Roby Lakatos & Bireli Lagrene - Tribute To Stephane And Django (2017)

The exciting meeting of two living legends of Jazz. For the first time "The fastest-fingered fiddler in the world" Roby Lakatos is joined by "speed demon" guitar hero Biréli Lagrène for a unique tribute to Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. Both musicians performed in their youth with Stephane Grappelli. For this album they surrounded themselves with the superlative big band of the Modern Art Orchestra and by two first rate Jazzmen of the younger generation: thrilling drummer Niek de Bruijn and guitar sensation Andreas Varady.

This is an explosive tribute to Manouche Jazz with standards such as "Djangology", "Nuages", "Stella by Starlight" and "Nuits de Saint-Germain-Des-Près". Roby Lakatos (1965) was born into the legendary family of gypsy violinists descended from Janos Bihari, “King of Gypsy Violinists”. At age nine he made his public debut as first violin in a gypsy band. His musicianship evolved not only within his own family but also at the Béla Bartók Conservatory of Budapest, where he won the first prize for classical violin in 1984. He has collaborated with Vadim Repin and Stéphane Grappelli, and his playing was greatly admired by Sir Yehudi Menuhin. Roby Lakatos is not only a scorching virtuoso, but a musician of extraordinary stylistic versatility. Equally comfortable performing classical music as he is playing jazz and his own Hungarian folk idiom, Lakatos is the rare musician who defies definition. He is referred to as a gypsy violinist or ‘devil’s fiddler’, a classical virtuoso, a jazz improviser, a composer and arranger, and a 19th-century throwback.

Biréli Lagrène (1966) was born in a traditional Manouche-Romani family and community and started playing the guitar at the age of four. When, at the age of eight, he covered Django Reinhardt’s repertoire, his relatives were already calling him a child prodigy. After having mastered the late great Django Reinhardt's Gypsy swing repertoire, the guitarist tried his hand at fusion jazz and rock. This exceptional and precocious talent took the jazz world by storm with his dazzling speed and phenomenal bursts of improvisation. Lagrène met some of the most distinguished jazz musicians on the international scene, such as Stéphane Grappelli, Benny Goodman, Benny Carter, Larry Coryell, Jaco Pastorius and Al Di Meola. Guitarists like Wes Montgomery, George Benson and Jimi Hendrix were his models. At once dynamic and lyrical, this sparkling musician is without a doubt one of the most prominent musicians of his generation.

TRACKLIST

01. Djangology
02. Tears
03. Nuages
04. Troublant Bolero
05. Mr Grappelli
06. Minor Swing
07. Mimosa
08. Nuits De Saint Germain-Des-Pres
09. Stella By Starlight
10. Cherokee