Craig Sharmat and Neil Andersson – Strings
Some 12 years after Craig Sharmat created his first “gypsy jazz” project for licensing purposes on assignment for what is now the Warner Chappell Productions Library, the guitarist and veteran film and TV composer’s passion for the style and desire to master gypsy guitar has evolved into a full blown creative addiction. It’s reached such a fever pitch that instead of immediately following up his hit 2013 urban jazz album Bleu Horizons with a like-minded sequel, he immersed in the music scene of his new adopted hometown of Santa Barbara and formed The Idiomatiques – which became the first Gypsy Jazz band in history to score a hit on Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz chart.
True to its title, Sharmat’s previous collection Nouveau is a fresh, visionary work that finds the multi-talented artist in full on hybrid mode, artfully fusing the funky urban side of smooth jazz with Django Reinhardt inspired gypsy jazz guitar. Now Craig continues this direction and is joined by Tacoma jazz guitarist Neil Andersson (of Pearl Django fame). This is not your normal Gypsy Jazz guitar album. It is mostly lush strings with Gypsy Jazz playing. It uses a combination of mocked up strings and real string overlays with of course Gypsy Jazz guitar playing featured.
You can stream the new album here.