Stephane Wrembel
Jazz Appreciation Month was launched by the Smithsonian 20 years ago - yet the appreciation of jazz goes far beyond the boundaries of that august US agency.
This week, we visit with guitarist Stephane Wrembel - who is coming to Pittsburgh at Club Cafe, April 26th. Wrembel is from France (though lives now in New Jersey), and received much of his guitar inspiration from the great Django Reinhardt.
We visited with Stephane about Django, and going beyond the origins of jazz, the issues around the phrase “Gypsy Jazz,” the harmonic influences of composers like Ravel, Debussy and Fauré, and about the importance of being in the moment with live musical performance.
Of course, we play a lot of music, too - including Wrembel’s transcriptions of Django Reinhardt’s etudes, the magical sounds from the time of the Hot Club of Paris, and music that moves on to a different place from Django and Jazz - but still owing greatly to the soil from which the musics were sown.
Also in April - ALSO on the 26th - we hear more from pianist Christian Sands at the Greer Cabaret to culminate the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month.
Meanwhile - the world music of Ghana comes to the North Side on April 20th with Joe Sheehan and Kinetic as a part of the World Music Series - Alphabet City, North Side. Very connected with Ghanan folk songs, and also with a jazz feel, we’ll play a track or two from the new release from Kinetic.
Christian Sands
And we look at what’s in store in April jazz for Pittsburgh - which Jazz Central tells us is A LOT, including Easter Sunday sounds with Tony Campbell, Roger Humphries, Dwayne Dolphin and Max Leake at Con Alma, downtown.
The SCENE on WZUM - Thursday at 6, Friday and Saturday at noon, Sunday afternoon at 5 on the Pittsburgh Jazz Channel.
