artist info

The Pacific Jazz Institute at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley presents perennial gypsy jazz artists Pearl Django with special guest guitarist the legendary Bucky Pizzarelli. Band members: Troy Chapman (guitar), and Ryan Hoffman (guitar), Rick Leppanen (bass), Michael Gray (violin), David Lange (accordion), and very special guest Bucky Pizzarelli. Set times Thursday & Sunday at 7:30pm and Friday & Saturday at 7:30pm and 9:30pm. Doors open at 5:30pm all nights.

Entering their seventeenth year of performing Pearl Django continues to be one of America’s most respected and busiest Hot Club style groups. Though still strongly influenced by the music of Django Reinhardt, Pearl Django’s repertoire now includes many original compositions. Their music reaches out across the divides of taste to a wide variety of audiences. The band's fervent followers include Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli fans, guitar enthusiasts, lovers of string music, including bluegrass devotees, who relish nimble, clean, intricate picking, "world music" fans drawn to French and Gypsy accents, plus jazz buffs and aficionados of the new swing music. Transcending simple categorization, Pearl Django packs in enthusiastic audiences at dancehalls and nightclubs, at folk music festivals and jazz festivals alike.

The newest release by Pearl Django, Eleven (2012), showcases an even further evolving sound than their earlier recordings. While Pearl Django wears their love of Django Reinhardt and Gypsy Jazz on their sleeves, they also display a unique ability to stretch the genre in new directions. Eleven features a majority of original compositions, including two by Martin Taylor, their special guest on this CD. All of the group’s members contribute compositions to the repertoire. Eleven also solidifies a change in group personnel as Pearl Django founder Neil Andersson leaves the rigors of life on the road to enjoy the life of a painter while the new disc is the first full album length collaboration between guitarists Ryan Hoffman and Troy Chapman. Released to critical acclaim in June 2012, Eleven made it to #2 on the “US Roots Chart” and had a solid ten week run in the Jazz Week Top 40. JazzTimes says of Eleven in its recent review that it "points to the charm, wit, swing and lyricism that await Pearl Django devotees and newcomers alike. Small wonder that Martin Taylor was happy to oblige." And, that indeed, is the Gypsy swing or 'hot club' sound that’s made Pearl Django a worldwide favorite.

Joining Pearl Django is legendary jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli! For more than seven decades Mr. Pizzarelli has had a stellar career. He was a fixture in jazz and the studios since the early ‘50s. The list of big bands and vocalists with whom Bucky has performed and recorded reads like a veritable Who’s Who of Jazz. One of the era’s most solid rhythm players, Pizzarelli was in high demand, playing and touring with Benny Goodman, Zoot Sims, Vaughn Monroe, Bud Freeman, and Stephane Grappelli, and, later, recording with George Van Eps, Carl Kress and George Barnes. His superior mastery of the seven-string guitar is unparalleled. The beloved guitarist has developed a very personal style that sets him apart. A superior guitarist appreciated by swing musicians in particular, Bucky Pizzarelli has been a fixture in jazz and the studios since the early '50s. Self-taught, Pizzarelli has long been a master of the seven-string guitar.