Stephane Grappelli Cheek To Cheek

This is the first of Stephane Grappelli's sessions as a leader during the 1950s to be issued on CD, which is rather surprising given the availability of his work from the last two decades of his life. Grappelli is heard exclusively in a quartet with pianist Maurice Vander, bassist Pierre Michelot, and drummer Baptiste Reilles, except for two takes of "Someone to Watch Over Me," when Vander makes an ill-advised switch to harpsichord. The violinist is not nearly as aggressive as he would become in the decades to follow, seemingly concentrating more on achieving a beautiful tone than dazzling listeners with his considerable abilities as an improviser. Most of the material recorded during these three dates remained in his repertoire for the remainder of his career; with up-tempo selections like "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "'S Wonderful" getting the nod over most of the ballad interpretations…

Violinist Stephane Grappelli will forever be remembered as musical partner to the immortal Django Reinhardt - certainly not a bad thing, except that it conveniently overlooks the nearly half-century's worth of music that Grappelli made without the Gypsy guitar great. When this one-hour performance was recorded in 1989, the elegant, urbane Frenchman was already in his 80s, but he had lost none of his exceptional technique and flair. He's joined here by two exceptional guitarists (Martin Taylor and Marc Fosset) and a bassist; the lineup is much like that of the original Reinhardt-Grappelli Hot Club quintet, and they even play some of that group's standard material ("Honeysuckle Rose," "Daphne"), along with more modern fare like Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" and Chick Corea's "Armando's Rhumba"…

Stéphane Grappelli (26 January 1908 – 1 December 1997) was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands. He has been called "the grandfather of jazz violinists" and continued playing concerts around the world well into his 80s.