Guitarist Stéphane Wrembel was a fan of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd as a teenager, but after hearing Django Reinhardt, his musical life took a new direction. He became a leading exponent in the ongoing genre of “Gypsy Jazz”, which Reinhardt initiated with his Quintette du Hot Club de France in the 1930s.
Using Reinhardt’s songs as jumping-off points, Wrembel has created albums that take his music into more experimental places. A couple of years ago, Wrembel began to look back at Reinhardt’s own origin story: the Belgian-born Romani guitarist did not start to play jazz until he was exposed to the music that was sweeping Paris from its birthplace in New Orleans.
Wrembel decided to create a project that imagined how Reinhardt would tackle early New Orleans jazz. He assembled a group of musicians and called it Django New Orleans, releasing an album in 2023. With their second LP, Django New Orleans II: Hors Série, the group continue their mission, crafting an album that channels the celebratory spirit of early New Orleans jazz and showcases the dazzling solos that Reinhardt and his descendants, such as Wrembel, bring to a performance.
On their first record, the group opted for chestnuts like “Tiger Rag” and “St. James Infirmary Blues”, blending the New Orleans brass sound with Reinhardt’s string-led swing and incorporating each of the players’ own creative embellishments. For their second effort, the musicians applied the jaunty formula to a broader repertoire, including a few original compositions.
The album opens with a piece not associated with Reinhardt or the Crescent City: “Libertango”, a 1974 piece by new-tango pioneer Astor Piazzolla of Argentina. The group use the 1981 version titled “I’ve Seen That Face Before” with English lyrics co-written by disco-era icon Grace Jones. The cut lays out a slinky tango rhythm pulsating with a tamped-down, simmering intensity. The lyrics are an impressionistic sketch that feels like a film noir scene: “Strange, he shadows me back home / Footsteps echo on the stones.”
Also far afield from Reinhardt’s pre-war Paris is the wonderful “Waters of March” by Brazil’s Antonio Carlos Jobim. The most famous version by Jobim and iconic singer Elis Regina from 1972 is somewhat untouchable in its palpable spirit of play. Still, the song and its evocation of spring and other simple joys are certainly worth revisiting. Here, the English-language version (also written by Jobim) features a tumbling collage of stream-of-consciousness lyrics: “It’s the wind blowing free / It’s the end of the slope / It’s a beam, it’s a void / It’s a hunch, it’s a hope…And the riverbank talks / Of the waters of March / It’s the promise of life / It’s the joy in your heart.”
Another track is Édith Piaf‘s 1946 hit, “La Vie en Rose”, which lifted the spirits of post-WWII French audiences. Here, the song begins with a strolling rhythm accompanied by a delicately curlicued introduction by violinist Adrien Chevalier. After singer Sarah King sashays through the song, the band kicks into double-time, going from languorous sway to danceable swing, led by Wrembel’s nimble acoustic guitar. Having established this lively second version of the song, King comes back in to sing again, this time with a celebratory joie de vivre.
The band also cover “La Foule”, an old Peruvian waltz that was popularized with French lyrics in the 1950s. Though a breezy instrumental here, the band channels the ineluctable swing that Piaf brought to it in the 1950s.
“La Javanaise” by Serge Gainsbourg is a playfully romantic chanson released in 1963. The lyrics echo the old French slang called Javanaise that, like Pig Latin, adds a syllable—in this case “av”—to words to make them somewhat incomprehensible. With just an acoustic guitar accompaniment, the slow waltz rhythm and sweet harmonizing make it a charming contrast to the other, more energetic tunes.
Another unexpected choice is the idiosyncratic “Nature Boy”, which helped introduce Nat King Cole to a broader (read: white) audience in 1948. The group here gives the song its deserved dreamy quality about a “strange, enchanted boy” who nevertheless teaches the narrator that ultimately “the greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to just to love and be loved in return”.
The record ends with two original compositions by Wrembel. “Holden Caulfield” has a sleeker, more modern sound than other parts of the repertoire, allowing the ensemble to balance elegance with intricate melodic solos.
Wrembel’s talented group of musicians have created an affable, easy-to-like album, but it should be noted that when they play live, the songs are just starting points for high-energy improvisation. On stage, the musicians collaborate to bring each song to life, entertaining both themselves and their audiences. As they hand off the song among soloists, it’s less a competition and more the spirit of a potluck where each person brings their A game for the enjoyment of all.
Reinhardt himself, in his early years, played in the streets for money, and that busker’s penchant for wowing and wooing an audience was imprinted in his playing and composing. Like Reinhardt and his instrumental partner, violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Stéphane Wrembel and the players in this group are crowd-pleasers, taking music that is technically complex and making it instantly enjoyable.