Bireli Lagrene was born a Sinti Gypsy on September 4th 1966 in the border region between France and Germany known commonly as the Alsace. He still lives in a caravan, unlike many of his contemporaries.He started playing guitar at the age of four years, even by Gypsy standards this is still early, and was playing jazz by the age of seven.
Even at thirteen when he started recording, his maturity of playing was truly astounding. With a depth and passion of his own compositions only normally found (if your lucky) after many years playing, already coming to the fore.
As the "Django Style" of playing was the mainstream of his family's music, his father was a renowned guitarist in the thirties and his brothers and cousins are all competent self taught musicians, he became a bit of a Django copyist but he very soon moved on to create his own style. This style is very hard to define as he is constantly changing but always staying within the jazz spectrum. Bireli is classed as a guitarists guitarist always surprising and bloody cool with it. He can be found most years playing at Samois sur Seine. Not only on stage but also with Babik on the river front and around the various Gypsy sites.
Even at thirteen when he started recording, his maturity of playing was truly astounding. With a depth and passion of his own compositions only normally found (if your lucky) after many years playing, already coming to the fore.
As the "Django Style" of playing was the mainstream of his family's music, his father was a renowned guitarist in the thirties and his brothers and cousins are all competent self taught musicians, he became a bit of a Django copyist but he very soon moved on to create his own style. This style is very hard to define as he is constantly changing but always staying within the jazz spectrum. Bireli is classed as a guitarists guitarist always surprising and bloody cool with it. He can be found most years playing at Samois sur Seine. Not only on stage but also with Babik on the river front and around the various Gypsy sites.
This concert will bring you purely entertainment. Skillfull display of acoustic, electric guitar and some portions of bass playing. Years ago, he has worked with the Master Genius- bass player - Jaco Pastorius. Bereli Lagrene is a sure winner when it comes to playing the tunes of Django Reinhardt and Jaco Pastorius. 1 and half hours of jazzin....
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