelo and Fapy and combined some of theire ideas into my own little intro.....This video is what I came up with so far, it still needs work but I have to get going on my rythm practice so I can try to play along a little at Samois this year. Hope you like it!
Click to read entire weblog!
A little update on my going along my Gypsy Jazz quest; I enrolled in two wonderfull online Gypsy Jazz courses: http://www.gypsyjazzacademy.com/ and http://www.rosenbergacademy.com/ Both of them help me make loads of progress due to the clear interfaces and wonderfull interaction with teachers like: Fapy Lafertin, Lollo Meier and of course Stochelo Rosenberg. Theire lessons (and those of my personal real life teacher Thomas Baggerman and jam buddy Frédéric Zolnet) combined with feedback from fellow students finaly made me realize a great but yet simple point: Start with an relatively easy song and play it untill it's absolutely right.
So I got rid of all the finger breaking solos and started on a low-tempo version of Nuages I found in Samy Daussat's book: Astuces de la guitare Manouche vol. 2 and I started practicing on vibrato, timing, pronounciation of the notes, slides, bends and hammer on's (but not after I got the rythm section right). Then I watched and listened to recordings by Stochelo and Fapy and combined some of theire ideas into my own little intro.....This video is what I came up with so far, it still needs work but I have to get going on my rythm practice so I can try to play along a little at Samois this year. Hope you like it!
Click to read entire weblog!
vrijdag 31 december 2010
My grandmother wishes you a Swinging 2011!!!
A marvelous story my grandmother often tells me about Django Reinhardt:
As a young girl during world war II she used to live in Toulouse in the South of France. One night she and her sister in law broke the curfew the occupying Germans had ordered. Pretending to be officer's wives they snook in to an auditorium where Django was performing for the German military forces.
Here eyes still sparkle every time she talks about the wonderful music Django played that night!
Click to read entire weblog!
As a young girl during world war II she used to live in Toulouse in the South of France. One night she and her sister in law broke the curfew the occupying Germans had ordered. Pretending to be officer's wives they snook in to an auditorium where Django was performing for the German military forces.
Here eyes still sparkle every time she talks about the wonderful music Django played that night!
Click to read entire weblog!
zondag 26 december 2010
Documentary
Het Thomas Baggerman Trio - "Minor Swing" by D.Reinhardt from Alexander Koning on Vimeo.
So I thought I'd post a little sneak preview from my new project in wich I combine my passion about Gypsy Jazz with my love for documentary filmmaking. In this clip my guitar teacher Thomas Baggerman and his Trio (who are some of the main characters in the film) play theire version of Django's "Minor Swing".
www.thomasbaggermantrio.com
Click to read entire weblog!
dinsdag 30 november 2010
Jimmy's back!
Jimmy Rosenberg performing again at BIMHUIS Amsterdam!
A collection of the videos on Youtube made from the Jimmy's guest appearance at the "Three of kind" concerts in Amsterdam wich I was lucky enough to attend to.
Click to read entire weblog!
A collection of the videos on Youtube made from the Jimmy's guest appearance at the "Three of kind" concerts in Amsterdam wich I was lucky enough to attend to.
Click to read entire weblog!
maandag 29 november 2010
A night in town!
50 people and; Bireli, Stochelo, Paulus
I couldn't believe what I saw last night when I accidentaly came by an add for this "Three of kind concert" in my hometown Utrecht. Only 50 people in the audience and the line-up: Stochelo Rosenberg, Bireli Lagrene, Paulus Schafer!!! Don't people understand great music?
Click to read entire weblog!
I couldn't believe what I saw last night when I accidentaly came by an add for this "Three of kind concert" in my hometown Utrecht. Only 50 people in the audience and the line-up: Stochelo Rosenberg, Bireli Lagrene, Paulus Schafer!!! Don't people understand great music?
Click to read entire weblog!
zondag 12 september 2010
My new "La Fée" D-Hole Gypsy jazz guitar!
A real beauty!
Proudly presenting my new "La Fée" guitar handcrafted by the excellent young french luthiers from "Guitares La Fée". Carefully chosen after the great help
from the guys at "Guitare village" in Domont near Paris. Playing a little intro to "Minor Blues" by legendary Django Reinhardt. Now the only thing left to do is learn how to play it ;-)
Click to read entire weblog!
Proudly presenting my new "La Fée" guitar handcrafted by the excellent young french luthiers from "Guitares La Fée". Carefully chosen after the great help
from the guys at "Guitare village" in Domont near Paris. Playing a little intro to "Minor Blues" by legendary Django Reinhardt. Now the only thing left to do is learn how to play it ;-)
Click to read entire weblog!
zaterdag 14 augustus 2010
The Gypsy Jazz video collection; Concerts
Keep an eye on this post as it will be updated with interresting Gypsy Jazz concert video's from time to time!
Django Reinhardt connexion
Geüpload door ouakthecat. - Ontdek andere muziek video's.
Gipsy Jazz guitar masters, a beautiful example of Stochelo Rosenberg and Romane playing togheter.
The legendary Gipsy Project organized by Bireli Lagrene.
Click to read entire weblog!
Django Reinhardt connexion
Geüpload door ouakthecat. - Ontdek andere muziek video's.
Gipsy Jazz guitar masters, a beautiful example of Stochelo Rosenberg and Romane playing togheter.
The legendary Gipsy Project organized by Bireli Lagrene.
Click to read entire weblog!
maandag 3 mei 2010
Work in progress : MINOR SWING
Yeah, I know, but I just couldn't help myself....
Aldough I now really understand the importance of good technique, and taking it slow at first, I could not help myself recording my efforts on "Minor Swing" that I was working on for some time now. It is a way to celebrate my first six monts of guitar playing I think. Anyway, I won't play Minor Swing for awhile, It's now back to Gypsy Picking technique and rhythm practice.
Click to read entire weblog!
Aldough I now really understand the importance of good technique, and taking it slow at first, I could not help myself recording my efforts on "Minor Swing" that I was working on for some time now. It is a way to celebrate my first six monts of guitar playing I think. Anyway, I won't play Minor Swing for awhile, It's now back to Gypsy Picking technique and rhythm practice.
Click to read entire weblog!
vrijdag 30 april 2010
How to learn to play Gypsy Jazz.
Learning to learn...
So I have been practicing for awhile now, and some problems arise. It's not hard to find Gypsy Jazz lesson resources on the internet, and so I found myself with a great collection of studybooks, DVD's, online Howto's and Guitar Pro files stacked up in front of me and I started to lose track. Where to start?
A selection of my Gypsy Jazz studybooks
According to my teacher Thomas the answer was; Technique!The key to good Gypsy Jazz playing absolutely lies in the technique that differs completely from other guitar styles. First there's the right wrist angle needed to free the top of the guitar and allow it to produce as much sound as possible (the nature of this lies in the fact that Django Reinhardt used to be a banjo player, when he switched to the guitar as a jazz instrument he needed the produce as much volume as possible to be heard in the ensemble since electric guitars were not yet invented.) And then there's the swept picking style that gives all the character to Gypsy Jazz, the pick is used to hammer on the strings a bit like its done inside a piano, this is also for volume purposes. A good control of your right hand or "La Plume" (the feather) as it's called is absolutely unbearable in the genre and a much discussed skill in the Gypsy Jazz scene.
The other important thing to realize are the typical chord shapes en the vertical descent during scales and arpeggios on the guitar neck. A lot of these unique techniques come straight from the fact that Django, due to a fire that burned his caravan, only had two functioning fingers on his left hand. When you look well at Gypsy Jazz fingerings and remenber this fact, it will help you understand how the music works.
Django Reinhardt and his two finger technique
Back to the study material;
Knowing this now, and talking to my teacher about it he recommended two useful resources: Michael Horrowitz's Gypsy Picking and Denis Chang's the art of accompaniment. I myself would add Samy Daussat's Swing Manouche Super Debutant (only available in French) because it has some very easy to play but very characteristic tunes in it.
A tune from Samy Daussat's book.
This is for me the base I use to learn to play Gypsy Jazz. Wrong technique (so I've been told) can take years to be corrected again, and I really would like to avoid this.
So it was back to square one for me, the few months I had been practicing were not all lost but I had to leave my "Minor Swing" solo practice to play open string exercises. This might seem a little boring at first, but after a few weeks sweep picking was almost natural to me. Even when trying to play some easy Nirvana tunes I had practiced when first playing the guitar I found myself doing it in the Gypsy Jazz sweep picking style automaticly.
Others might say that in the real Gypsy Jazz tradition learning to play good rhythm is the first thing you do, and of course good rhythm playing techniques are very important and you should use a great deal of your practice time playing along rhythm sessions to your favourite Django recordings. But I don't see why you shouldn't learn soloing and rhythm at the same time. Important is to get good at both.
Conclusion: I find that good Gypsy Jazz playing starts with good technique, a little like the "wax on, wax of" story in the old karate kid movies; it might seem boring and useless at first, but will payoff loads when you finally get to realy play.
Click to read entire weblog!
See the trailer of the new documentary about Gypsy Jazz I'm making!
So I have been practicing for awhile now, and some problems arise. It's not hard to find Gypsy Jazz lesson resources on the internet, and so I found myself with a great collection of studybooks, DVD's, online Howto's and Guitar Pro files stacked up in front of me and I started to lose track. Where to start?
A selection of my Gypsy Jazz studybooks
According to my teacher Thomas the answer was; Technique!The key to good Gypsy Jazz playing absolutely lies in the technique that differs completely from other guitar styles. First there's the right wrist angle needed to free the top of the guitar and allow it to produce as much sound as possible (the nature of this lies in the fact that Django Reinhardt used to be a banjo player, when he switched to the guitar as a jazz instrument he needed the produce as much volume as possible to be heard in the ensemble since electric guitars were not yet invented.) And then there's the swept picking style that gives all the character to Gypsy Jazz, the pick is used to hammer on the strings a bit like its done inside a piano, this is also for volume purposes. A good control of your right hand or "La Plume" (the feather) as it's called is absolutely unbearable in the genre and a much discussed skill in the Gypsy Jazz scene.
The other important thing to realize are the typical chord shapes en the vertical descent during scales and arpeggios on the guitar neck. A lot of these unique techniques come straight from the fact that Django, due to a fire that burned his caravan, only had two functioning fingers on his left hand. When you look well at Gypsy Jazz fingerings and remenber this fact, it will help you understand how the music works.
Django Reinhardt and his two finger technique
Back to the study material;
Knowing this now, and talking to my teacher about it he recommended two useful resources: Michael Horrowitz's Gypsy Picking and Denis Chang's the art of accompaniment. I myself would add Samy Daussat's Swing Manouche Super Debutant (only available in French) because it has some very easy to play but very characteristic tunes in it.
A tune from Samy Daussat's book.
This is for me the base I use to learn to play Gypsy Jazz. Wrong technique (so I've been told) can take years to be corrected again, and I really would like to avoid this.
So it was back to square one for me, the few months I had been practicing were not all lost but I had to leave my "Minor Swing" solo practice to play open string exercises. This might seem a little boring at first, but after a few weeks sweep picking was almost natural to me. Even when trying to play some easy Nirvana tunes I had practiced when first playing the guitar I found myself doing it in the Gypsy Jazz sweep picking style automaticly.
Others might say that in the real Gypsy Jazz tradition learning to play good rhythm is the first thing you do, and of course good rhythm playing techniques are very important and you should use a great deal of your practice time playing along rhythm sessions to your favourite Django recordings. But I don't see why you shouldn't learn soloing and rhythm at the same time. Important is to get good at both.
Conclusion: I find that good Gypsy Jazz playing starts with good technique, a little like the "wax on, wax of" story in the old karate kid movies; it might seem boring and useless at first, but will payoff loads when you finally get to realy play.
Click to read entire weblog!
See the trailer of the new documentary about Gypsy Jazz I'm making!
donderdag 15 april 2010
How Youtube changed everything....
Denis told me about Thomas.
I somtimes asked myself if I was doing the right thing writing this blog. I mean, there are some visitors that seem interrested, and it's fun for me to have as a souvenir. But could it really be helpful to the way I learn to play Gypsy Jazz. And as a matter of fact it actualy did! Here's what happened:
I posted this video of me improvising on licks from the Denis Chang learning DVD. I got one reply wich came from Denis Chang himself. He recommended seeing a good friend of his who could help me out with the basic technique. And this is how I met Thomas Baggerman. A brilliant young Gadjo guitar player who was able to tell and show me everything there is to know about the right technique (I will talk about the importance of this in another post)
Thomas Baggerman at a workshop with Denis Chang.
Now this event changed everything for me since Thomas already had years of experience in the Gypsy Jazz scene he introduced me to numerous Gypsy Jazz festivals and to the Sinti musicians here in Holland, and, even more important he showed me the right way to experience Samois! (more on this in later posts)
"The Thomas Baggerman Trio in action"
Visit The Thomas Baggerman Trio on:www.thomasbaggermantrio.com
Click to read entire weblog!
I somtimes asked myself if I was doing the right thing writing this blog. I mean, there are some visitors that seem interrested, and it's fun for me to have as a souvenir. But could it really be helpful to the way I learn to play Gypsy Jazz. And as a matter of fact it actualy did! Here's what happened:
I posted this video of me improvising on licks from the Denis Chang learning DVD. I got one reply wich came from Denis Chang himself. He recommended seeing a good friend of his who could help me out with the basic technique. And this is how I met Thomas Baggerman. A brilliant young Gadjo guitar player who was able to tell and show me everything there is to know about the right technique (I will talk about the importance of this in another post)
Thomas Baggerman at a workshop with Denis Chang.
Now this event changed everything for me since Thomas already had years of experience in the Gypsy Jazz scene he introduced me to numerous Gypsy Jazz festivals and to the Sinti musicians here in Holland, and, even more important he showed me the right way to experience Samois! (more on this in later posts)
"The Thomas Baggerman Trio in action"
Visit The Thomas Baggerman Trio on:www.thomasbaggermantrio.com
Click to read entire weblog!
donderdag 8 april 2010
Latcho Niglo
Six months now since I first started playing guitar. Here I practice on a little traditional tune called "Latcho Niglo" from Samy Daussat's book: "Swing Manouche pour super debutant". It will be the last chorus like piece for a while since I now really understand the importance of good basic technique and rhythm playing, so I will now focus on that for the time being! (I promiss)
And a brilliant version by my friend Frédéric:
Click to read entire weblog!
And a brilliant version by my friend Frédéric:
Click to read entire weblog!
maandag 15 februari 2010
Arpeggios and chord progressions....
Working with Denis Chang DVD's;
"Practicing connecting arpeggios from the Denis Chang DVD."
Christmas came early for me last year as I recieved the Denis Chang DVD's I had ordered on Hyperhipmedia.com much faster than I had expected.
Bumping into Denis Chang and his video lessons while looking for Gypsy Jazz resources on the internet is not that hard. And since he plays togheter with people like Stochelo Rosenberg, Wawau Adler and Tim Kliphuis it must be good , right? So I ordered the whole deal, 5 DVD's on improvisation and accompaniment. Enough to keep me occupied for at least the next two to three years (and probably even longer).
Excerp from the Denis Chang DVD's
The DVD's turned out to be even better than I eventualy thought. Denis has a clear way to explain all the aspects of Gypsy Jazz. The well arranged menu's make it easy to navigate and learn everything you need to know about Gypsy Jazz one step at a time.
After watching the intro and practicing "La pompe" for a while I started with the arpeggios last week. I allready knew some from my Romane book : "L'esprit Manouche" but I had no clue how to combine them. So I was glad Denis showed me. After a few hours of practice I found myself improvising a little tune combining Denis' licks with Romane's and a few of my own I stumbled on whyle playing. And then it occured to me; "I was making music!" Thank you Denis!
An arpeggio I came up with by myself, altough I don't know if it's right, I think it sounds ok.
Click to read entire weblog!
"Practicing connecting arpeggios from the Denis Chang DVD."
Christmas came early for me last year as I recieved the Denis Chang DVD's I had ordered on Hyperhipmedia.com much faster than I had expected.
Bumping into Denis Chang and his video lessons while looking for Gypsy Jazz resources on the internet is not that hard. And since he plays togheter with people like Stochelo Rosenberg, Wawau Adler and Tim Kliphuis it must be good , right? So I ordered the whole deal, 5 DVD's on improvisation and accompaniment. Enough to keep me occupied for at least the next two to three years (and probably even longer).
Excerp from the Denis Chang DVD's
The DVD's turned out to be even better than I eventualy thought. Denis has a clear way to explain all the aspects of Gypsy Jazz. The well arranged menu's make it easy to navigate and learn everything you need to know about Gypsy Jazz one step at a time.
After watching the intro and practicing "La pompe" for a while I started with the arpeggios last week. I allready knew some from my Romane book : "L'esprit Manouche" but I had no clue how to combine them. So I was glad Denis showed me. After a few hours of practice I found myself improvising a little tune combining Denis' licks with Romane's and a few of my own I stumbled on whyle playing. And then it occured to me; "I was making music!" Thank you Denis!
An arpeggio I came up with by myself, altough I don't know if it's right, I think it sounds ok.
Click to read entire weblog!
Rakrel Romanes?
To talk the talk;
"Knikker Lagréne singing in Romanes."
My passion for Gypsy music is not limited to the sounds alone but also to the culture of Roma and Sinti. The ideology of freedom and creative beauty is one loads of us long for. Although sadly the lives of the Rom are often submitted to racism and persecution they still manage to cultivate theire heritage of blessed musicality and their own language spoken from the depths of the Eastern European countrys to the South of France. Romanes is a language wich finds here roots in India just like the Rom do (or Dom as they called themselves at that time). Later the language evolved as the Rom started to travel over Armenia and Eastern Europe. It became a mix of German,Italian, Romanian and Hungarian. A beautiful language very suitable for beautiful songs....
Find translations from English to Romanes in this elaborate Romanes Lexicon
Click to read entire weblog!
"Knikker Lagréne singing in Romanes."
My passion for Gypsy music is not limited to the sounds alone but also to the culture of Roma and Sinti. The ideology of freedom and creative beauty is one loads of us long for. Although sadly the lives of the Rom are often submitted to racism and persecution they still manage to cultivate theire heritage of blessed musicality and their own language spoken from the depths of the Eastern European countrys to the South of France. Romanes is a language wich finds here roots in India just like the Rom do (or Dom as they called themselves at that time). Later the language evolved as the Rom started to travel over Armenia and Eastern Europe. It became a mix of German,Italian, Romanian and Hungarian. A beautiful language very suitable for beautiful songs....
Find translations from English to Romanes in this elaborate Romanes Lexicon
Click to read entire weblog!
Talking all that Gypsy Jazz....
Freakin' Phrygian;
Since Gypsy Jazz has alot to do with, eh.....Jazz I thought it might be clever to learn something about this style of music. I had already heard about arpeggios and chord progressions and I slowly start to be able to put both of them together now. Still I was curious so I ran a Google search on "Jazz Guitar".
This was one of the first sentences that came out under beginner lessons:
"This G Mixolydian scale is the V of the C major scale. The G Bebop Scale can be played on most chords that are diatonic to the key of C major, but not on the C major chord itself because the F is an avoid note for the C major chord".
source: www.jazzguitar.be
WTF?!!?
Bireli Lagréne, Gypsy Jazz God
So now what? It all seemed very confusing to me... Talking about this with a musical friend of mine (Frédéric Zolnet) he told me he recognized the problem. Pentatonic, Diatonic, Dominant, Sub Dominant and freakin' Phrygian. But then he told me not to worry. He had read an interview with Bireli Lagréne whose answer to the question: "Wich arpeggio do you play over a Deminished Chord?" Simply was "Wich what?! do I play over what?"
Click to read entire weblog!
Since Gypsy Jazz has alot to do with, eh.....Jazz I thought it might be clever to learn something about this style of music. I had already heard about arpeggios and chord progressions and I slowly start to be able to put both of them together now. Still I was curious so I ran a Google search on "Jazz Guitar".
This was one of the first sentences that came out under beginner lessons:
"This G Mixolydian scale is the V of the C major scale. The G Bebop Scale can be played on most chords that are diatonic to the key of C major, but not on the C major chord itself because the F is an avoid note for the C major chord".
source: www.jazzguitar.be
WTF?!!?
Bireli Lagréne, Gypsy Jazz God
So now what? It all seemed very confusing to me... Talking about this with a musical friend of mine (Frédéric Zolnet) he told me he recognized the problem. Pentatonic, Diatonic, Dominant, Sub Dominant and freakin' Phrygian. But then he told me not to worry. He had read an interview with Bireli Lagréne whose answer to the question: "Wich arpeggio do you play over a Deminished Chord?" Simply was "Wich what?! do I play over what?"
Click to read entire weblog!
dinsdag 9 februari 2010
Our second Djam session....
"Les Yeux Noirs" from left to right: Nico Hegt, Frédéric Zolnet and myself hanging in there with the chords.
Click to read entire weblog!
Click to read entire weblog!
maandag 8 februari 2010
Blow the wistle on em...
Paulus Schäfer Gipsy Band feat. Wattie Rosenberg and Prisor Jazz Band;
During the cultural Sunday's organized in our city every first Sunday of the month, club Mammoni presented two of the finest Dutch Gypsy Jazz ensembles. First up were Paulus Schäfer and Wattie Rosenberg in a packed club. Togheter with jam buddy Fréderic and his friend Nico we enjoyed the balanced conversation between violin and guitar. During the end of the set an older man came on stage, put four fingers in his mouth and started wistelling to "Les Yeux Noirs" absolutely amazing.
After that it was up to the Prisor Jazz Band; Years of experience, stereotype looks and an interresting mix between two solo guitars, one Selmer type and one electric Jazz guitar (played by Eddy Grünholtz)created an absolute magical atmosphere filled with pumping rythmes and beautiful warm melodies. Again I was honored to be able to witness such beauty.
Feigeli Prisor Photo: Gaby Penders
Click to read entire weblog!
During the cultural Sunday's organized in our city every first Sunday of the month, club Mammoni presented two of the finest Dutch Gypsy Jazz ensembles. First up were Paulus Schäfer and Wattie Rosenberg in a packed club. Togheter with jam buddy Fréderic and his friend Nico we enjoyed the balanced conversation between violin and guitar. During the end of the set an older man came on stage, put four fingers in his mouth and started wistelling to "Les Yeux Noirs" absolutely amazing.
After that it was up to the Prisor Jazz Band; Years of experience, stereotype looks and an interresting mix between two solo guitars, one Selmer type and one electric Jazz guitar (played by Eddy Grünholtz)created an absolute magical atmosphere filled with pumping rythmes and beautiful warm melodies. Again I was honored to be able to witness such beauty.
Feigeli Prisor Photo: Gaby Penders
Click to read entire weblog!
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