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Tag: Django Reinhardt

The Hot Club of Troy Opens DjangoFest Northwest 2015 on Wednesday, Sept. 23

BY RUSSELL CLEPPER
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
September 16, 2015

Whidbey Island’s gypsy jazz ensemble, the Hot Club of Troy, has a few subtexts to their mission statement. First subtext; “No amps? No problem!” Second: Gypzy jazz all year long. Third: Coffeehouses make great music venues.

As for their mission statement itself, just three words, one for each subtext; Django, Django, Django.

Hot Club of Troy (Troy Chapman, Kristi O’Donnell and Keith Bowers (l to r)) play in front of the DJangoFest mural at WICA (photo by David Welton)

Working exclusively with Django Reinhardt’s body of work, the trio strives to present his music with the purest expression possible, eschewing any amplification except a single microphone placed in front of them as they perform. Although band leader and guitarist Troy Chapman, guitarist Keith Bowers and bassist Kristi O’Donnell each have long resumés in music-making, the Hot Club of Troy is just one year old. However, this nearly nascent act will open this year’s prestigious DjangoFest Northwest at WICA in Langley at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 23. Lance Cercel and the Roma String Ensemble will also perform that night. The headliner for this year’s festival is Bireli Lagrene, the “undisputed top guitarist in the gypsy jazz genre” according to the festival’s website, and according to Chapman and O’Donnell as well.

Chapman himself is no stranger to the DjangoFest stage. One of North America’s premier interpreters of the genre, the Whidbey Island resident has been a member of the influential Seattle gypsy jazz group Pearl Django since 2010. Along with the Robin Nolan trio, Pearl Django starred in the first DjangoFest Northwest in 2001, and they have appeared every year since that highly successful beginning. On Saturday, Sept. 26, Chapman will perform with Pearl Django once again, sharing the bill that night with the Hot Club of Detroit.

Hot Club of Troy in an impromptu performance in downtown Langley (photo by David Welton)

The Hot Club of Troy’s debut at DjangoFest caps a year of advanced musical exploration of Reinhardt’s music by the group. “One thing we do is play not only strictly gypsy jazz, but we only do Django’s compositions. He wrote 84 songs and some of them are rarely heard,” said Chapman. “We want to do stuff that people haven’t heard, to dig deeper into his repertoire and learn about his influences. We don’t want to present great guitar playing so much as his songs as great compositions.”

Of course, Chapman and Bowers are highly regarded guitar players and their shows certainly feature expert picking. O’Donnell explained the group has labored to meld Bower’s chordal style of playing with Chapman’s straight ahead approach as they have explored ways of performing Reinhardt’s music. “We work at weaving the two styles together,” she said. “We’ve worked really hard to make that happen,” Chapman added. “You have to learn first how Django did it, then you can put your own style in it.”

Another reason they formed a gypsy jazz trio was to create opportunities to play that style all year long, not just during the time of DjangoFest. Their home base venue has been Useless Bay Coffee Company (UBCC), which is where the three musicians first jammed together on Tuesday nights for awhile. That collaboration resulted in the formation of one of Whidbey Island’s finest bands, Trio Nouveau, whose repertoire is mined from the swinging jazz of the Great American Songbook.

“When we’re playing there, we joke that we’re fueled by UBCC coffee,” said O’Donnell. “Lots of eighth notes!”

Even the local canines appreciate the outdoor concerts and smooth sounds (photo by David Welton)

UBCC owner and head roaster Des Rock has been a stedfast supporter of the group, as well as of local live music in general. “He told us that ‘the quality of the atmosphere goes up every time you play!” said O’Donnell. We’re really lucky to have Des. He rocks!”

The popular Langley hangout is the only coffee house on the island currently offering a steady program of live music. Historically, coffee houses have often provided a place for musicians to perform in public and sometimes become important incubators of musical talent and generators of vibrant musical “scenes,” such as one that is happening right now in Paris. In fact, a coffee house in Montreal was instrumental in the musical path of a young Troy Chapman where he spent countless hours at a place called the Yellow Door, one of the longest-lived contemporary live music venues in North America, and one well known among the folk and singer songwriter crowd on the East Coast.

His mother worked there in the late 1960s and 70s. “I spent every summer, for years, spending my days there,” he said. “until I began living full time with my mom in ’73,” he said. “I sat in the Yellow Door after school, day after day, and watched great guitar player after great guitar player and decided that was for me!”

The label for UBCC’s new “Django Blend” was created as a celebration of the Hot Club of Troy’s beginnings at the lively local gathering place. It was created by author, artist and gypsy jazz guitarist Irene Ypenburg.

The Yellow Door was the site of his first public performance. “I played ‘Goodbye Porkpie Hat’ with my new Electro Harmonix Small Stone Phaser plugged into the PA. Probably in ’78!”

If that truly was a hootenanny, Chapman must have caught some of the banjo players off guard with that one. It wouldn’t be the first time he has surprised people.

For example, The Hot Club of Troy’s association with UBCC has inspired the creation of a special offering for coffee lovers and music fans. “We are going to have a brand of coffee,” said O’Donnell, “the Hot Club of Troy ‘Django Blend,’ roasted by Des, in time for DjangoFest. UBCC will be selling the coffee that week and it will be online, too.”

That development was not part of their original mission statement, but the organic aspect of the coffee that Rock brews at his establishment does compliment their desire to nix amplification of guitars at the group’s performances. Chapman said, “There’s nothing like the beauty of the un-amplified instrument. There’s a great simplicity when playing with no amps.”

Hot Club of Troy’s bandleader, Troy Chapman, got his inspiration to play guitar from countless hours spent at the famous Montreal coffeehouse, the Yellow Door (photo by David Welton)

In some music circles that approach would be described as “organic,” meaning natural and unaltered by electronic amplification. Even though the guitar itself is a mechanical sound wave amplifier, the sound it produces is the result of the type and quality of the wood, the kind of strings, the skill of the luthier, and the expertise and soul of the musician. Any kind of electric amplification alters that “natural” sound. Even though the altered sound may be pleasing to the ear, it’s not the same as the un-amplified sound of a guitar.

Chapman has played plenty of loud music throughout his long career in music, but to get at the heart of Django Reinhardt’s sound he and his bandmates are taking this organic path to get there. Their show at DjangoFest will provide an excellent opportunity for local gypsy jazz addicts and music lovers to hear the Hot Club of Troy fulfilling their mission.

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Django’s Hand
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Langley resident Drew Christie has created an animated short film for DjangoFest Northwest. Christie’s work has appeared or been featured in numerous publications including the Atlantic and the New York Times. Hot Club of Troy’s bandleader Troy Chapman performs the soundtrack for the short which is titled “Django’s Hand” and tells the story of how Django Reinhardt turned a terrible injury sustained in a fire into the creation of a new style of guitar playing.

To see the 68 second-long film, visit this link on the DjangoFest Northwest website: http://www.djangofestnw.com.

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Russell Clepper is a singer-songwriter who plies his trade locally and around the country. He is also a substitute teacher for the Oak Harbor School District.

Please check the following links for more information about the Hot Club of Troy and/or DjangoFest Northwest 2015:

http://www.kristio.com/the-hot-club-of-troy.html
http://djangofest.com/home/djangofest-northwest-2015/

And soon-to-be up online:
www.TheHotClubofTroy.com

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September 17, 2015
‘Hot Club’ in a Cool Town—Home of DjangoFest NW

BY RUSSELL CLEPPER
Whidbey Life Magazine Contributor
September 10, 2014

San Francisco has one. Detroit has one. France had the first one. Even Hulaville has one. Whidbey Island has joined the club. The Hot Club, that is—the Hot Club of Troy to be precise.

The Hot Club of France was a jazz appreciation society formed by a small band of Parisian students in the early 1930s. They promoted a style of music known as “hot jazz,” descended from the Dixieland jazz of New Orleans. This progressed into the Chicago style of jazz of which Louis Armstrong was the best known proponent.

Bandleader Troy Chapman concentrates on laying down a Django groove with the Hot Club of Troy. Photo by David Welton.

The club eventually hired Django Reinhardt and Stephan Grappelli, along with three other musicians, to become the Quintette du Hot Club de France. The name was shortened over the years to simply Hot Club of France and the gypsy jazz style of music they elaborated became one of the most influential musical movements of the 20th Century.

Our island version of the Hot Club is not named after a place, however. There’s no town of Troy between Clinton and Oak Harbor. But there is a person named Troy on the island and he happens to be an exceptionally fine guitarist who has mastered several styles of jazz, but whose first love is the gypsy jazz style of the great Django Reinhardt.

“I mean the pun is obvious,” said Troy Chapman, band leader of the group. “I just thought it would be a great opportunity that I couldn’t pass up, that I’m one of the few people who has a name that’s actually a known town; I should take advantage of that.”

Bassist Kristi O’Donnell enjoys a brief moment between songs. Photo by David Welton.

In fact, there may be as many as 26 towns in the United States named Troy, besides the one they are all named after—that ancient city-state with the wooden horse problem. None of them, however, can lay claim to being a host city for world-class gypsy jazz as can little ol’ Langley on Whidbey Island.

Langley has been on the radar of Django disciples for more than a decade. The Whidbey Island Center for the Arts will host the 14th year of DjangoFest this coming Sept. 17 through 21. World class artists such as Stochelo Rosenberg, Gonzalo Bergara and Florin Niculescu are slated to perform and lead workshops. On Friday, Sept. 19, the Seattle gypsy jazz quintet Pearl Django will perform as they have for each of DjangoFest’s preceding 13 years. Chapman joined the group in 2010 and is recognized as one of North America’s leading gypsy jazz guitarists.

Keith Bowers takes a turn on lead guitar. Photo by David Welton.

Enter Trio Nouveau, the high-flying, hard swinging, quick picking jazz band founded by Whidbey residents Keith Bowers and Kristi O’Donnell. Chapman is a regular in the group, which focuses more on the Great American Songbook collection of popular songs from the 1920s to the 1950s. However, Bowers and O’Donnell share Chapman’s love of Reinhardt’s style of playing and the three of them wanted to play that style at select venues around the island.

Chapman said, “I didn’t want to do it as Trio Nouveau, because Trio Nouveau plays a different kind of music. The Hot Club of Troy is very much about the purity of the sound of Django Reinhardt and his music. We’ll be playing mostly Reinhardt compositions.”

The Hot Club of Troy has been performing this summer at Useless Bay Coffee House, Ott & Murphy’s Cabaret and a new venue on the island, the Roaming Radish (5023 Harbor Hills Drive in Freeland, formerly the Beachfire Grill). Their next performance is from 12 noon until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 16 at Useless Bay Coffee, the day before DjangoFest begins. The trio will continue the gig there at that day and time throughout the Fall

The Hot Club of Troy at a recent performance at Useless Bay Coffee. Keith Bowers in the foreground with Kristi O’Donnell on upright bass and Troy Chapman. Photo by David Welton.

“We’ll play wherever anybody asks us to play,” said Chapman. “If you like gypsy jazz, you will really like this. If you like Django Reinhardt, you will really like this. If we get a good response, we’d like to do this for about the next 20 years.”

To see WICA’s complete schedule for DjangoFest 2014 and to order tickets, go to http://www.wicaonline.org/djangofest-northwest/.

Russell Clepper is a singer-songwriter who plies his trade locally and around the country. He is also a substitute teacher for the Oak Harbor School District.

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September 10, 2014
WICA seeks artist accommodations for DjangoFest NW 2014

April 2, 2014

Would you like to play a part in the cultural and musical experience of DjangoFest NW?

We are looking for community members who would be willing to open their homes to our world-class gypsy-jazz musicians such as Stochelo and Mozes Rosenberg and the Robin Nolan Trio from Holland, the Tcha Limberger Trio from Brussels, Opus 4 and Florin Niculescu from France, Gonzalo Bergara and Cuarteto Argentino from Argentina and—from Canada and the United States—Pearl Django, Richard Smith, Trio Dinicu, Greg Ruby’s Rhythym Runners, Quinn Bachand, Leah Zeger Quartet, 3 Cent Stamp and Ivan Pena Quintet.
Home-stay accommodations for our artist are imperative to keeping the premier showcase of Gypsy Jazz in North America on South Whidbey.

One to five nights lodging is desired during DjangoFest NW 2014, which takes place from Wednesday, September 17 through Monday, September 21.

As the festival is in Langley, it would be great if the accommodation is proximate to Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.

This is a wonderful opportunity to be involved in the community and experience a new culture through music and entertainment. We are grateful to the community members of South Whidbey, who open their hearts and doors to these world-class musicians.

Hosts will be invited to the opening night party and will be provided complimentary tickets to Locals Night.

For details, please call Fawn Swanson at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts at 360-221-8262

April 2, 2014
Clepper goes for DjangoFest jam, decides he needs practice
BY RUSSELL CLEPPER
Whidbey Life Magazine contributor
Sept. 18, 2013

“Anyone is welcome,” said the A-team musician to the C-string player, who had asked to participate in a jam session.

“It’s really irritating; people who don’t play Django style,” the A-teamer said later on. “There’s a certain expectation.”

I could tell very quickly that I didn’t meet those expectations, when I walked up to a jam circle that was already breaking up on Wednesday afternoon, the first day of DjangoFest Northwest. The five-day festival of gypsy jazz music began Wednesday and goes ’til Sunday, Sept. 22 at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley.

The author goes over gypsy jazz chord progressions with Django-style aficiando Jerry Schneider of Colorado at a South Whidbey Commons jam in Langley. (All photos by David Welton)

“Bend your wrist if you want to play this kind of music,” the young hotshot guitarist said in a tone bordering on disdain, as he ambled off to hook up with a more accomplished player. The guy he had been playing with swept up his guitar case and took off quickly, before I could ask any more questions.

Fortunately for me, another older gypsy jazz aficionado was willing to sit with me for more than an hour, showing me chords and rhythm patterns and techniques. It was a lesson rather than a jam.

“This is the hardest music I’ve ever tried to learn,” said Jerry Schneider who came in from Boulder, Colo.

DjangoFest fan Schneider left his flooded Boulder, Colo. neighborhood to come to the festival in Langley.

After Schneider patiently led me through the progressions on a couple of tunes, I could see that he was right. I won’t be joining any Django jazz jams unless I log a few hundred hours of practice first.

As Troy Chapman said, anyone is welcome, but you better know your stuff if you’re going to sit in on one of the many impromptu jams that spring up all over Langley during DjangoFest. Chapman, a Langley resident and a member of the Seattle jazz manouche group Pearl Django (performing at the festival Friday at 3 p.m.) is also one of the region’s prime expositors of the gypsy jazz genre.

Sitting down to one of these impromptu jams during DjangoFest, you might just find yourself playing alongside Stochelo Rosenberg or Angelo Debarre, a couple of the European world-renowned players with whom Chapman found himself trading licks the first time he sat in on a DjangoFest jam at the Doghouse Tavern in 2002.

There were about 20 players in all, as Chapman recalls, and that was the very first of the impromptu jams that have become such a signature feature of the Langley version of the festival.

That was the second year of the festival’s existence. Since then, DjangoFest has expanded, not only in importance on the national and international scene in the gypsy jazz world, but to many other cities and locations in the States, as well.

Clepper said the Langley “Djams” don’t happen in other cities that hold DjangoFests.

However, I’m told the jam scene here in Langley is a unique phenomenon. It doesn’t happen in other cities that host the festival.

“The business community here embraced it from the beginning,” said Chapman.

“The layout and climate of Langley are conducive to jams,” Chapman added. “In other places you don’t have the opportunity to wander through town. Here, on any given night, who knows how many jams are going on?”

For local players, as well as for visitors who come to town to attend the festival, the jams have become an obvious attraction.

“They give you the opportunity to play with world class players,” Chapman said.

For non-musicians, locals and visitors, they provide exposure to the genre that folks might otherwise not get. It’s an exciting style of music, featuring rapid-fire solos racing over the “boom-chick” backbeat of the rhythm guitars. Often, jams will include violinists and stand-up bass players. The expertise and musicianship of the players is often dazzling.

Clepper and Schneider jammin’ Django style.

Chapman said that there are different levels of jams that develop. Beginners in the genre can usually find a way to sit in on one. He does give one other cautionary statement, however.

“If there are some world class players involved in a jam,” Chapman said, “[inexperienced players] should just step back and let the music happen.”

Now I’m off to DjangoFest and if I run into a jam, I’ll just let it happen.

Russell Clepper is a singer-songwriter who plies his trade locally and around the country. He also is a substitute teacher for the Oak Harbor School District.

Here are some helpful links for DjangoFest info:
September 19, 2013
Hot stages, hot streets in Langley at DjangoFest NW

BY BETTY FREEMAN
Whidbey Life Magazine contributor
Sept. 16, 2013

“What’s a DjangoFest?”

That’s the question Whidbey Island Center for the Arts Executive Director Stacie Burgua asked 13 years ago when DjangoFest founder Nick Lehr approached her with a proposal to create a Northwest version of the festival in Langley in 2000.

Burgua was skeptical, but Lehr kept after her because he knew gypsy jazz music and believed people would come from off-island to hear it.

In 2001, the first DjangoFest was held in Langley, with two concerts featuring Pearl Django and the Robin Nolan Trio playing both nights.

The phenomena of people coming from afar to those 2001 concerts made Burgua a believer, paving the way for WICA’s five-day, internationally recognized festival, now in its 13th year.

DjangoFest Northwest starts Wednesday, Sept 18 and continues through Sunday, Sept. 22, five days when master musicians from around the world and gypsy jazz fans convene for a celebration of “le jazz hot” á la Django Reinhardt.

Reinhardt was born in Belgium in 1910, a member of the Manouche gypsies, who lived an open air, nomadic life in the countryside near Paris. At age 12, a neighbor gave Reinhardt his first instrument, a banjo/guitar, which he quickly learned to play, mimicking the fingerings of other musicians he watched. Soon he was accompanying an accordionist at a Paris dance hall. He continued to play with other musicians and bands until a life-changing event in 1928.

A fire in his caravan severely burned his left hand and right side, and Reinhardt spent 18 months recovering from his injuries. During this time he was given a guitar, and with great determination, created a new fingering system built around the two fingers on his left hand that still had mobility.

Influenced by recordings of jazz musicians Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington, Reinhardt developed his signature playing style, along with his reputation as a master improviser, seldom playing a solo the same way twice. He was considered a genius composer and a master musician, turning out a seemingly unending series of beautiful melodies and sophisticated harmonies.

In 1934, Reinhardt met violinist Stephané Grappelli and they organized The Quintet of the Hot Club of France. The group played together in clubs and made innovative, sensational recordings throughout the 1930s, then separated during World War II.

After the war, Reinhardt and Grappelli reunited to continue their memorable collaboration onstage and in the recording studio, until Reinhardt’s retirement to the village of Samois sur Seine in 1951.

Reinhardt died in 1953, but his musical legacy lives on in modern gypsy jazz music that echoes his specific style of lead guitar fingering, and “le pompe” style of rhythm guitar, the percussion component of gypsy jazz. Additionally, gypsy jazz enjoyed a revival in the 1970s and has been gaining momentum ever since, with annual festivals celebrating the Reinhardt style throughout Europe. Thanks to Lehr’s vision and WICA’s gamble, Reinhardt’s legacy lives on in the United States, as well, with DjangoFest Northwest turning Langley into the first organized American celebration of gypsy jazz music and one of most popular “hot” spots for celebrating gypsy jazz in the United States.

This year’s DjangoFest lineup has a satisfying mix of respected masters of the form and the treat of seeing up-and-coming, young musicians performing, too.

Headlining DjangoFest 2013 is guitarist and composer Fapy Lafertin of Holland, who kept Reinhardt’s style alive in the 1970s with his first band, Waso.

Lafertin will play Sunday night with special guests Tcha Limberger, the Belgian violin virtuoso who captivated last year’s DjangoFest audiences; veteran guitarist Dave Kelbie; and world-renowned bassist Simon Planting.

Opening on Sunday night is the new Whidbey Island trio 3-Cent Stamp featuring the young (but extraordinarily accomplished) violinist Gloria Ferry-Brennan, along with the stellar James Hinkley on cello and the ever-enjoyable Levi Burkle on guitar.

New to the lineup this year is 23-year-old Finnish guitarist Olli Soikkeli, and the Canadian group Brishen, featuring 17-year-old guitarist Quinn Bachand and violinist Richard Moody, a folk music veteran. Brishen headlines the Thursday evening concert.

A Pacific Northwest favorite, Pearl Django, featuring Langley’s Troy Chapman on lead guitar, will play Friday night, with Olli Soikkeli as the opening act.

Gonzolo Bergera returns to the festival this year, along with another local audience favorite, the John Jorgenson Quintet. Bergera and his New Hot Club of America will play Saturday night. Jorgenson’s Quintet headlines the Friday night show.

Young players will learn from veterans in workshops and jam sessions throughout the festival, new techniques will be mastered and shared, and lucky audiences will witness some truly inspired collaborations and exciting performances. Quite simply, DjangoFest is a not-to-be-missed annual treat.

Tickets range in price from $32 to $70 and are available online at tickets.wicaonline.com or by calling the WICA Ticket Office at (800) 638-7631.

For festival information, including artists line up, workshops, bios, music, and videos, also visit tickets.wicaonline.com.

Betty Freeman, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Clinton. Once she discovered gypsy jazz in 2006 she became an instant fan. She can’t wait for this year’s DjangoFest to begin.

(Pictured at top, Fapy Lafertin of Holland headlines DjangoFest Northwest at WICA./Photo courtesy of WICA)

September 16, 2013
Trio Nouveau plus Greg Beck is at Ott and Murphy Aug. 24

BY RUSSELL CLEPPER
Whidbey Life Magazine, contributor
Aug. 21, 2013

Three times one major seventh, plus a two minor over a diminished seventh, plus the five to the one, raised to the power of X notes in four beats, equals Trio Nouveau with Greg Beck at Ott and Murphy Winery Tasting Room at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24. Jazz, baby.

And a one…

Trio Nouveau offers the fine jazz guitar work of Troy Chapman, Greg Beck and Keith Bowers supported by Kristi O’Donnell’s groove on her big double bass, “Emi.” The band performs for virtually every live music venue on the island and is one of the most popular island groups for weddings and other private events. The back and forth musical conversation that Chapman and Bowers generate with its demonstration of their technical expertise and masterful, imaginative improvisational skills, provides the well-deserved basis for that popularity.

Normally, the group only presents two guitar players who perform with O’Donnell, hence the Trio Nouveau. This Saturday night, however, Beck will team up with Chapman and Bowers to create a third layer of sonic tapestry to add to the already rich, improvisational interplay created by the usual two-guitarist format.

“It will be the Trio Nouveau Quartet,” Chapman said with a laugh.

With three times the jazz chords and all those progressions, the night promises a journey filled with cascading notes and mesmerizing soundscapes. Add a glass or two of fine wine to that, plus the spectacular view of Saratoga Passage outside the large picture windows at Ott and Murphy’s cabaret and, voila! – romance, Whidbey Island style.

Troy Chapman, Kristi O’Donnell and Keith Bowers are Trio Nouveau. (Photo By ML Harris)

At a recent performance at Useless Bay Coffee Company, Bowers talked about the band’s style.

“We play lyrical jazz standards, songs mostly from the 20’s and 30’s and on into the big band era in the 50’s, that use chord changes that hang together with a common language in its harmonic aspects. They call it the Great American Songbook,” he said.

Playing with such high-octane guitar masters gives pause to O’Donnell, who only began to play 12 years ago. Now she is performing one of the most challenging American popular music forms with some of the Pacific Northwest’s top interpreters of it. She considers that to be “a miracle.”

“I feel deeply honored that they have taken me under their wing,” she said.

“They have all greatly encouraged me. It’s like this love that has come to me. I have learned experientially with these guys.”

She said she has to be careful during shows to not let the beauty of the guitarists’ performances dazzle her as she plays.

“What they are doing is instantaneous creativity, which I thrive on,” she said.

O’Donnell is indeed in the company of deep experience when it comes to the musicians she’ll share the stage with on Saturday.

Bowers has had a lifelong fascination with jazz, which he heard as a youngster on programs on Cincinnati’s NPR station and others throughout the Midwest. However, he had trouble finding mentors he could sit with and learn from back then.

“I wanted to play it, but there was nobody around to play it with,” Bowers said. So he learned and mastered the Chet Atkins fingerstyle approach, which fuses country and American roots picking with jazz. Atkins greatly admired Django Reinhardt.

Bowers finally got his chance to delve deeply into swing jazz when he joined Billet-Deux, a group that Chapman founded here on Whidbey Island with Steve Kirk in 2002. Chapman currently performs with Pearl Django, the Seattle gypsy jazz group that one reviewer called “… the preeminent US-based ensemble dedicated solely to this art form.”

Chapman will also appear on the island with Pearl Django on Saturday, Aug. 31, when the band caps off the Whidbey Island Winery “Shakin’ the Vines” concert series, and for the 13th edition of DjangoFest, which runs from Sept. 18 to 22. Both shows are in Langley.

Beck also has a long, storied career as a Pacific Northwest musician and has won many accolades including induction into the Northwest Area Music Associations’ Hall of Fame in 1989. Besides his gigs with Trio Nouveau, he also plays lead guitar for the Whidbey Island Latin jazz group, Bahia. He is highly regarded among fellow musicians for his tastefulness and experience on the Northwest music scene.

People in the audience on Saturday night will instantly know what O’Donnell means by being dazzled by these musicians. OK, maybe not instantly, but at least by the time the five goes to the one.

Ott & Murphy Winery Tasting Room is at 204 First St. in downtown Langley. Reservations are recommended.

Here’s Trio Nouveau’s website.

Here’s Ott & Murhpy Winery website.

Russell Clepper is a singer-songwriter who plies his trade locally and around the country. He also is a substitute teacher for the Oak Harbor School District.

(Pictured at top, Troy Chapman at DjangoFest NW 2012./Photo courtesy of Troy Chapman. Photo of Trio Nouveau by ML Harris)

August 21, 2013