Le Chat Lunatique Interview: SXSW 2010

If there was only one band I could watch perform at SXSW this week, it would be Le Chat Lunatique, a mixture of rigorous musical training combined with unconventional experimentation which produces really good music. All four members of this gypsy swing band with French, Italian and Latin influence produce music that is nostalgic and, at the same time, avant-garde.

Describe your sound in your own words.

Well, it's a tough one. Our sound is a combination of Gypsy Swing, Western Swing, latin, filthy, mangy Jazz. You know - jazz manouche, which means Gypsy jazz. This is very eclectic type of music. It has chugging rhythms, sweeping melodies and improvised stretches. You will find the influential instrumental tradition in our music as well.

What is jazz manouche?

Jazz manouche has its origin in Paris in 1920s with the Ferr brothers and other gypsies. Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt was the guitarist from that time. He is the most important name in manouche. He collaborated with violinist Stephane Grappelli and these two founded a band called the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, which achieved international fame and spawned innumerable musical descendants around the world. Most classic jazz manouche groups consist of a lead guitar, violin, two rhythm guitars and bass. The rhythm guitar supplies a distinct percussive rhythm called la pompe, which, in conjunction with strongly syncopated bass lines, makes a percussion section or trap set redundant.
So is your music influenced by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli?

John and I have mutual love for the great Hot Club of France, a gypsy swing group from 1940's Paris, which included the combined genius of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli. Jared is has the influence of western swing and Fernando has latin background. All this combined shows up in our music. Gypsy jazz is definitely a big influence. Manouche is still thriving today. Latin rhythms like samba, bossa nova and tango have begun to seep in, but this is not much of a stretch as similar beats from the rumba flamenca made famous by the Gipsy Kings has long since been incorporated. Bir li Legr ne, Angelo Debarre, Raphael Fays and Stochelo Rosenberg are among today's top guitar soloists. Another noted virtuoso, Romane, is a composer in his own right as well as a music historian, teacher and author. He is not only one of Reinhardt's most idiomatic modern interpreters but tours widely and has even brought jazz manouche to Nashville's prestigious Chet Atkins Invitational.

How do you band come together?

We have been together for about four and a half years. I don't want to sound like I was instrumental in getting everybody, but as it turns out I had met everyone first. I play violin. John is our guitarist, Jared is our basist and Fernando is our drummer. Guitarist John Sandlin has been playing music for 17 years. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Guitar Performance in 2003 from the University of New Mexico. During that time, he studied with the great Michael Chapdelaine, former student of Andres Segovia. In addition to classical guitar, John studied jazz guitar with Michael Anthony, 25-year Los Angeles studio veteran and local jazz hero. John also had the great opportunity to be exposed to many styles of jazz playing in UNM Jazz Bands under the tutelage of Glenn Kostur. After John and I met, we were able tap back into the jazz influences of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. We kind of started a repertoire of gypsy swing music. Drummer Fernando Garavito and Bassist Jared Putnam soon materialized to form Le Chat Lunatique.

So you have a classical training? Did you study in Suzuki method?

Interesting. I have been playing violin from the age of seven, but when I was 14 my teacher started me with Suzuki method. Not before that. At the age of 18 I had traveled extensively with the Albuquerque Youth Symphony, to destinations like London and Mexico City. At Colorado College, played with the Bowed Piano Ensemble - a well-known group in the world of experimental music - and I toured with them around much of Western Europe. I am currently studying Ethnomusicology at UNM and playing dirty, filthy, mangy and lascivious Gypsy Swing with the ever so lovely Le Chat Lunatique.

Have you guys been traveling internationally as well?

Not as a group, but we have individually. I spent a semester in London to play the lead in a professional production of an original adaptation of Kafka's 'Amerika.' In Tunisia, I played with jazz guitarist Faouzi Chkeili, and various rock and funk bands infused with North African sensibilities - at one point I even gave a solo concert at L'Etoile de Nord.

When I came back home I rejoined the Buntport Theater in Denver and we had produced a comedic, musical re-work of 'Titus Andronicus.' Another friend, Thaddeus Phillips of New York, and I created and performed 'The Earth's Sharp Edge' at La MaMa Theater in NYC and the Painted Bride in Philadelphia. After that, I went to Montpellier in France to play gypsy swing.


Ibrahim Sajid Malick is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.