The Django Orchestra

The Django Orchestra
The Django Orchestra
Self-Produced

When browsing at Bandcamp's website, this seemed to be an interesting recording, and indeed it is. Albert Bello (solo guitar) is the artistic director and co-producer of this excellent big band album from Barcelona. Musically, this is big band jazz mixed with Quintette du Hot Club de France renditions of mostly Django Reinhardt's music (the one exception being "Tea For Two"). Sort of like Django meets the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band. The lengthy "Blues en Mineur Suite" is a tour de force with a terrific big band exploration of the theme with a brief segment played by a small group in the vein of the Hot Club of France. Vocalist Elisenda Julià is featured on a delightful "Tea For Two," with Oriol Saña's violin providing obligatos under her vocal, which is followed by some fine muted trumpet. This is a captivating selection in a fascinating, engrossing album.

A fabulous "Minor Swing" closes this CD, with an exhilarating acoustic quintet segueing into an explosive big band close. The Django Orchestra is a first-rate big band, and the arrangements and engineering allow the acoustic guitar of Bello and the violin of Saña to be front and center. Kudos to Sergi Vergés, who provided all of the arrangements and was co-producer of this recording that is a celebration of the legacy of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli.

I purchased this from bandcamp.com from which one can buy this as a download or CD (which includes a download. One also gets unlimited streaming of one's Bandcamp purchases. Here is the Bandcamp link, https://thedjangoorchestra.bandcamp.com/album/the-django-orchestra. Here is a video of The Django Orchestra performing "Viper's Dream," one of the tunes on the CD.