French guitar virtuoso Stephane Wrembel moved to the United States 26 years ago and has made Maplewood, New Jersey his home. After a robust touring schedule, he returns home to play the inaugural Union Jazz Festival on August 21. The festival has a star-studded lineup curated by local music impresario Mike Griot. There will be free outdoor shows August 21-23 outside the Union Arts Center and ticketed indoor shows in their DMK Black Box Theater on the Friday and Saturday nights. Wrembel is playing on a bill with local jazz guitar prodigy Marel Hidalgo.
Wrembel grew up in Fontainebleau, France under the influence of the late guitarist Django Reinhardt. He embraced and now embodies Reinhardt’s playing, but he rarely plays the master’s material straight. In fact, two recent albums Django New Orleans and Django New Orleans II: Hors Serie feature a large ensemble of nine players, lending a Big Easy feel to the songs. Whereas Reinhardt’s band featured just guitars, bass, and violin, this time Wrembel has added singers, drums, a horn section, and more. On the most recent record, he even makes his recording singing debut. It’s difficult to wrangle such a large band of busy musicians, but Wrembel has booked the whole unit for a three-night engagement at The Pocket in New York City from November 6-8 to play the Django New Orleans songs.
Wrembel is the authentic article. He became a gypsy jazz guitar expert by traveling through Europe to embed himself with actual gypsies and playing with them. Normally very leery of outsiders, they embraced Stephane’s true heart, his quest for knowledge, and desire to spread their mystical music to the world. Spending some time living outside traditional modern society seems to have given the artist a healthy and philosophical view on life. “I don’t have to regret anything about the past or expect things from the future, things are what they are. I try, for my soul, to stay true to nature and the gods and I try not have my mind distracted by ambient theater, that you hear a lot on social media and the news and all that. I’m disconnected from that. I’m not interested. Just (interested) in poetry, music, literature, theater, all that stuff.”
At the Union Jazz Festival, Wrembel will summon the musical gods in an intimate configuration. “I’m going to be in a duet with my friend, Charlie Castelluzzo, who is a great rhythm player and a great soloist. We have a very good connection, him and I, two guitars,” he said. “I think this time we’re going to play mostly a lot of Django, traditional French waltzes, musette. It’s a thing that belongs to Paris, more than France it’s really Parisian. That’s what Django trained on, is playing the musette dances. Some of these waltzes have the most beautiful melodies.”
The performance promises to be a memorable one.
