A sultry taste of Gypsy jazz

By WILLIE J. ALLEN JR., Times Staff
Published October 21, 2007

Not many people know about it. It's a well-kept secret. There isn't a secret handshake or password.

All you need to know is the time, date and location.

In this room, cool cats do not gesticulate, grind or crash into one another on a dance floor. They sit, smile and savor the sounds as they nod their heads to this bold style of jazz.

The timbre of the two improvising guitars resonates in the dark candlelit room. The thoom, thoom, thoom, thoom, thoom of the standup bassist's fingers on steel strings bounces from the room's low ceiling. Sweet, soft, sultry melodies flow from the violin in the sparsely crowded room.

And the accordion breathes a different kind of jazz into the amber glow of the room tonight.

Gypsy jazz grew popular in the late 1920s and 1930s in and around Paris. In small, smoky venues like this, Django Reinhardt - the Gypsy guitarist, banjo and violin player with no formal training - inspired this form of jazz music.

The five members of Impromptu laid down their version of Gypsy jazz favorites like Nuages, French for Clouds, for the baby boomer crowd: band leader Larry Camp, 55,, on guitar; Greg Wickstrom, 32, on bass; Fikret Ibrisovic, 43, on accordion; Eugene Bazhanov, 39, on violin; and Nikola Baltic, 39, also on guitar.

Tapping their feet on the basement floor and plinking their fingers on the base of the red wine glasses, this crowd embraced the flamboyant style of European jazz.

If you'd like to check out a sweet spot where musicians improvise, try the Palladium in St. Petersburg for Side Door Jazz.

[Last modified October 21, 2007, 00:58:46]