Gypsy Jazz Caravan

Created in their Parisian studios, where the electro-pioneers fuse hedonistic house and old school jazz to glorious effect, evokes the spirit of a modernistic Quintette du Hot Club de France. The musical sound bed for the vocally explosive, burlesque blazoning Zoe Colotis is created by the band’s three founder members Hughes Paven (violin), Charles Delaporte (upright bass) and Arnaud Vial (guitar), plus Camille Chapelière (clarinet) & Antoine Toustou (trombone and electronics) over the beats provided by Paul-Marie Barbier (vibraphone, washboard, piano). The result is a decadent, potent cocktail of jazz manouche, hip-hop, jive, house and beats that defies simple categorisation.

Jazz is a music genre that originated from African American communities of New Orleans in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African American and European American musical parentage with a performance orientation. Jazz spans a period of over a hundred years, encompassing a very wide range of music, making it difficult to define. Jazz makes heavy use of improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swing note, as well as aspects of European harmony, American popular music, the brass band tradition, and African musical elements such as blue notes and African-American styles such as ragtime. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience and styles to the art form as well. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as "one of America's original art forms".

Fumée Gypsy Project’s new release, Reverie, blends traditional European jazz with a unique Chicago twist. Comprised of four incredibly versatile musicians, the band demonstrates their love of straight ahead jazz through a variety of French,American and German standard repertoire. Originally trained as a classical vocalist, band leader Christy Bennett uses her background to incorporate a love of foreign languages with rich vocal stylings and a deep knowledge of songbook jazz…

Peter White is one of those rare artists whose unique sound and natural, unpretentious musical vision encapsulate all the charm, appeal, and excitement of his genre. However one chooses to label that style – new adult contemporary, contemporary jazz, pop instrumental – the English-born acoustic guitarist has struck rare chords, artistically, commercially, and emotionally, in becoming a melodic mainstay at the top of every radio airplay and sales chart known to soulful, smooth jazz since launching his solo career in 1990 with reveillez-vous. White's similarly warmhearted, instantly infectious Columbia debut Caravan of Dreams continues in the R&B vein of his previous two discs (1993's Promenade and 1994's Reflections), focusing on his trademark breezes while texturing street-smart synth grooves with a free-spirited all-star ensemble to create a whimsical musical travelog.

“I grew up in the jazz Manouche circles, which are dominated by swarms of guitarists – it’s not always easy to fit in as a singer! Most of the music has no lyrics, and the melodies are often too guitaristique to be sung. The microcosm fascinated me and I too wanted to participate in the Django repertoire… I saw only one option: I had to write my own lyrics, tell my own stories, reinvent his music in my own image.”