An homage to 100 years Django by Fapy Lafertin-Koen de Cauter-Joep Peeters and le Jazz Manouche.

Een hommage aan 100 jaar Django Reinhardt met Fapy Lafertin-Koen de Cauter-Joep Peeters en hun Jazz Manouche. (Nederlands) - An homage to 100 years Django by Fapy Lafertin-Koen de Cauter-Joep Peeters and le Jazz Manouche. (English)

Django's musical heritage revived at a concert in The Volckaert in Dongen (The Netherlands).
An homage to 100 years Django by Fapy Lafertin-Koen de Cauter-Joep Peeters and le Jazz Manouche.
Hans Koert

A Spectaculair concert, een hommage aan 100 jaar Django Reinhardt ( A spectacular concert, an homage to 100 years Django Reinhardt) the concert was billed beforehand - a provocative remark. On Friday evening, the 19th of November, 2010, an homage to the music of Django Reinhardt, who passed away 100 years, was scheduled at the Theater Dongepark / De Volkaert in Dongen, a place near Breda in the southern part of the Netherlands.
Fapy Lafertin ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)
Django Reinhardt was born in a caravan in a shantytown in Liberchies, near Charleroi in Belgium, January 1910 and grew up as the son of a gypsy entertainer, called "Negros" or "La Belle Laurence" and a guitarist and basket maker. He raised with music and soon he started to play the violin and later the guitar. He became an entertainer in small cafés and bars and well known with his Quintette du Hot Club de France. The music of the Quintette is well known and played all over the world and Django's music styles became known as the Hot Club Music. But Django also made recordings with larger groups and orchestras, like the orchestras of Michel Warlop with great names like the US saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and trumpetter Arthur Briggs or the bands of Duke Ellington or Benny Carter. That music is seldom played and that's why Joep Peeters organized with the support of Fapi Lafertin and Koen De Cauter and reed player and above all arranger Robert Veen this reconstruction of Django's orchestral performances. Joep Peeters ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)
Le Jazz Manouche anno 2010, as Joep had labelled this one night band, started its first set with Avalon and I Surrender Dear. The former, originally part of Puccini's opera La Tosca, and made popular by Al Jolson, was recorded by Django in 1935. On stage just a quintet with Fapy Lafertin on solo guitar, Koen De Cauter on the soprano saxophone and a rhythm section featuring Joep Peeters ( piano), Richard Frijters (double bass) and Peter Den Boer (drums).
The quintet: f.l.t.r. Koen De Cauter-Richard Frijters-Fapy Lafertin and Peter Den Boer. ( Joep Peeters not visuable) ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

Koen and Fapy are good friends and colleagues (almost "twins", as they were born almost on the same day (!)) since they were school kids in the 1960s, when Fapy, aged ten years old, played with Bamboula Ferret and his Ensemble in Emiel De Cauter's café De Klokkeput in Sint Martens Latem near Ghent( Belgium). Een fantastische tijd ( = A great time), Koen told me during the break.

Koen De Cauter (photo courtesy: Hans Koert)
That guitar playing peer fascinated Koen and he took up the guitar. Both Fapy and Koen became friends and joined the band of Piotto Limberger where they learned to play in the old Romani-musical tradition. In the mid 1970s both Koen as Fapy decided to modernize their music and they decided to play the repertoire of Django. Deze muziek herinnert me aan mijn jeugd, aan de tijd toen mijn ouders nog een café hadden in de buurt van Oostende. (= This music remembers me to my childhood, the time my parents had a café near Oostende). De stilte - het zwenkende vuurtorenlicht van Oostende - de verlichte wijzers van m'n eerste polshorloge. (= The quiet atmosphere, the lights of the lighthouse of Oostende - the fluoristic hands of my first wristwatch). Django en zijn muziek zijn voor mij symbolen van een tijdperk ( = Django and his music are for me symbols of an era.). Hij had het - net als George Brassens - Ken je die? ( He got it - like George Brassens - You remember him?). Fapy and Koen founded the Waso Quartet, named after Koen's eldest son Waso ( also active as a guitar player in the family band) and since that time Waso became a household word for swinging Hot Club music.
Robert Veen ( photo curtesy: Hans Koert)

During the first set Joep enlarged its ensemble with more instruments, like in Speevey or Speevy, a 1937 Reinhardt-Grappelli composition, with saxophonist Robert Veen and cornet player Jon Birdsong and the tune Margie, as an homage to Andre Eykan, saxophonist who recorded it with Django in 1940. The tunes Honeysuckle Rose and Crazy Rhythm where selected to honour the 1937 Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter recordings and Joep invited for that his reed section on stage, featuring Robert Veen, Ronald Jansen Heijtmajer and tenorist Antoine Trommelen.

Le Jazz Manouche anno 2010: f.l.t.r.: (at the back) Peter Den Boer-Jon Birdsong-Edward Nuiten and Peter Van Steen. (at the front): Fapy Lafertin-Robert Veen-Ronald Jansen Heijtmajer and Antoine Trommelen. (photo courtesy: Hans Koert)
The brass section, with cornet player Jon Birdsong ( who is also present on the great Django! album recorded by Fapy and Koen), Edward Nuiten (trumpet) and Peter Van Steen ( trombone ) completed the band in Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, recorded by Django in 1937 as a member of the Dicky Wells Orchestra. The audience learned that Koen also has a great voice and Fapy shined in his own composition Plachterida, mangled by Joep as Flapcherida, as if it was a new discovered butterfly.
The first set was finished with the great tune entitled Place de Brouckere, in a great arrangement by Robert Veen - for me one of the most fascinating tunes of this concert in a great Robert Veen big band arrangement with atonal blue notes and surprising accents. Why don't we hear those arrangements more often played live?

Antoine Trommelen (photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

During the break Koen and I shared our fascination for Oscar Aleman, the great Argentine guitar player often compared to Django. Een fantastische gitarist, maar anders dan Django. Hij maakte schitterende muziek, zoals het nummer Scartunas (= A great guitar player, unlike Django, but he made wonderful music, like Scartunas ). Django was heel serieus als hij speelde. (= Django was very seriously when he played) Ik hou van de Argentijnse taal en de ritmen - de tango, de milonga - je weet wel, maar ook die uit Brazlië: de samba, de Baion. Maar niet de bossa nova - veel te gemaakt ( = I love the Argentine language and its rhythms: the tango, the milonga, you name it, but I also like to play music from Brazil: Samba and the Baion, but not the bossa nova - too artificial). En hoe zit dat met Choro? I asked (= And what about Choro?). O ja geweldig, maar ik zou er niet mijn hele ziel en zaligheid in willen leggen ( = Yes, great music, but I wouldn't sell my soul for it). Koen has a program nowadays in which he performs Argentine tango's and rhythms with musicians like Juan Masondo ( guitar) and Alfredo Marcucci (bandoneon). I love to hear that .....!

Koen De Cauter (photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

After the break some more great tunes were played, like the Artie Shaw's composition Moonray, although never recorded by Django; a great swinging tune. The vocal group, the Peeters Sisters joined in some tunes like Exactly Like You. A strange addition to the concert, in my opinion, not because their musical skills ( They really can sing!), but because the fact that Django never recorded with such vocal groups. Fact was, that these young women lowered the average age of the band substantial and it seemed that some soloist grew wings.

Joep Peeters ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

Nuages, although a fully instrumental composition by Django, became enlarged with a recently discovered vocal version entitled the Bluest Kind Of Blues, sung by Chris Peeters. The concert was finished with the well known Tiger Rag, not the Django version Django's Tiger as Joep announced, but, never mind, the audience liked it. The encore was for the well known Django standard Manoir de mes Rêves, which Joep translated as 't Kietelkot, a local name of a whorehouse.

Ronald Jansen Heijtmajer ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

An unique concert with seldom heard compositions, played by Django in larger ensembles - indeed Toon Oomen and Joep Peeters were right to label this concert beforehanded as a Spectaculair concert - a concert with the best followers of Django's musical heritage, Fapy Lafertin and Koen De Cauter, accompanied by a dozen professional musicians who know how to play it.

The Peeters Sisters (f.l.t.r.: San, Chris and Wies Peeters) ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

Some concerts become legendary, recorded or unrecorded. I think about the Joe Henderson concert I recently reviewed, but also performances like the legendary concert of the Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra in the Turfschip in Breda in 1978 a few miles away from Dongen. I'm sure - Within a few years people wil ask you about this: Did you join that concert? Wow! This Homage to 100 Years Django was such an historical event.

Fapy Lafertin ( photo courtesy: Hans Koert)

If you love hear the music played at the concert, the best album to listen to seems to be the new album, entitled Django! A Tribute - 100 Years Django Reinhardt by Koen De Cauter, Fapy Lafetin & Group ( W.E.R.F. 083 )

Hans Koert

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Django Reinhardt was born 100 years ago in a caravan at the shantytown in Walloon (Belgium). Le Jazz Manouche Anno 2010 directed by Joep Peeters honoured the music of Django at a concert in Dongen, in the south of the Netherlands, with a large band featuring some great musicians like Fapy Lafertin, Koen De Cauter and Robert Veen, an homage to the music of Django - a historical and legendary event. Keep Swinging joined the concert and reviewed it. If you don't to miss it follow the blog at Twitter or ask a free newsletter.


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