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Our Review

Unexpectedly (from Nashville of all places), comes a jazz band steeped in the tradition of Stephan Grappelli and Django Reinhardt, whose pure and alarmingly authentic sound threatens to give jazz back its good name. I am listening to their remarkable, acoustically unsurpassed Django Bells, purportedly a Christmas production, but offering jazz riffing better than anything I've heard on a holiday record.

Oh, here and there they remind me I'm listening to Christmas music, but halfway through listening to it and my attention was focused almost exclusively on their stylistic referents and masterful musicianship. Hitting never a wrong note, either in fact or interpretation, the Hombres literally burn through a standard Christmas set in a way that pays tribute to the season and their influences without any of the sugary gratuitousness that so often emanates from Nashville's chief export.

Highlights include You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch and Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but the story here is much more about how the Hombres play than what. Don't miss out.

--Richard Banks
(Reviewed in 2002)

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From the liner notes:

Not your father's Nashville act, the Gypsy Hombres have staked an uncontested claim to authentic roots Jazz in a town where the alphabet doesn't even have a j or a z.

The Gypsy Hombres are David Spicher, bass; Peter Hyrka, violin, violalin, mandolin, accordian, percussion; Justin Thompson, guitars. Billed as a "gypsy, swing band", they carry on the tradition of hot jazz legends Django Reinhardt and Stephan Grappelli and are definitely an up-and-coming band to watch.

Gypsy Hombres

Django Bells

Artist link

Track List