HOT CLUB OF DETROIT "NIGHT TOWN" IN STORES NOW

More than seven decades after the innovations of the Quintette du Hot Club de France, featuring guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt, combos called Hot Clubs carry on the gypsy jazz sound around the globe—in Tokyo, San Francisco, Seattle, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and many other locales. None, however, offers a fresher take on the tradition than does the Hot Club of Detroit, led by fast-fingered Reinhardt disciple Evan Perri. Unlike the instrumentation of original Paris-based quintet, comprising Reinhardt, violinist Stephane Grappelli, two rhythm guitarists, and a bassist, the current Hot Club of Detroit is made of guitarist Perri, accordionist Julien Labro, soprano and tenor saxophonist Carl Cafagna, rhythm guitarist Paul Brady and bassist Shannon Wade. The fibrous accordion tones of Labro, a native of Marseilles, France, links the Detroit quintet to the French musette style from which gypsy jazz partially sprung, while Cafagna’s robust saxophone work introduces bop and post-bop elements to gypsy jazz.

“We kinda use the gypsy jazz thing as a springboard for all these wonderful ideas we have in our heads that we’ve grown up with here in Detroit,” Perri explains. “In the future, I’d even like to incorporate some Motown stuff into this type of music.”

Although Night Town, the follow-up to the group’s widely acclaimed 2006 debut CD, Hot Club of Detroit, does not include any Motown tunes, it nevertheless finds Perri and company giving a New Orleans boogaloo twist to “Django’s Monkey,” a number inspired by the Reinhardt composition “Django’s Tiger,” which utilized “Tiger Rag” chord changes. “Blues Up and Down,” the hit 1950 tenor saxophone battle by Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, is transformed into a tenor/accordion battle between Cafagna and Labro. And “Seven Steps to Heaven,” the classic 1963 Victor Feldman/Miles Davis composition, enters the gypsy jazz realm through the Hot Club of Detroit’s swinging rendition.

The disc also includes the Detroit combo’s distinctive takes on the Reinhardt tunes “Speevy” and “Melodie au Crepuscule;” the venerable French songs “J’Attendrai” and “Valse a Rosenthal;” Maurice Ravel’s “Tzigane;” contemporary French guitarist Romane’s “Pour Parler;” Vincent Youmans’ “I Want to Be Happy;” John Green and Carmen Lombardo’s “Coquette” and Jelly Roll Morton’s “Sweet Substitute;” plus the Evan Perri compositions “Night Town, ” “Swing 05” and “Two Weeks” (co-written with Julien Labro).
 

	Hot Club of Detroit • Night Town (MAC 1041) US Release Date: July 15, 2008 • R/O/W Release Date: July 15, 2008

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