Recorded at the 2018 Newport Jazz Festival, this set finds saxophonist James Carter picking up where he left off in Chasin’ the Gypsy, his 2000 tribute to Django Reinhardt, recasting some of the fabled guitarist’s most venerated pieces as funk-seasoned organ trio workouts.
The idea might strike some Reinhardt diehards as apostasy, but in fact, for all his legendary virtuosity and innovative genius, Django’s music was freely accessible. And while it might be stretching things to call it the pop-jazz fusion of its day, it incorporated elements of contemporary vernacular music—the street songs and saloon songs of Paris—along with Django’s own Romani heritage, his intuitive grasp of the European classical tradition, and swing-era American jazz. With a few modifications in cuisine and libations, there wouldn’t be too much difference in feel between the Parisian clubs where Reinhardt held forth in the 1930s and ’40s and an uptown show lounge half a century later.
