In the Spirit of Django takes place on 23 Sep 2017 at The Queen’s Hall , Edinburgh, 19.30 Tickets here.
The music of legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt will be performed by the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and guitar virtuoso Martin Taylor.
The Edinburgh Reporter caught up with Edinburgh based guitarist Joshua Seex to get his thoughts on the upcoming gig.
Why is Django Reinhardt such an important and influential guitarist?
So his contemporaries, who are they?
Martin Taylor not only played with Stéphane Grappelli (one of the musicians who played in Django’s original line up in Paris), he was hand picked by Grappeli. Martin Taylor must be a pretty decent guitarist?
Django had a tumultuous life, as a Romany Gypsy born in Belgium, a minority who were being persecuted across Europe, this must have put enormous strain on his professional life.
He also lost the use of two fingers in an accidental fire in his youth. How did he adapt his playing to overcome this?
If I wanted to learn to play some Gypsy Jazz in the style of Django Reinhardt, where would I start?
So Martin Taylor is playing with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, why is it such an exciting gig to look out for?
