San Francisco guitarist Ned Boynton has teamed up with Michael Zisman (mandolin), Jason Vanderford (rhythm guitar), and Robin Nolan Trio member Simon Planting (bass) to bring us the Hot Club derived sounds of Cafe Americain. Not simply another group of Django copyists, Boynton and company find inspiration in bossa nova, Brazilian choros, and the timeless songs of the Great American Songbook as well as the 'gypsy jazz' of Django Reinhardt and his followers.
The group's debut CD includes few of the songs popular among Hot Club aficionados-of the discs thirteen tunes, only Honeysuckle Rose and perhaps I'll Never Be the Same will jump out to most as familiar jazz tunes, and that is a wonderful thing (though their sultry take on Goldfinger will surely strike a chord with men of a certain age). The bulk of the disc, though, is made up of a mix of lesser-known tunes such as Jacob do Bandolim's effervescent Tira Poeira, the American jazz of Fats Waller's Jitterbug Waltz, and even the Santo & Johnny classic Sleepwalk (if you think you don't know that one, you're wrong).
The band seems to want to appeal to a broad range of listeners and club owners, and this disc will serve them well. It's a pleasure to be reminded that playing jazz on a Selmer-style guitar doesn't mean that everything has to be played at a hummingbird tempo, or in a rhythmic lockstep. The pace never really rises above a medium bounce, lending the disc an easy-going feel that makes it sure to fit in most anywhere. If there's one real complaint I have with the disc, it's that it's almost too easy-going; given the wide range of styles the band assays, I would have enjoyed hearing them really tear into a song or two. But one gets the feeling that Cafe Americain is much happier living outside of definitions, and their music, drawn from all over, is the better for it.
Cafe Americain plays at Caffé Trieste in San Francisco every Wednesday at 7pm. To hear more of their music, visit their website. To buy the CD, click here!
Posted by jackbrown at 04:47 PM
Jack Brown - Djangology.net (Dec 7, 2007)