Django Reinhardt Festival November 3, 2010

Excitement over the music of the legendary French gypsy jazz guitarist has grown immeasurably since Producers Pat Philips and Ettore Stratta founded the Django Reinhardt NY Festival in 2000. Combining the best players from Europe with some of America's finest jazz artists, a unique atmosphere of virtuosity and fun pervades Birdland. Reinhardt, a musical genius born to gypsy parents, was a virtuoso on the six-string banjo while still in his teens. In 1931, he heard the music of Louis Armstrong, an experienced than inspired and shaped the future of his music. By the time of his death, twenty-two years later, Reinhardt had single-handedly redirected the course of jazz guitar.