Artist:Fapy Lafertin
Song:Fleur de Lavende
Album:Dutch Jazz Giants Volume 7: Gipsy Swing
The influence of French jazz guitar legend Django Reinhardt is so vast that it's impossible to know where to start. Look at all the bands that have the name "Hot Club" in their name. And Reinhardt did invent what we know today as Gipsy Swing. Belgian guitarist Jean "Fapy" Lafertin plays other styles of music sometimes. But mostly he plays in Reinhardt's style. He was born Nov. 20, 1950 in Kortrijk, Belgium in the Manouche Romani community. He started playing guitar at age five. After playing in his family band with his father on violin and his brother on second guitar, he joined a band led by violinist Piotto Lindberger. The band was called WASO. The other members were Vivi Limberger on guitar, Keon De Cauter on sax and Michael Verstraeten on bass. Then Lafertin started his own band in 1985 in The Netherlands with Rudi Brink on violin and Joop Hendricks and Tim Kliphuis on sax and clarinet. Then Lafertin released his debut album as a leader in 1991. The album title is Fleur de Lavende. The album was released on the Norwegian label Hot Club Records owned by Jon Larsen of the band Hot Club de Norvege. Lafertin recorded some Gipsy Swing standards. But he wrote Fleur de Lavende. Musicians are guitarist Flip Krajenbrink, violinist Hadi Mouallem, bassist Simon Planting and drummer Onno De Brujin. I think they are all Dutch. This album is available as part of a 10CD box set called Dutch Jazz Giants released by the Dutch label Pink Records. There's a different artist on each CD. I don't know why anyone would release a box set like this. But the albums are available individually as digital downloads. Lafertin's album is volume 7 of the box set. Since then Lafertin has released several albums on different labels. His latest album is with clarinetist Evan Christopher called A Summit in Paris on the French label Camille Productions released in 2020. Lafertin tours Europe frequently. But I don't think he has ever played in North America. Django Reinhardt fans should check him out. Here's Fapy Lafertin with Martin Limberger on guitar, Simon Planting on bass and Frans van Oosterhout on drums performing Fleur de Lavende on Dutch TV 1992.
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