Average Rating: (5 out of 5 stars)
List All Reviews ...a must own DVD
...simply put, if you like gypsy swing, this is the greatest collection of live performers I've ever seen and I can't imagine anyone who loves this music would feel very differently. Every manouche guitarist who wasn't in rehab or heading towards it (sorry Jimmy) is on stage in this 2002 concert. Almost 4 hours of plank spanking, with the Buddha-like presence of Bireli serene and in control through out, this is an incredible value. Joe sez "Buy-it!"
Submitted by Joe Mack (SF, CA, USA) 
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
The Main Man
Gypsy Jazz lovers will think they've died and gone to Heaven. This is the real thing up close and as in your face as it could be without visit to Samois for the Django Festival. There's so much of it (nearly four hours) it's almost too much and towards the end, I started to flag, feeling I'd overeaten massively. These are some of the best Manouche players in the world and they're just having one hell of a lot of fun. At one point, when they all join together and play Minor Swing, there are 10 guitar players, 2 violinists, an accordian player and a bloke on double bass on the stage together. But what really makes the whole thing such a unique experience is Bireli Lagrene himself. Somewhat overweight, he sits amongst his band of merry musicians like a giant, exhuberant toad grinning from ear to ear, while his fingers work their awesome magic taking guitar music where it's never been before at sometimes lightning speed but always with a sense of poise, taste and precision second to no-ne else in the whole gathering. These are all fine players within the genre but most of them are trapped inside it and sometimes the music is a little predictable often relying on cliches and licks borrowed too obviously from Django himself. Not so, Mr Lagrene or Sylvain Luc, a classical guitar style of Jazz player straight out of the Charlie Byrd mould. Lagrene came back to Gypsy Jazz because he chose to. He's been places musically in the last 20 years where the others in this most eminent of company could only dream about and he still plays their music far better than any of them. His great friend, the late Babik Reinhardt once said that Birelli came nearest to his father's style of guitar playing a than anyone else, a comment which at the time, I didn't fully understand. Now I do. The difference is what's called soul. And Birelli has it by the bucket load.
Submitted by NealBradley1 (London, England)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
List All Reviews | Have you seen this movie? |  |
8683 
Email a Friend
