Hot Club of Detroit – Junction – Mack Avenue: Pearl Django – Eleven – Modern Hot Records:

Hot Club of Detroit – Junction – Mack Avenue MAC 1067, 1 hour [8/14/12] *****:
Pearl Django – Eleven – Modern Hot Records MHR 917, 51:08 *****:
(Hot Club personnel: Evan Perri – guitar; Julien Labro – accordion; Paul Brady – guitar; Jon Irabagon & Andrew Bishop – sax & flute; Shawn Conley, bass)
(Pearl Django personnel: Michael Gray, violin; David Lange, accordion; Rick Leppanen, bass; Ryan Hoffman & Troy Chapman, guitars; Martin Taylor – guest guitarist on tracks 6, 8, & 11)
This is the fourth CD for Mack Avenue by Detroit’s entry into the many gyspy jazz ensembles around the world. They have retained their original lineup of reeds, two guitars, accordion and acoustic bass.  They have never added drums, as some gypsy jazz groups have done.  For the first time on this new CD, they have a vocalist on three of the 13 tracks, and she is French singer Cyrille Aimé, who just happens to be a native of Django’s own former hometown in France and a third-place winner in the Thelonious Monk International Vocal Competition of last year. No other gypsy jazz group can claim that!
Like many gypsy jazz groups, the band tries to honor the amazing legacy of Django Reinhardt but also brings in influences of Pat Metheny, Ornette Coleman, and even the rock band Phish – would you believe. It wants to be a versatile modern jazz group. For this recording session the band had to make some changes in personnel: The group’s original saxist had to step aside due to family obligations and their bassist, Andrew Kratzat, was seriously injured in an auto accident and is now recovering.
A couple movie tie-ins are seen in the CD: The opening “Goodbye Mr. Anderson,” by reed player Jon Irabagon, refers to The Matrix, and the French-style waltz “Midnight in Detroit” is a reference to the recent Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris. Both “Chutzpah” and “Puck Bunny” have sections of strangely atonal chaos which sound like the band wanted to switch into loft jazz mode for a bit (they claim inspiration from John Zorn), and the closing track of “Rift” gets into a Western Swing mode, opening with what almost sounds like the bluegrass music for Bonnie & Clyde. “Goodbye Mr. Shearing” is a calm and serious tune in honor of the late pianist, who started out on the accordion. Accordionist Labro wrote that, as well as “Django Mort,” in which he was inspired by a Jean Cocteau poem which was read at Django’s funeral. Aiméee sings the French text and Labro thought since Django was a jazz musician, why not have a musical procession as in New Orleans, so that became part of the tune. Ornette Coleman’s lovely “Lonely Woman” is another stellar vocal track, with Aimée singing Margo Guryan’s lyrics to it. Guitarist Brady observes that if Django were alive today he wouldn’t be playing the same way he always did, so the HCOD is paying tribute to him by pursuing their own ideas.
TrackList:
Goodby Mr. Anderson, Song for Gabriel, La Foule, Hey!, Chutzpah, Mess Gitane, Django Mort, Junction, Midnight in Detroit, Lonely Woman, Goddby Mr. Shearing, Puck Bunny, Rift
[audaud-hr]
Seattle’s Pearl Django also has a surprise on their new album, which although I couldn’t find that fact on their site, must be their 11th CD because it is called Eleven. The band was formed in 1994, and in 1996 they headed over to the Django Reinhardt Festival in Samois-Sur-Seine (Django’s hometown), where the best gypsy jazz players in the world get together. For awhile Pearl Django had a female guitarist, Shelley Park, whose le pompe helped propel the ensemble’s highly rhythmic sound, working with the bassist— but she doesn’t seem to be part of the group anymore.
Several of the dozen tracks are from members of the band, plus two by famous British guitarist Martin Taylor, who also plays on the really swinging Count Basie track, “Jive at Five,” which he once recorded together with Stephane Grappelli.  Theband also does Duke Pearson’s lovely “Jeannine,” and the one Thelonious Monk tune I’m able to struggle thru on the piano, “Pannonica.”  Couldn’t help noticing there’s not a single track by either Django or Grappelli, but although—like the HCOD, Pearl Django are pursuing their own ideas—there is a definite gypsy jazz feeling about all of the CD.
TrackList:
1. Sonara – Troy Chapman
2. Jeannine – Duke Pearson
3. Prozac Musette – David Lange & Ryan Hoffman
4. Endless Fields of Green – Troy Chapman
5. Rumbatism – Ryan Hoffman
6. Serafina – Martin Taylor
7. Eleventh Hour – Rick Leppanen
8. Rue di Dinan – Martin Taylor
9. Bella Deluxe – Troy Chapman
10. Pannonica – Thelonious Monk
11. Jive at Five – Count Basie & Harry Edison
12. Zimovia – Michael Gray, Troy Chapman & Ryan Hoffman
—John Henry