Django a Gogo Festival: Virtual Edition

Calliope is happy to collaborate with Third Row Live to present to you: Django A Gogo Festival with Stephane Wrembel & Friends

Stephane Wrembel, one of the most original guitar voices in contemporary music, presents Django a Gogo Festival celebrating the life and music of legendary musician, Django Reinhardt, with an interactive guitar workshop and two very special concerts.

“Stephane Wrembel just might be the greatest acoustic guitarist alive.”—The Aquarian Weekly

Stephane Wrembel is quite simply one of the finest guitar players in the world specializing in the Django Reinhardt style. Reinhardt is considered one of the most influential musicians of modern times and is the inventor of “gypsy jazz.”

In 2003, Wrembel created his own annual event, Django a Gogo Festival, where he and other musicians influenced by Django Reinhardt celebrate the Sinti guitar style. Django a Gogo is a world-class evening of gypsy jazz performed at the highest level of musicianship. The concert repertoire follows the Django canon and veers into reinterpretation, improvisation, and interplay between musicians from various backgrounds. 

Django a Gogo has been presented at the legendary venues Carnegie Hall and The Town Hall in New York City.  Now, you can experience the show (or shows) in the comfort of your own living room! 

There are two concerts and a workshop to choose from. You can also select from various bundles and decide how you spend your day.

Saturday, December 19th

11:00 a.m. EST: Interactive Guitar Workshop with Stephane Wrembel

This guitar workshop is a master class on rhythm and improvisation in the context of the Django Reinhardt style. Improvising is often thought to be a relationship between scales and chords, but in reality, it is about inventing melodies on the spot.  How does a melody work? What is the role of harmony and rhythm in creating melodies? And how did Django Reinhardt conceive it?

The workshop is open to all ages, levels, and instruments.  Participants will be able to submit questions to Mr. Wrembel to which he will respond.

3:00 p.m. EST: The Django Experiment

For this show, Wrembel will primarily perform songs from his 2020 release, The Django Experiment V, accompanied by long-time collaborators Thor Jensen (guitar), Ari Folman Cohen (bass), Nick Anderson (drums) with special guests Nick Driscoll on saxophone and clarinet and Daisy Castro on violin.

9:00 p.m. EST: Django a Gogo All-Stars

A full 8 piece band will perform the traditional Django Reinhardt repertoire for the grand finale of Django a Go Go.  This supergroup, including Wrembel, Thor Jensen (guitar), Ari Folman Cohen (bass), Nick Anderson (drums), Nick Driscoll (saxophone and clarinet), Daisy Castro (violin) with special guests David Langlois (washboard) and Josh Kaye (oud and guitar), quite simply presents some of the most highly regarded jazz musicians in the country on one stage for a magical night of music in a setting conducive to improvisation with each musician pushing their own boundaries to evoke new interpretations of Reinhardt’s music as well as a few songs by other jazz and gypsy jazz composers.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS  (you can also click the “Info & Tickets” button at the top right of this page).

With the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.