The Swing Kings

Alliance Francaise will resound with Harri Stojka and his Gypsy Swing Ensemble's jazz beats tonight

RYTHM, thrill and tempo are the three feelings you get when you lend an ear to the Gypsy Swing Ensemble.
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It's a one-night stand ufffd watch them perform live this evening. Harri Stojka and his band will share with Bangalore, the contagious and freewheeling spirit of gypsy jazz through three acoustic guitars and a snare drum.

"It is a kind of basic swing where the soloists help to create rhythmic and harmonic strings. Our music is heavily influenced by regional European music," says Heimo Wiederhofer, a drummer in the Gypsy Swing Ensemble.



The group was born in 2008, when four friends decided to come together to revive the tradition of gypsy swing as propagated by Django Reinhardt, a Belgian guitar player from the early 1930s.
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At present, the band features Stojka and Claudius Jelinek on the guitar,Wiederhofer on the snare drum and Karl Sayer on double bass.

The sound rendered by the band is deeply inspired by Stojka's Roma (or Romani as the gypsy tribe is known as) Gypsy background and thus each tune, each beat captures the carefree spirit of a bohemian life yet brings out the nuances of a flexible lifestyle.

The group not only maintains the style and repertoire of the original genre but also presents a perfect blend of swing music from America and the Roma Gypsy genre.
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Based solely on instruments, the tunes bring out the essence of a clan, which believes in living life to the fullest.

The band, which has previously performed twice in Bangalore, says that playing in India is a pure delight.

"The people here are more musically aware and open unlike many other places in Europe," says Wiederhofer.

"The best thing here is that if people like it they will openly show it," he added.

So if you want to do away with the weekday blues with some cool and experimental music, then this gig is a must attend.