Bobby Falta & Coco Briaval

TonyRees · January 1

Yes, I loved the vocals on "Wave" as well. Very fresh sounding and some neat melodic variations as you say. All good!

TonyRees · January 1

OK, a question for those with deeper knowledge than I (and not just confined to this thread, but I thought I would ask it anyway...) - when many gypsy players of the 40s/50s/60s (and beyond) transitioned to electric hollowbodies and similar - partly just to be heard in bars etc., partly to emulate their newer American heroes playing in a more bop style (Jimmy Raney and others of the 50s come to mind) - I have heard them referred to as the "gypsy bebop generation", now paradoxically older fashioned as compared to the revival of interest in the swinging, 1930s-inspired "hot club style" - do folk here still discern a distinct "gypsy" influence in their playing, or does it become almost indistinguishable from regular "mainstream"/modern jazz guitar - in other words, how much homogenization has occurred between the "European" and "American" schools of playing? My feeling is that in the slower tunes e.g. as played by Lousson, Babik etc. they sound like something of a continuation from late-period Django, the faster ones not so much, but I am keen to hear what others think!

voutoreenie · January 2

Those are some really interesting points and while I certainly can't offer anything direct, I would postulate that a lot of Europeans switched in the 50s/60s as well simply due to the rise of Wes - his continued influence on all things guitar in the jazz world cannot be overstated and you just can't get that exact tone with a traditional SelMac (well, unless maybe you're using some kind of sampling/tone modeling system...which I'm not even sure exist for SelMacs, at least directly with a pickup system). Also, let's just be real with the context as well...the electric Wes/Grant Green/etc. archtop hard bop tone was simply in style at the time and if you're playing gigs professionally, you tend to adapt to fit into wherever the $s are coming from.

TonyRees · January 3

Hi Voutoreenie, no disagreement here - although I was not around at the time, this was my presumption also. My question is really, though, is (was) there still a discernable "gypsy" element in the playing style of the "gypsy bebop" players, or had it all but disappeared... answers on a postcard please! Of course I can also do my own listening tests, to players such as Eugène Vées, René Mailhes, Laro Sollero, Christian Escoudé and so on (as well as Bobby Falta in this instance), however my ear is certainly not as developed as some in this group...

BillDaCostaWilliams · January 3

Can't really answer your question Tony, but seeing Babik practicing on his electric semi-hollow in the documentary reminded me that David Reinhardt told us at Django a Montmartre in 2025 that he and his father were particularly fond of and influenced by US West Coast jazz artists.

One wonders once again what musical path Django himself might have followed if he had lived longer.

billyshakes · January 3

One wonders once again what musical path Django himself might have followed if he had lived longer.

Perhaps he would have used whatever guitar was available at the time and was handed to him (in-tune or not?) 😂

But, yeah, just hearing his later stuff, I would think he would be inspired by some of the be-bop playing and mixed it into his sound. But I also don't think he'd sound like Adrian Belew or Frank Zappa.