Master guitarist, composer and educator Stephane Wrembel is coming off performances at the Monterey Jazz Festiv with his Triptych sextet and his 9 piece specialty group Django NOLA at the Middlesex County Jazz Festival in Woodbridge this past weekend.
Wrembel's Django NOLA group performs at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC on October 3.
Wrembel chats with WBGO's Doug Doyle about his new projects and his amazing career.
The guitarist who grew up wanting to have John Coltrane's creativity and listening to rock's legendary group Pink Floyd, would eventually gravitate toward his town's legendary player Django Reinhardt.
"I grew up in Fontainebleau (France) where Django lived and died. This is where his family lived. When we were young we used to have drinks with his son. We grew up among the community. Django was a strong presence in my town. I was 18 years old and really wanted to learn jazz, I had only played rock music with my guitar until then. I studied classical piano from 14 to 16. I started to play rock at 15. I wanted to play everything. Naturally, the first thing I studied in jazz was the music of Django Reinhardt. That just really blew my mind when I heard it live for the first time. I realized there was something in there that was not normal. I started to study with the gypsies and various grand masters and started to play at various gypsy camp sites. It was amazing, very alive and very natural."
Wrembel, who is also extremely proud of teaching his students, admits there's nothing like playing before a live audience.
"Yes and every concert is different. There's always a unique crowd. They're in a certain mood. There's a whole world there. We start playing and sending something in the crowd and then they send it back. I always considered a concert as a symposium. The music starts and we all start to plug in our imagination in our subconscious and staff, and somewhere and somehow we all start to connect."
Click here to see Stephane Wrembel's concert schedule.
You can SEE Doug Doyle's entire interview with Stephane Wrembel here.
