No question about it: this concert was one, if not the highlight, of the summer wonder so far.
Freising
- The Joscho Stephan Trio delivered a concert that left jazz friends amazed.
Because here are musicians at work who bring the legacy of the great Django Reinhardt onto the stage with so much dignity that it almost moves to tears.
Despite the drizzle and not exactly summery temperatures, countless Freising flocked to the matinee on Sunday in the district court garden.
No wonder, because the trio has a reputation for being a world-class formation.
And no doubt: the musicians could just as well have just flown in from New York, they got off to such a precise and virtuoso start with the first number.
As if Master Django himself was there
“Hallo kleine Fräulein” from her album “Paris-Berlin”, which catapulted her gypsy swing brilliantly to Freising. And then of course “Minor Swing”, once composed by Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli - interpreted so stunningly by the Joscho Stephan Trio, as if the old master was still among the living. At the same time, the trio effortlessly managed to transform the district court garden into a backyard of Montmartre, simply through this very special sound, verve and above all the passion that went into each number.
It is, of course, above all Joscho Stephans guitar virtuosity that is so close to Django Reinhardt's playing that it is almost eerie.
This is one of the reasons why songs such as "Till there was you", made famous by the Beatles, become a gypsy fireworks display, as if it had always been that way.
Even "Hey Joe", the signature of Jimi Hendrix, is transformed into a different song without losing the Woodstock mood.
Trio revives the Gypsy Swing era
The trio works like clockwork: three musicians who revive the classics of the Gypsy Swing era with the same heartbeat, without damaging them.
Perhaps the most beautiful song of the concert: the original composition “Ballade pour Django” - a loving and deep bow with the extended dreams of the exceptional musician of yore.
Here, too, the homage is so wonderful that the listener can almost hear Grappelli's violin between the notes.
A concert that you would like to see as a recording and as an annual live repetition.
Freising has long been ready for a jazz weekend
In general, the event also showed that: Freising has long been ready for a jazz weekend.
So what are the organizers waiting for?
It should also be mentioned that the sound was mixed by the great sound engineer Rudi Spindler.
The audience was thrilled, in the easing rain a young lady danced to Django Reinhardt's legacy.
What more do you want?
(Richard Lorenz)
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