New Selmer 607 CD

MaxwellGarces

just arrived from djangobooks yesterday. what an incredible work of art. the playing has been elevated to new levels, and having stochelo on the record is very grounding from the nouveau playing that dominates the other tracks. its nice to have the new turks showing their respect to the old masters. although i have to say it was a touch of a let down that he decided to record tears since he just did it with bireli on the Djangologists album and embraceable you which was recorded with the trio. i would have liked some fresh songs selections from stochelo, but his playing on the 2 tracks is royalty and undeniable.

all of the guys are in their best form, and benoit convert is a great addition the crew. the stuff he has been doing with olivier kikteff and les doigts de l'homme is incredible. (i dont know if anyone knows about that group yet, but everyone should. they have a new album coming out this year as well...) in any case, his arrangement of chick corea's spain is fresh and exciting, almost like hearing a completely new song with a very familiar melodic motif and his take on the richard galliano waltz for nicky rocks.
the bonus tracks are great but i am sure that, as with the last album, the chanson stylings of david gastine will most likely be viewed as the weakest track offering.

there are a few elements that i miss from the first album that seem to not be present here. for one, there is no big gun swing tune from django's repertoire.
anouman is there, but this is of course a slow (but gorgeous) ballad. and there are quite a few slow songs. these guys can swing hard and i was a bit disappointed that they dont have more fast tunes. although the opening blue moon, and love for sale are fantastic and exemplify that new paris swing sound that these guys are producing. i appreciate the fact that they are taking the music in a new direction and the arrangements of jazz tunes show their inventiveness and incredible originality.

speaking of originality, the original tracks by richard manetti (who killed it last year at djangofest NW) are compelling and full of soul and to hear him play with his little bro is pretty sweet too. and the track "wee" by noe reinhardt again showcases his playful and positive style of playing. his playing always seems like it comes from such a happy place. not as brooding as adrien and sebastien. not to take anything away from them, because to me, it is a coin toss between them on who i ultimately enojoy hearing the best.

for me the high point of all the tracks is the ravel piece played and arranged by sebastien. what a monumental piece of musical beauty. you will be hard pressed to find a more amazing track of music anywhere let alone in this genre.

the 2 disk package is slick and artfully done. its nice to have some video along with it, even though most of the footage has already been available on the selmer 607 youtube page for the last few months.

the bummer about the video is the fact that there are no subtitles (or at least none that i could find). i was expecting subtitles to be honest. i would have bought the bonus issue anyway if i would have known up front, but it was disappointing to find out the hard way.

all in all i would rate this 5 out of 5 if that is the rating system we use here on djangobooks. incredible playing, great sound and recording quality is fantastic, and the vibe of these dudes is so consistent and exciting and the addition of stochelo is much welcomed.

i am looking forward to having this on constant repeat for about a month straight.

if you dont have this yet, get it.

dennis

Yngwie approves

Bob Holo

I just had to "second" that review Mr. Garces. It's a wonderful album - musicianship - tone - recording quality - the whole package. I was only able to really listen to it on good speakers today... Finally got it off the PC and on to the mp3 player so I could play it on the shop stereo; and it was worth the wait.

Again, amazing album gentlemen - truly wonderful work - truly wonderful.

FYI and a little off topic - the reason it took two weeks to be able to play this cool album was that I ditched Itunes and reorganized my music library. I just finally got tired of itunes locking up the computer to analyze music and/or whining about software updates and/or changing the organization of my music library and then not being able to find the music when I manually reorganize it back to what it was in the first place and/or trying to 'guess' which song I want to play and/or trying to sell me other music... Uggh. How hard is a person supposed to have to fight his software to play a little music?!? So I replaced my $250 Ipod with a $50 Sansa and now I just drag music to my mp3 player and it plays it. Of all the features an mp3 player can have, it turns out the one I like the most is "plays music" haha... sorry for the off topic mini-rant and I hope it doesn't defocus this thread.

I truly hope this album gets a lot of focus, attention & traction - it's a damned fine piece of work.

redblues

there are quite a few slow songs. these guys can swing hard and i was a bit disappointed that they dont have more fast tunes

I'm with Mr. Holo on this, the quality on this album is superb, and I couldn't agree more with Mr. Garces that between Selmer 607 and Les Doigts de la Homme, if you didn't buy another album this year, those two would cover all bases. And in a way I was glad there wasn't fast tunes on this album, thinking does the world really need another recording of All of Me.

That was until I got the Nomy Rosenberg Trio eponymous album from 2009.
http://www.dee2records.com//nomy-rosenb ... cts_id=560

This album is superb, the trio are a real trio in the jazz sense of the word, the bass drives the rhythm, which is really well played, and the solo work by Nomy, is both melodic and swinging. In a way it lends itself to the Selmer 607 style.

The Nomy Rosenberg Trio album is a perfect companion to the latest Selmer 607, as it addresses Mr. Garces original disappointment without being a "standard' recording of the Django repertoire.

Between Nomy, Selmer 607 and Les Doigts, the future of manouche is in good hands.

Swing 69

I echo the thoughts above...
Sound production is amazing on these albums and a refreshing breath of air, as at times some productions ain't that great.
Yeah, I was kinda expecting maybe some full tracks on the DVD side of the album (like the clips from the first albums on youtube, wonderful world etc) as after receiving the CD I'd already watched them all on you tube (with subs).
Amazing playing throughout!!!!!
...I kinda like the fact there are a good few ballads on here as I like the emotional side they bring out in the playing and it's gave me a good few more tracks to ad to my "easy gypsy" playlist.
Yeah Tears and Embraceable??? That one got me too ..
I've bundled this album in with other 2 on my Selmer #607 playlist and just hit shuffle now in the car...Great stuff!!
I think the ravel piece is a great tribute to Django as we know he was extremely fond of his music.
Shame there was no Rocky this time!
Albums worth every penny..GET IT!
I'm waiting on Gipsy union and rocky gresset
Looks like I'm off to purchase The Nomy Rosenberg Trio album and Les Doigts de la Homme..
It's all good!!

Swing 69

Must mention the rhythm section too....Swinging hard!!!
Great

Bob Holo

Haha... I'm actually a slow song guy... I loved some of the slow stuff the most. Sorry if I gave an impression other than that. Sometimes these guys shine the most when they get off the fast train. To be sure - they can all shred like the young rock stars that they are - but they also have soul.