Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Rez Abbasi: Django-shift

Rez Abbasi: Django-shift

By Karl Ackermann
August 14, 2020
View read count

Django Reinhardt

guitar
1910 - 1953

" data-original-title="" title="">Django Reinhardt's music is so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget his career was relatively brief. The gypsy guitarist/composer had recorded hundreds of 78s and acetates before he died of a stroke in 1953 at age forty-three. On many early sides, he played a six-string banjo-guitar hybrid tuned in the standard tuning of a guitar.

Norman Granz

b.1918

" data-original-title="" title="">Norman Granz produced the only full LP Reinhardt session two months before the artist passed. Along with over twenty posthumous compilation releases, Nuages (Verve, 1953) was the only recording featuring Reinhart on electric guitar. Like

Bob Dylan

guitar and vocals
b.1941

" data-original-title="" title="">Bob Dylan's 1965 Newport conversion, the transition was blasphemy to many of Reinhard's fans. But his legacy as an acoustic master was already cemented and the album, though very good, went under-recognized. Reinhardt has been the subject of dozens of tribute recordings and has influenced guitarists from

Jerry Garcia

guitar, electric

" data-original-title="" title="">Jerry Garcia to

Rez Abbasi

guitar, acoustic
b.1965

" data-original-title="" title="">Rez Abbasi, who now gives us a highly individualized Django-shift.

Abbasi, a native of Karachi, Pakistan, grew up in Los Angeles with

Pat Metheny

guitar
b.1954

" data-original-title="" title="">Pat Metheny and

Bill Frisell

guitar, electric
b.1951

" data-original-title="" title="">Bill Frisell among his main influences. Early in his career, he journeyed to India to study with tabla master Ustad Alla Rakha. He attended USC and Manhattan School of Music studying guitar and percussion. A member of

Rudresh Mahanthappa

saxophone, alto
b.1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Rudresh Mahanthappa's Indo-Pak Coalition with

Dan Weiss

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Dan Weiss, Abbasi has been recording prolifically as a leader, since 1993. His trio on Django-shift includes

Neil Nail Alexander

keyboards
b.1960

" data-original-title="" title="">Neil Nail Alexander on organ, electronics and synthesizers and drummer

Michael Sarin

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Michael Sarin, who has recorded with

Ben Goldberg

clarinet

" data-original-title="" title="">Ben Goldberg,

Tony Malaby

saxophone, tenor

" data-original-title="" title="">Tony Malaby,

Tom Rainey

drums
b.1957

" data-original-title="" title="">Tom Rainey,

Drew Gress

bass
b.1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Drew Gress,

Simon Nabatov

piano
b.1959

" data-original-title="" title="">Simon Nabatov and

Max Johnson

bass
b.1990

" data-original-title="" title="">Max Johnson.

Reinhardt, along with French swing violinist

Stephane Grappelli

violin
1908 - 1997

" data-original-title="" title="">Stephane Grappelli, pioneered gypsy jazz or hot club-style jazz, a blend of Roma and swing musics. Its sound often has more in common with Western swing than traditional jazz styles. Because Reinhardt had two paralyzed fingers on his left hand, he was a tenaciously creative improviser. That characteristic of his playing opens his music to a broad range of interpretations but none like Abbasi's. Opening with "Diminishing" the early proceedings are true to the original but Alexander and Sarin accelerate the piece into hard bop territory before returning to the main theme. "Heavy Artillery" is an opportunity for Abbasi to put his stamp on a Reinhardt number with a smooth fusion reading. His fretless guitar gives just the appropriate level of innovation to the fast-paced "Hungaria."

The two compositions not composed by Reinhardt, but integral to his repertoire, are Saul Chaplin's "Anniversary Song" and Kurt Weill's "September Song." The latter—essentially an Abbasi/Alexander duo—is given a disconcertingly cinematic treatment that Weill would likely have approved. Django-shift is more than a tribute recording; Abbasi finds creative outlets pressed between the scores of Reinhart's originals and he mixes lucidity, sentiment and discord to make the songs his own.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Diminishing; Swing 42; Heavy Artillery; Django��s Castle; Anniversary Song; Cavalerie; Dance Ambiance; Hungaria; September Song.

Personnel

Rez Abbasi

guitar, acoustic

Neil Nail Alexander

keyboards

Michael Sarin

drums

Album information

Title: Django-shift | Year Released: 2020 | Record Label: Whirlwind Recordings

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Steve Khan: A Rich Discography and A...
< Previous

2020 Fano Jazz by the Sea
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.