A tribute to Django Reinhardt can be an expected, relatively easy thing to do if you play jazz guitar, especially if your name is Romane, a spearhead on the gypsy-jazz scene. Yet this «tribute album» from Romane deliberately goes against the grain in imagining the Master’s caravan coming to a halt outside the New York label Blue Note’s studios in the early 60’s. As you might guess from its decidedly “Sixties” title, Romane peppers Django’s compositions with the then-nascent jazz-soul groove of musicians like Jimmy Smith, Brother Jack McDuff and Lonnie Smith. Goodbye “pump”, goodbye traditional swing… Here Romane is in the company of an unavoidable duo—Benoît Sourisse (Hammond organ), Andre Charlier (drums)—and bassist Marc Michel Le Bevillon. A success when first released, this album heralded “Roots & Groove” which surfaced nine years later (FA537), an album where Romane explored jazz-funk in an even more clear-cut vein. Augustin BONDOUX
