Editor's info:
In the months leading to his death in 1953, the innovative guitarist Django Reinhardt expressed regret that he would soon be forgotten and wind up a parenthesis in the history of jazz. But today the elegant, swinging “jazz manouche” that he invented and developed is as vibrant and alive as ever. No one has done more to carry the torch and create interest for this music than the amazing Dorado Schmitt. He is considered a leading figure on the international gypsy jazz scene. He is a unique musical ambassador, whose mere name fills gypsy jazz aficionados with enthusiasm.
He tours all over the world with his band. It is true that we can no longer experience Django on stage, but Dorado and his group are more than next best.
Dorado was born in St. Avold, Lorraine in 1957. He grew up in a musical family, which played traditional Roma music and gypsy jazz. He began playing at the age of seven, and despite a time in his teenage years, when he revolted and began playing electric guitar in imitation of Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana, he still learned every detail in Django’s style.
In 1978 he formed the popular Dorado Trio with Gino Reinhardt on upright bass and Hono Winterstein on guitar. In 1988 a traffic accident put him in a coma for eleven days and could have ended his career, but he fought his way back, and two years later he reformed his band. After his return to music, Dorado plays guitar and violin with equal vitality.
Dorado Schmitt is among the very best heirs to the music of Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli and Le Quintette de Hot Club du France. Its origins reach back to the old French ballroom musettes played by people who earned their living through craft, trade and music. In the Belgian Walloon region they played mussette music, and in the Pyrenees they played the music that we now associate with groups like The Gypsy Kings. When American jazz reached Europe in the 1920R....... więcej