Gypsy Jazz – Django

Join the adventure and experience the rich array of artistry behind the great performances on stage at the Kennedy Center.

Discover the sizzling hot legacy of Django Reinhardt and gypsy jazz. Produced by Performance Plus™.

The Django Reinhardt Festival, celebrating the music of the guitarist who, with the late jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, founded Le Jazz Hot movement in Paris in the 1930s, was co-produced by Stratta/Phillips Productions.

Gypsy Jazz – Django

Dr. Billy Taylor, the distinguished ambassador from the world of jazz to the world at large, has served as the Kennedy Center’s Artistic Director for Jazz since 1994 and has developed numerous ongoing concert series and the KC Jazz Club. His live show, “Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy Center,” was produced and recorded by the Center and National Public Radio for an eight-year series of radio programs broadcast throughout the United States. The Billy Taylor Trio inaugurated the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage on March 1, 1997, giving the first of the daily 6 P.M. free programs. In October 2001, Dr. Taylor presented to the Library of Congress his jazz collection and memorabilia assembled over more than 65 years, the largest and most inclusive jazz archive ever acquired by the Library. The Kennedy Center celebrated Dr. Taylor’s 80th year on January 20, 2002, with an all-star celebration in the Eisenhower Theater. Billy Taylor was born in Greenville, North Carolina, in 1921 and grew up in Washington, D.C. After graduating from Virginia State University, he moved to New York City where he made his first professional jazz appearance with Ben Webster. Throughout the 1940s Billy Taylor played with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Machito, Coleman Hawkins, Eddie South, Stuff Smith, and Slam Stewart. As the house pianist at Birdland (1949–1951), he supported many of that era’s jazz standouts, including Dizzy Gillespie. Since then he has performed predominantly as the leader of his own trios, which have, over the years, featured such great supporting players as Ed Thigpen, Earl May, Oscar Pettiford, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Jo Jones, Victor Gaskin, Freddie Waits, and most recently Chip Jackson and Winard Harper. Dr. Taylor has written many works on various jazz-related subjects including the first book ever written on bebop piano. He has some 300 songs to his credit, including “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free,” featured as the theme for the film Ghosts of Mississippi.  He has also been commissioned by numerous artistic organizations to create works combining jazz and orchestral music, music for dance, and civic occasions. Dr. Taylor is also considered to be the foremost jazz educator of our time, from co-founding community grass roots efforts such as Jazzmobile, and programs focusing on young people and adults to master classes and seminars for professionals. He holds the position of Wilber D. Barrett Chair of Music at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University, and holds an additional 22 honorary degrees. Dr. Taylor received an Emmy Award for his segment on Quincy Jones on CBS News Sunday Morning. The Center for Research in Black Culture designated Dr. Taylor as one of the top 100 Black New Yorkers of the 20th Century.  He was named an NEA Jazz Master in 1988. He received the Grammy Trustees Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in a non-performing capacity, in February 2005.  On March 3, 2007, Dr. Taylor was one of the many jazz luminaries honored  by the Kennedy Center with the “Living Jazz Legend Award” during the Jazz In Our Time Celebration opening gala. Dr. Taylor has close to 50 recordings as a leader. On March 31, 2005, the Kennedy Center released Taylor Made at the Kennedy Center—a compilation CD focusing on Billy Taylor’s original compositions, performed by the Billy Taylor Trio and other artists at the Kennedy Center.  Dr. Taylor has decided to dedicate the remainder of his career to advocacy for the music that he loves by imparting his vast knowledge and wisdom to the thousands of young musicians who follow in his footsteps. 

Dorado Schmitt, a guitarist and violinist born in 1957 in St-Avold, Lorraine, France, is a manouche guitar legend. He became known to audiences for his creation and performance of the original sound track of Latcho Drom – a movie that related the real story of the Rom people moving from India to the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Raised on traditional music, he became interested in Santana and Jimmy Hendrix in his teens, but after a time returned to the gypsy music of his family. In 1978 he created the Dorado Trio with fellow musicians Gino Reinhardt on double bass and Hono Winterstein on guitar. In 1988 he began playing the violin as well as the guitar and formed a new band in 1990. One of the most gifted guitarists of his genre, Mr. Schmitt’s compositions such as “Bossa Dorado” and “Natacha” have been recorded by several artists. His albums as leader include Parisienne, Gypsy Friends, and Djieske (on which his son Samson appears as both accompanying guitarist and composer of several titles). He can also be heard on Rendez-Vous with Pierre Blanchard (December 2004). Among the many honors he has received over the years, Mr. Schmitt won the Django Award at the 2001 Django Reinhardt Festival in Reinhardt’s hometown of Luttre-Liberchies. Since 2001, Mr. Schmitt has performed annually in New York during the Django week at Birdland with artists including Angelo Debarre, the Ferré brothers, Paquito D’Rivera, James Carter, and his son. He has also performed with George Benson and Bireli Lagrene. Mr. Schmitt appeared in the KC Jazz Club in January 2004 as part of the Center’s first Django Reinhardt Festival, and again on October 27–29, 2005.

Samson Schmitt, guitarist, has appeared in festivals and clubs throughout Europe and in major U.S. cities. Born in 1979, he learned to play the guitar from his father, Dorado Schmitt. Mr. Schmitt’s own music melds various influences: Django Reinhardt’s manouche jazz, the technical perfection of his father, and George Benson, Didier Lockwood, Richard Galliano, Bireli Lagrene, Toots Thielemanns, Florin Niculescu, Sylvain Luc, and Angelo Debarre. Between 1990 and 1999, Mr. Schmitt played with the Dorado Schmitt Quintet, the Kakiweiss Group, and with Hono and Gino Reinhardt. In 2000 and 2001, he performed with Alexandre Cavaziere, Tchavolo Schmitt, Angelo Debarre, and Jimmy Rosenberg. He also leads and performs with his own group, the Samson Schmitt Quartet, with Domonique di Piazza as a frequent guest. He appeared in the 2002 Django Reinhardt Festival produced by Pat Philips and Ettore Stratta at Birdland in New York, and in the KC Jazz Club in January 2004 as part of the Center’s first Django Reinhardt Festival, and again on October 27–29, 2005.

Ludovic Beier, a master of the accordion, performs throughout France and Europe at festivals including Burzhausen near Munich. He has also appeared in numerous clubs with some of the top players of the Django/swing/ jazz style, including Angelo Debarre, Florin Niculescu and Dorado Schmitt. Mr. Beier performed at the 2002 Django Reinhardt Festival produced by Pat Philips and Ettore Stratta at Birdland in New York City, and in the KC Jazz Club in January 2004 as part of the Center’s first Django Reinhardt Festival. In addition to his virtuoso playing, Mr. Beier composes, arranges, and also leads his own band. Mr. Beier appeared in the KC Jazz Club in January 2004 as part of the Center’s first Django Reinhardt Festival, and again on October 27–29, 2005.

Florin Niculescu is a Rumanian classical and jazz violinist who has also established a reputation as one of the world’s leading swing violinists. His international career includes performances at major festivals, clubs, and concert halls throughout Europe where he has recorded and performed with many top artists, including Bireli Lagrene, Babik Reinhardt, Dorado Schmitt, Stocholo Rosenberg, Didier Lockwood, and Jimmy Rosenberg. In the United States, Mr. Niculescu has appeared in New York at The Django Reinhardt Festival live at Birdland with American violinist Regina Carter and guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. He appeared in the KC Jazz Club in January 2004 as part of the Center’s first Django Reinhardt Festival.

Brian Torff, music program director at Fairfield University, is a featured bass soloist and performs with his seven-piece band Thunderstick, as well as the Union trio and many other groups. He appears in jazz festivals around the U.S., has founded the Fairfield University Summer Jazz Camp, and has served as cochair of the music advisory board for the National Endowment for the Arts. His professional career began in 1974 when bassist Milt Hinton offered him the opportunity to tour with Dame Cleo Laine. During the late’70s he recorded and performed with pianists Mary Lou Williams and Marian McPartland, and toured Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong with violin virtuoso Stephane Grappelli. He played in pianist Erroll Garner’s last group and worked in the big bands of Oliver Nelson and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra. In 1979, Mr. Torff joined in a duo with pianist George Shearing. In over three years of collaboration, they toured throughout the U.S., Europe, Brazil, and South Africa and were featured on the NBC Tonight Show, the Merv Griffin Show, and their own PBS special from New York’s Cafe Carlyle. They received worldwide acclaim and were invited to perform at the White House in 1982 for President Reagan. Their third album won a Grammy for vocalist Mel Torme. Mr. Torff is also a composer who has contributed works for records with George Shearing, Larry Coryell, and his own Hitchhiker of Karoo, Manhattan Hoe-Down, and Workin’ on a Bassline. He has written scores that have been performed by the Boston Pops, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Pittsburgh Symphony. He is a regular columnist for Jazz Improv magazine. Mr. Torff appeared in the KC Jazz Club in January 2004 as part of the Center’s first Django Reinhardt Festival, and again on October 27–29, 2005.