Django Reinhardt is in the pantheon of jazz greats, and none are more aware of that than the French – they have a festival named after him and keep the flame of so-called gypsy jazz burning through artists such as Stochelo Rosenberg. A guitarist and composer of Dutch birth, Rosenberg belongs to the Sinti gypsies of Central Europe and remains one of the harbingers of Django’s great legacy. He founded the Rosenberg academy, an online school teaching exclusively gypsy jazz and fronts a supreme trio who have often played with the one-and-only Stéphane Grappelli.
Here, his Django Memories show at the mythical New Morning venue in Paris, he is joined by other acolytes and superb musicians Hono Winterstein, Mathias Levy, William Brunard and Rocky Gresset. They dazzle on a repertoire that celebrates Django’s music, as well as illuminating the deep links that connect it to swing jazz through interpretations of Duke Ellington, Cole Porter songs, blues pieces and, of course, Rosenberg’s own compositions.