Stephane Wrembel, one of the foremost experts on the legendary Django Reinhardt’s jazz manouche guitar style, is playing San Antonio club Jazz, TX on Thursday evening.
Wrembel is touring to promote his new album, Django New Orleans II — Hors -Série, a blend of New Orleans jazz and the “gypsy jazz” style Reinhardt pioneered. The album includes fresh takes on several classics in the Reinhardt, French jazz and New Orleans jazz repertoire in addition to several original compositions by Wrembel.
The standards getting a new twist include “La vie en rose,” famously sung by Édith Piaf. Another recognizable standard associated with Piaf joined by Robert Chauvigny and his orchesra, titled “La Foule,” also gets a rendition on the album, which dropped Nov. 14.
Typically a purely instrumental artist, this album also features Wrembel’s debut as a vocalist.
Like Reinhardt, who lived and worked in Paris for most of his life in the early 20th century, Wrembel is a resident of a town the capital city’s outskirts. And also like his jazz manouche forebear, Wrembel learned to play in the Romani camps of Europe.
Wrembel’s original compositions have landed in a number of Hollywood releases, particularly those hoping to convey a sense of place in Paris, including Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris.
Wrembel has been lauded by high profile publications including the New York Times, who described him as “perhaps the most creative improviser in Gypsy jazz today,” adding that “Mr. Wrembel plays the guitar with a rich and colorful lyricism.”
Tickets are almost sold out for both tonight’s 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. show, though a handful remain for both, at a price of $28. Wrembel and his equally masterful trio last played Jazz, TX — the basement jazz club at the Pearl — in January, for which both shows also nearly sold out.
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