An "enthralling evening of gypsy jazz and blues" in St Leonards

Remi will be joined by double bassist Tom Moore and rhythm guitarist Chris Nesbitt to deliver a show inspired by Django Reinhardt, Peter Green, Wes Montgomery, Jimi Hendrix and Joe Pass.

“I started playing gypsy jazz and hot club music when I was in my early 20s. I had a gypsy jazz trio for many years and then I had a break from doing that. I was doing other things. I went off and did some other genres and with other line-ups but I always had the occasional gypsy jazz gig here and there but this is actually the first proper tour of gypsy jazz that I have done for a few years now. But I did always play it even when I had a break from the music. I still played it at home. I just love playing that kind of music on my guitar. And it just felt like a good time to get back to it again. But the music never left me even when I was doing other job projects.

“Really gypsy jazz is the music that started off with Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. They played a style of swing jazz music that was very European in its flavour and it became very popular back then. A lot of people are Django fans and not just Django but also the people that he influenced and that picked up the style of music and carried it forwards. But for me he's one of the greatest guitar players ever. His influence has to be one of the biggest influences on guitar music of anybody. You could say that somebody like Jimi Hendrix had a huge impact as well but Django's impact was enormous. He started the whole genre. Other people were experimenting with genres that already existed but he actually started it. Django was a huge fan of American jazz music and he fused traditional gypsy music with American jazz. That was where everything grew out from.

“My granddad was a big Django fan. He used to play Django records on holiday and I didn't necessarily get into that when I was that young. When I first heard Django I should think I must have been still at primary school and I didn't really get into the music until later on. It was in my mid to late teens that I started really getting interested in it and then when I was in my early 20s U decided it was what I wanted to play. It's a very specific sound that the style has to have, and the guitar has to be slightly different in design. There are certain techniques that you can learn and you also need to know the standard repertoire. But the repertoire is as big as you want it to be. There are key tunes that you could learn, maybe ten or 20 songs but it also includes all the jazz standards repertoire. But another great thing about the genre is that it acts as a great platform to do your own thing and to bring your own influences in. We often play Beatles songs and other genres that the Django just wouldn't have known but it's something you could adapt into his style.”