Photograph of Afternoon In Paris sourced from;
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BRECON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2024

‘JAZZ & FILM WEEKEND’, THE MUSE ARTS CENTRE

DAY TWO, SUNDAY 18th AUGUST 2024

The second day of Brecon Jazz Festival’s Jazz and Film Weekend embraced a Gypsy Jazz theme with the screening of a film about the guitarist Django Reinhardt, followed in the evening by a live music performance by the South Wales based group Afternoon In Paris and their guest, pianist, violinist and vocalist Mike Hatchard.

“DJANGO”

“Django” is a French film from 2017 directed by Etienne Comar and is based on the novel “Folles de Django” by Alexis Salatko, who co-wrote the screenplay with Comar. It is a fictionalised account of Django Reinhardt’s experiences in German occupied France and his attempt to escape to neutral Switzerland. The dialogue is almost entirely in French and the film was presented here with English subtitles.

Born in Belgium in 1910 of Manouche / Sinti heritage Reinhardt was a virtuoso guitarist and an intuitive composer who helped to popularise the guitar as a jazz instrument. In 1934 he formed the highly renowned Quintette du Hot Club de France with violinist Stephane Grappelli, a group that became internationally famous. The Quintette played in the UK before the war and Reinhardt also worked in Paris with visiting American musicians.

The Quintette was actually touring in Britain when World War 2 broke out. Grappelli chose to remain in the UK for the duration of the war, but Reinhardt returned to Paris, where he established a new version of the group.

Comar’s film begins in dramatic and brutal fashion. The opening shot is of a gypsy encampment with caravans and horses and musicians playing guitars and violins around the campfire. The caption reads “Ardennes, 1943”. Two young boys are out gathering kindling, they are shot by Nazi soldiers who then descend on the camp and gun down the musicians, including the old, blind guitarist and singer who is the leader of the musical group.

The scene cuts to Paris, where Reinhardt, played by Reda Kateb, is fishing for catfish in the Seine. He is due to be entertaining an audience of French civilians and Nazi officers at a prestigious Parisian theatre. As a Romani Gypsy Reinhardt offends German ideas about racial purity but he is tolerated by the Nazi regime thanks to his talents as a musician and entertainer and his usefulness as a propaganda tool.

By being late he is already cocking a snook at the Germans, something that he also does through his music. The Nazis decried jazz as ‘degenerate nigger or monkey music’, but such was its popularity in Europe by this time that they found it difficult to suppress it entirely.  Instead they tried to impose musical rules – no swing, no blues, no syncopation, truncated solos etc. – that Reinhardt and his fellow musicians took great delight in flouting. Dancing is forbidden at this Paris concert, but heads are nodding vigorously from the start, and dancing eventually breaks out.

The soundtrack for the film features the playing of the modern day gypsy jazz musician Stochelo Rosenberg, considered by many to be the greatest living gypsy jazz guitarist. Rosenberg played at the 2019 Brecon Jazz Festival, leading his own Quintette at a concert held at Theatr Brycheiniog. It was a hugely exciting performance that featured some of the finest gypsy jazz playing that I have ever heard. That show is reviewed elsewhere on this site as part of that year’s Festival coverage.

The “Django” movie soundtrack also includes the violin playing of the Australian musician Warren Ellis, perhaps best known for his collaborations with the singer and songwriter Nick Cave.

The Paris concert also introduces us to two other key characters in the film, including Reinhardt’s feisty and indomitable mother, Negros,  played by Bimbam Merstein, who acts as his unofficial manager. There is also the mysterious Louise de Klerk (Cecile de France), the ‘Queen of Montparnasse Nights’ , who ingratiates herself with the German hierarchy while continuing to work with the French Resistance.

The success of the Paris concert leads to Reinhardt’s official manager liaising with the Germans with a view to Reinhardt touring Germany itself, the tour representing a kind of propaganda exercise. Initially it’s a lucrative offer that the guitarist is inclined to accept, arguing that the war and its associated horrors is none of his business -  “it’s a gadjo war, gypsies don’t fight wars”. It is only when he hears of the death of Blind Man Weiss, killed in the film’s opening scene, and of the further restrictions that will be placed on his music that he becomes less enamoured with the idea, feigning injury in an attempt to pull out of the German tour.

Reinhardt is subsequently detained by German police and examined by German doctors, who declare that his deformed left hand, famously irreparably damaged in a caravan fire, is the result of centuries of in-breeding. Nevertheless he is deemed to have passed the medical and is declared fit to tour the ‘Fatherland’.

Reinhardt discusses the tour with his wife Naguine, but it is his former lover Louise de Klerk, with her inside knowledge of the German regime, who suggests that Reinhardt and his family should try to escape to neutral Switzerland.

The Reinhardt family move to a house by a lake in Thonon-les-Bains near the Swiss border while they wait for the chance to cross. Reinhardt plays music with gypsies from a nearby encampment and reinforces his ties with the Roma community as he hears first hand of further Nazi atrocities committed against his people.

He and his family are then moved on from the house by the lake and placed under a kind of house arrest along with the other members of the gypsy camp.

Meanwhile de Klerk has been active, helping to arrange a performance by Reinhardt at a Nazi occupied château on the lake, the premise being that the distraction caused by this will allow the Resistance the opportunity to facilitate the crossing of escapees into Switzerland.

It’s a ruse that works, but at considerable cost. The concert is stopped due to the ‘degenerate’ nature of the music and the gypsy encampment is subsequently torched by the Germans.

It is time for the Reinhardt family to make their escape and Django, his mother Negros and his wife Naguine are seen trekking through thick snow, which had previously not been in evidence, in the mountains. Negros and Naguine are exhausted by the climb and Django leaves them, hopefully to be rescued by members of the Resistance, and carries on alone. Chased by Nazi soldiers with dogs, but still carrying his guitar he uses the instrument to dig a hole in the snow, hiding as his pursuers pass by.

The timeline then cuts to 1945 and Reinhardt’s triumphant return to Paris following Liberation. He is seen conducting his “Requiem for Gypsy Brothers”, a classical work in the style of a Latin Mass played on a mighty pipe organ alongside choirs and strings. It forms the musical backdrop for the last shot of the film, this featuring black and white photographs of Romanis killed by the Nazis or simply gone missing during the War. As the camera pans out we see that there are literally thousands of them. It’s a very moving moment and one that emphasises the horrors of the Nazi regime and their devastating effect on the Romani people.

“Django” begins and ends brilliantly with Comar making a very salient point about the treatment of the Gypsy people by the Nazis. Around a million Romani were killed across Europe during the war, the forgotten victims of the Holocaust.

However it was the rest of the film that I found less convincing as I found myself wondering “just how much of this true?”. Apparently Reinhardt did make two attempts to escape to Switzerland but was first captured by the Germans and then turned back by the Swiss. He was forced to return to Paris on both occasions and remained musically active throughout the war years, remaining safe thanks in part to the patronage of a jazz loving Luftwaffe officer,  Dietrich Schulz-Köhn.

The character of ‘Louise de Klerk’ is entirely fictitious and the scene where Reinhardt hides in the snow feels ludicrous, surely trained dogs would have sniffed him out. We are led to believe that his fictionalised escape attempt is successful, although this is never actually made implicit.

Of course the film contains some terrific music and there are many enjoyable and humorous moments, it’s not all doom and gloom. The famously moustachioed Reinhardt scoffs at Hitler’s facial hair and the moment when Negros browbeats a bar owner into paying Django more money to play at his venue is hilarious.

The film is structured as a thriller, but with most of the audience members probably being fully aware that Django survived the war there was no real sense of jeopardy.

Also Reinhardt’s character is never really fully developed. He died from a stroke in 1953 so there only be a few people around who knew him personally. Of course he has been widely written about and the “Django” in the film feels like a distillation of those biographies, and hence a bit of a cliché.

“Django” has never had a British release and this was the first that the film has been screened in the UK. Apparently the Festival organisers had to go through some pretty complex negotiations to secure the right to show it, so thank you to them for that.

Most of those in attendance seemed to enjoy the film, as did I, but I suspect that many had fewer reservations than myself. However one was heard to comment that it was “all a bit ‘Sound of Music’”.

Reviews of the film have been mixed at best and I can certainly identify with the reservations of the critics and understand where they are coming from.

The short discussion after the film addressed Grappelli’s exile in England and the annual Festival celebrating of Django Reinhardt and the gypsy jazz genre at Samois-sur-Seine near Fontainebleau, Reinhardt’s home in later years. Some members of the audience, including some of the members of Afternoon In Paris, had attended and mentioned jamming around the clock with genuine gypsy musicians. The Festival is still a focus for the gypsy community despite increasing commercialisation and a recent move from Samois to Fontainebleau.

Reinhardt’s guitarist son Babik was mentioned, as were Django’s five grandchildren, who regularly attend the Samois / Fontainebleau Festival.

Grappelli’s UK tours of the 1970s and 80s were remembered, including the British guitarists who played with him, notably Diz Disley and Martin Taylor.

Of thetwo films screened over the course of the Weekend I have to say that I preferred “The Jazz Baroness”, a genuine investigative documentary rather than a fictionalised, thriller style ‘biopic’.

GARETH EVANS

At close to two hours duration “Django” was a long film and it was decided to screen it with a short interval.

Prior to the show and during the break locally based guitarist Gareth Evans provided music that some attendees treated as background music, while others listened more intently.

A versatile musician Evans has visited Brecon Jazz Club and Festival before in the company of blues vocalist / guitarist Bella Collins.

Today he performed material associated with Reinhardt, including the tunes “Limehouse Blues” and “Bossa Dorado”. His performance of the latter included the use of live looping techniques in order to create his own rhythm tracks.

Although largely ignored by some this was an impressive performance from a talented musician. One listener was so impressed that he purchased both of Gareth’s CDs.

Thank you Gareth for your most enjoyable contribution to the day’s events.

AFTERNOON IN PARIS with MIKE HATCHARD

Susanna Warren – vocals, clarinet, bass clarinet, melodica, Jeremy Taylor – guitar, Nick Kacal – double bass,
Paul Smith – drums
with Mike Hatchard – piano, violin, vocals

The French / Gypsy Jazz theme continued with this early evening performance by Afternoon In Paris, a locally based quartet named after a composition by MJQ pianist John Lewis. The band is   fronted by vocalist and clarinettist Susanna Warren and features guitarist Jeremy Young. These two constants perform with a variety of rhythm partners, their collaborators today being bassist Nick Kacal and Swansea based drummer Paul Smith.

For this special Festival performance the group was expanded to a quintet with the addition of guest musician Mike Hatchard, a versatile performer on piano, violin and vocals. Hastings based Hatchard has guested with the group before and has established a ready rapport with the members of the quartet.

The quintet began with “Douce Ambiance”, a tune very much associated with Django Reinhardt. This was a vocal version that featured Warren singing convincingly in French in addition to playing bass clarinet. She shared the instrumental solos with Young on arch-top electric guitar, Hatchard on upright acoustic piano and Kacal on double bass.

The Reinhardt composition “Heavy Artillery” was performed as an instrumental with Warren continuing on bass clarinet and again sharing the solos with Young, Hatchard and Kacal, with Smith offering crisp and succinct support from the kit.

The bass clarinet is an unusual instrument for gypsy jazz, a fact that Warren acknowledged as she demonstrated the extent of its range with a deep, foghorn like blast. I have to admit that as much as I love the instrument my first thought was that its sound was a little too lugubrious for this material, although in Warren’s hands I soon got used to it.

Hatchard switched to violin for “Coquette”, introducing the song in conjunction with Young’s guitar. He also handled the vocals,  delivering the lyrics in English and later soloing on violin. Warren was featured on bass clarinet and were also a series of instrumental exchanges between her and Hatchard, with the violinist now adopting the pizzicato technique. We also heard solos from Kacal and Young.

The samba stylings of “Brazil” saw Warren switching to conventional clarinet on an instrumental arrangement that saw her sharing the solos with Hatchard, now back on piano, and Young on guitar.

Warren informed us that “J’Attendrai” (“I Wait”) was adopted as an unofficial anthem by the French Resistance. Introduced by guitar and bass clarinet, later joined by piano, bass and brushed drums this was another piece that featured Warren singing the French lyric. Instrumental solos were featured from guitar, piano and bass clarinet.

“Minor Blues” was delivered in a slowed down arrangement featuring solos for guitar, double bass, bass clarinet and piano. Warren’s solo included a playful allusion to the “Pink Panther” theme, and she also added some wordless vocals.

Warren was featured on melodica during a performance of her original song “Te Quiero Siempre”, which, despite its title, featured an English language lyric. Introduced by a guitar and voice duet, plus pianistic embellishments the song subsequently developed a cha cha cha rhythm that acted as the vehicle for solos from guitar, melodica and piano.

Warren is a vivacious stage performer in addition to being a talented vocalist and instrumentalist. This became particularly apparent on the Diana Krall inspired original “Sing it, Sally”, a swinging, fast moving number featuring ‘hot’ clarinet and with Warren encouraging the audience to bellow the line “Sing that Song!”. It was all great fun and also included agile instrumental soloing from guitar, piano and clarinet.

The ever versatile “Caravan” got yet another airing, although it’s so adaptable and has been treated to so many different interpretations that I never get tired of it. Today’s lively version incorporated instrumental features for Warren on clarinet, Young on guitar, Hatchard on piano and finally Smith at the drums. The drummer had been an essential presence throughout, providing the music with the necessary rhythmic impetus in addition to chiming in with some witty verbal asides during the course of this lively and good natured performance.

Afternoon In Paris had clearly entertained and delighted their audience and took their leave as they encored with “The Sheikh of Araby”, with Warren and Hatchard sharing the vocals and with instrumental solos coming from Young on guitar, Warren on clarinet and Hatchard at the piano.

This was a group that clearly enjoyed playing their chosen music and their performance very much placed the emphasis on entertaining their audience, something that they did very successfully. This was something of a high profile gig for them and they were delighted with the rapturous audience response.

There was much to enjoy here, although I didn’t feel that the music was quite up to the standard of the Julian Costello Trio the previous evening.

Nevertheless this was a lively, entertaining and joyous show that ended a very successful Festival on an energetic note.

EPILOGUE

Festival organisers Lynne Gornall and Roger Cannon have announced that they will be taking a step back from organising the 2025 Festival, although they will continue to run Brecon Jazz Club and co-ordinate its regular monthly events.

They leave Brecon Jazz Festival in good health, having organised it every year since 2016, including a very successful ‘Virtual Festival’ in 2020 and a ‘Hybrid’ event in 2021.

They have secured charitable status for Brecon Jazz, which will cover both the Club and the Festival, and established a planning committee to co-ordinate the 2025 Festival.

Lynne and Roger deserve a well earned rest, having worked tirelessly for Brecon Jazz for the last eight years and more. Many, many thanks for everything that they have done, but although they will now be taking a bit more of a ‘back seat’ it’s good to know that they will still be involved.

After forty years and many, many changes and several different incarnations it’s good to know that Brecon Jazz, which has been a part of my life for so long, is still going strong and looking forward to an exciting future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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