by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Gypsy music is coming to town this weekend.
John Sandlin, organizer of Django Fest and guitarist for Le Chat Lunatique, said the music will span jazz, gypsy jazz, and gypsy, brought by the band Carute Roma, which translates to "gypsy wagon."
Sandlin's band will perform along with Howard Alden, Mango fan Django, Hot Club of Phoenix, Hot Club of Santa Fe, Sweet and Lowdown, Felix y Los Gatos and Pearl Handled Pistol.
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Django Reinhardt was a French gypsy and guitar player inspired by Louis Armstrong's music.
Sandlin said Reinhardt is credited with creating gypsy jazz and has influenced players all over
the world.
"He automatically fell in love with this American jazz, and he was completely enamored with it his whole life," Sandlin said. "He was always striving to be more jazz - but he never left his
gypsy roots."
Sandlin said he was inspired by Django while studying classical guitar at UNM.
"I really like playing jazz, and I love playing swing," he said. "It's like my personal style, like my characteristic style lends itself well to playing gypsy jazz."
Student Elizabeth Dwyer said she attended the festival last year when it was held in Santa Fe. She said it was a successful mix of bands interpreting Django's style.
"I thought it was fantastic," she said. "They kind of elaborate on it and make it more modern and give it different genres and new sounds and stuff like that. It was just a really nice variety of music, even though it's all kind of representational of gypsy swing."
She said audience members get a taste of the different types of music that can fit into the genre.
"Le Chat Lunatique is my favorite of the favorites," she said. "And Hot Club of Phoenix was really great. They were really right on with the traditions of gypsy swing and really great at recreating that sound and feeling."
Django Fest
Performances held at St. Claire Winery and Bistro, Puccini's Golden West Saloon, the Downtown Grower's Market, Hotel Blue and Old Town Plaza.
$20 for a weekend pass
$30 at the door
$10 for one day
