Pearl Django - Under Paris Skies (2002)

Neil Andersson, Guitar; Michael Gray, Violin; Dudley Hill, Gibson L-5; Rick Leppanen, String Bass. Special Guests:David Lange, Accordion (Tracks 1, 3, 10 & 15); Doug Mckenna, Guitar; Greg Ruby, Guitar.

The Pacific Northwest-based American Gipsy Swing formation Pearl Django pays tribute to the genre's originator not only by name. Their record label is Modern Hot Records, another graceful bow to the original Hot Club of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. Under Paris Skies even appropriates the original locale to conjure up a present-day bohemian Manouche/Sinti setting of musical French outdoor cafes and bistros where this type of ensemble - lead guitar, rhythm guitar, double bass, violin, sometimes accordion or clarinet -- still keeps the flame alive.

While not of the ungodly virtuoso caliber of a Jimmy Rosenberg, Romane, Stochelo Rosenberg, Angelo Debarre, Frank Vignola or Fapy Lafertin, Neil Andersson's lead guitar is firmly planted in this at times snazzy, at times wistfully romantic milieu. Bolstered by seven original compositions and 9 others -- only two of which are Reinhardt/Grappelli tunes -- the group wisely concentrates on lighthearted charm that doesn't require diabolical chops to make this album a wonderfully evocative mood setter. Even the novice will peg the proper scene in an instant.

If Paris is the city of love, then Pearl Django's music is its flirtatious accompaniment. Shimmying and bopping along on the jauntily swinging shrum-shrum of Dudley Hill's Gibson L-5 and Rick Leppanen's solid bass lines, the amiable feel-good riff trading between solo guitar and Michael Gray's violin has that laissez-faire, lazy-cool sophistication foreigners go to Paris for to catch and cultivate. Michael's thick-throated fiddle sashays along with minimal effort on the bow, like an old Cuban son dancer barely shuffling his feet yet floating with tireless elegance.