It took a decade to bring the Rosenberg Trio back to the United States.
Chalk that delay up to a busy schedule and a little anxiety around airports.
“Nous’che and Nonnie (Rosenberg) don’t like to fly,” Stochelo Rosenberg said.
The Dutch gypsy jazz trio will grace Whidbey Island’s DjangoFest Northwest with the group’s only appearance in the United States this year.
The festival, a five-day celebration of legendary gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, runs Wednesday through Sept. 28 at various sites in Langley. The Rosenberg Trio will close the festival with concerts on Sept. 27 and 28.
The trio’s appearance — and really DjangoFest itself — was the brainchild of Nick Lehr, DjangoFest’s artistic director. He started the festival with the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in 2001 as a single-day event with just two acts.
It took off, however. This year, the festival lasts five days, bringing 17 bands to town and drawing an expected crowd of 2,500 to Langley, a city with a population of 959.
Organizers said the expansion of DjangoFest — pronounced with a silent “d” — can be blamed on the happy sound of gypsy jazz.
“Sometimes you think of jazz music as being more elitist, kind of an egghead pursuit, but gypsy jazz is very accessible,” Lehr said. “You don’t really need to have a degree in music theory to approach it.”
Lehr has been trying to bring the Rosenberg Trio, a group of two brothers and one cousin ranging in age from 40 to 52, to the festival for years. He called them “the greatest trio ever.”
“You think of Django music, you think of … the Parisian sound with three guitars and a violin,” he said. “The Rosenbergs kind of updated the music and made everything a little faster and a little more rhythmic.”
In part, those innovations grew out of the fact that the Rosenbergs were simply a trio. The group’s makeup ran contrary to traditional interpretations of the music since the Rosenbergs could only use two guitars and a bass.
The family also shared an unusually close kinship to Reinhardt. The Dutch family grew up listening to his music and belonged to his gypsy tribe, the Sinti.
“What inspires me about Django is that he was the only one in Europe that came with a new style in the jazz music in the early ’30s and ’40s,” Stochelo Rosenberg said during a break from recording in Paris. “Also because he was a gypsy like me.”
That close bond to the music infects the trio’s sound — much as it does the entire festival.
During the five-day event, fans can be seen walking the streets of Langley with their guitars in hand, ready to play in restaurants and coffeehouses. After the music ends each night, devotees sometimes congregate at the Edgecliff Bar and Grill in Langley.
“We call them ‘after hour djams,’ ” said Stacie Burgua, executive director at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts. “That is a huge part (of the festival). Those are free, anyone can attend, and they’re a bit spontaneous.”
Just like jazz and Django himself.
Reporter Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455 or arathbun@heraldnet.com.
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