RoManush promises a fun gypsy jazz concert at Cenart

A trip anthropological, with a bit of musicology and, above all, funpromises the RoManush assembly with a function of gypsy jazz which will be offered today in the Blas Galindo auditorium of the National Center for the Arts (Cenart). The concert, titled RoManush Balkan & Jazz Manouche, will have 10 musicians on stage and will have Verania Luken as a guest, a singer who in her album Djangoliday (2020), together with brothers Enrique and Federico Hülsz, fuses the gypsy jazz style of Django Reinhardt with the American style of Billie Holiday.

Much of the repertoire that RoManush handles is that played by the Franco-Belgian guitarist Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) with the French violinist Stéphane Grappelli (1908-1997) and his Quintette du Hot Club de France. For example, the themes Swing Gitan, Minor Swing, I’ve Found a New Baby y Them There Eyes.

The Cenart concert will not only cover the jazz genre gypsy (gypsy, in French), but will offer a big taste of Balkan music, says violinist Miguel Amin. That’s because in the Gypsies fled India following the Muslim invasion and settled in the mountainous region of the Balkans because, by staying away from the cities, they were able to preserve the purity of their race as well as their culture.explains Amin.

The RoManush ensemble was formed two years ago and, in addition to the violinist, it includes guitarists David Puente, Hernán Alonso and Gerardo Olivares. Its name is loaded with symbolism: RoMa, because they meet to rehearse in the Roma neighborhood. The word rom also means man and romiwoman, while manush refers to the term for gypsy in French. Over the centuries, gypsies have been given many names, such as Roma or Gypsies.

Reinhardt’s influence

Amin grew up listening to Reinhardt’s music and his musical couple Grappelli, and he was putting together his discography. Django, he recalls, is admired throughout the world and exerted an influence similar to that of the great American jazz musicians. “Many people follow the technique developed by Reinhardt, who had the misfortune of damaging the tendons of two fingers on his left hand. This led him to develop a special technique, a very special fingering and way of playing chords.

While recovering, he came to listen to the jazz musicians of the time, which led him to fuse gypsy music with jazz.explains the violinist.

–When the public hears the term gypsy jazzwhat are you thinking about?

–For me, the public thinks of jazz, more than anything. I imagine that they are not entirely clear what the gypsy. However, when they hear the music they remember bebop, swing, foxtrot and dixieland. They say: Ah, my dad or my grandmother used to dance that.. It is more of an instrumental music than anything else.

At a certain point jazz gypsy was affected by the rise of electric guitars and rock and roll, which caused it to disappear, says Amin. Now it is coming back. Ultimately, It was a type of product that people used to dance.. The concert promises to be dynamic and urban.

The concert RoManush Balkan & Jazz Manouche It will take place today at 1:30 p.m., in the Blas Galindo auditorium of the National Arts Center (Río Churubusco 79, Country Club neighborhood).