'Paris of the Piedmont': Festival brings jazz manouche genre to Chapel Hill-Carrboro

EDITOR’S NOTE: The term “gypsy jazz” is an offensive slur against Romani people. The term “manouche jazz” is the contemporary term, but this article contains some references to the outdated term in direct quotes and the title of the event. 

Over the weekend, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area celebrated jazz manouche, formerly known as "gypsy jazz," with the fourth Carrboro Django Reinhardt Festival. 

Django Reinhardt was a Belgian-French Manouche jazz guitarist and pioneer of the jazz manouche style. A blend of American ragtime, jazz and traditional French jazz, jazz manouche is often centered in string instruments and has its own set of distinct standards. 

“His previous music was either gypsy folk music or these French waltzes that he played as a kid. [Reinhardt] also played and listened to a lot of classical music, so there’s all that influence, plus the American jazz,” Gabriel Pelli, the festival’s coordinator said. “It’s like this fusion.”

The festival began Thursday afternoon with a workshop at the Cat’s Cradle Back Room. Friday night, Joscho Stephan and Sven Jungbeck, musicians from Germany, performed at Cat’s Cradle Back Room and Saturday night, French musicians Simba Baumgartner, Reinhardt’s great-great grandson, and Adrien Marco followed suit. Each of these guests is part of a movement to carry on the tradition of Django Reinhardt and jazz manouche.   

“The mission of the festival is to bring the top talent in the genre from all over the world,” Pelli said. “This year we had an amazing lineup.”

Sunday evening, a group of musicians gathered for the final event of the festival: The "Gypsy Jazz Jam & Hang." Nestled by the entrance at Chapel Hill bar Lapin Bleu, violinists, guitarists and a vocalist transported listeners to Paris through the French jazz performance, paying homage to Reinhardt in the process. 

Members of Sunday’s lively crowd were brought to the festival with varying knowledge of Reinhardt and his influence.

“I used to go to a jazz jam in Houston every week when I lived there, and so some of the players, it wasn’t always music like this, but some of the players played gypsy jazz,” attendee Mike Cline said. 

Cline said that once he heard about the festival, an evening of live music sounded like a fun environment to enjoy the jazz style. 

Leigh-Ann Lethco, another attendee on Sunday, said that she had never heard the manouche style of jazz before. 

“I heard a story on NPR about this, the style of music, and they talked about the artists and that there was going to be a festival,” Lethco said. 

Lethco said that once she heard about the festival, she looked it up and decided it would be a good opportunity to learn more.  

Lapin Bleu itself has origins in the manouche style. Owner Mike Benson modeled the bar’s ambience off of his visits to Paris jazz cafes such as La Chope des Puces, which has been referred to as the “Temple of Gypsy Jazz.”

Pelli, who has been playing jazz manouche for 15 years, said that because of the style’s small community in America, there are few festivals celebrating it.

“I wanted to bring top notch gypsy jazz players here, and normally they don’t, they barely come to the States at all,” Pelli said. “And if they do, they come to the big cities. Just getting to hear them myself is awesome, and hang out and jam and to expose others to it.”

Pelli said that it was important for the community to educate younger people on the jazz manouche style so that the scene in the U.S. could continue to grow and reach greater relevance, making the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area a prime location for his festival. 

“They used to always call [Carrboro] the Paris of the Piedmont, so we’re actually making it happen,” Pelli said.

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