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Florin Niculescu
Florin Niculescu (born 8 February 1967 in Bucharest) is a Romanian violinist of Romani (Gypsy) ethnicity. Family background and education Niculescu was born into a family of educated ''lăutari''. Everybody in his family was involved in music: his father and his uncle were violinists, his mother a pianist and his sister a cellist. He received his first violin lessons from his father, with whom he started to study seriously when he was 4–5 years old. At 6 he enrolled at the Dinu Lipatti Music School and then at George Enescu Music High School where he was a first prize student. He played with his father at weddings and celebrations and developed his improvisation skills. When he was about 13 he heard violinist Stéphane Grappelli, who would become his idol and jazz his main attraction. Career In 1991 he left for Paris to fulfill his dream of meeting Grappelli and making a name in jazz. He got his first gig at a Russian cabaret. He enrolled in the Conservatoire de Paris, although ...
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Florin Niculescu Djangofestivalen 2024 (230322)
The Florentine florin was a gold coin (in Italian ''Fiorino d'oro'') struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains () of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purchasing power difficult to estimate (and variable) but ranging according to social grouping and perspective from approximately 140 to 1,000 modern US dollars. The name of the coin comes from the ''Giglio bottonato'' ( it), the floral emblem of the city, which is represented at the head of the coin. History The ''fiorino d'oro'' (gold florin) was minted in the Republic of Florence after the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade disrupted the minting of fine gold coins in the Byzantine Empire. It came to be accepted across Europe like the Byzantine Solidus had been. The territorial usage of the ''lira'' and the florin often overlapped; where the lira was used for smaller transactions (wages, food purchases), the florin was for larg ...
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Angela Gheorghiu
Angela Gheorghiu (; ; born 7 September 1965) is a Romanian soprano, especially known for her performances in the operas of Puccini and Verdi, widely recognised by critics and opera lovers as one of the greatest sopranos of all time. Embarking her career in 1990, she made her Royal Opera House and Vienna State Opera debuts in 1992, followed by New York's Metropolitan Opera debut in 1993. She was catapulted to international stardom after starring as Violetta in Verdi's '' La traviata'' at Covent Garden in 1994. Her signature roles include Mimì in ''La bohème'', Magda in '' La rondine'', the title roles in ''Tosca'' and '' Adriana Lecouvreur''. She had performed frequently with French tenor Roberto Alagna, whom she first met in 1992 and married in 1996, in concerts and opera productions until their eventual divorce in 2013. Her voice is described as "...the most instantly recognizable and interesting soprano voice of our time. A liquid instrument of great lyrical beauty with gl ...
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Scott Tixier
Scott Tixier (born February 26th, 1986) is a French-born jazz violinist and professor of jazz violin at the University of North Texas. Life and career Tixier was born in Montreuil, France, and studied classical violin at the Conservatoire de Paris in Paris. Following that, he studied improvisation as a self-taught jazz musician and under Florin Niculescu then Malo Vallois. Tixier has worked in theater, film scoring, Broadway shows, for Sony Pictures, ARTE Creative, Heineken, Dos Equis, Fisher-Price, America's Got Talent on NBC, with Zedd on the David Letterman Late Show on CBS, for Josh Groban, Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, Sting, Jean Reno, Whoopi Goldberg, Marc Jacobs, Keith David, Pierre Palmade, Pierre Richard, David Ackroyd, NBA player Allan Houston, Christina Aguilera, Chrisette Michele, Doug E. Fresh, JR, Ariana Grande, and Monica Dogra. He has performed and recorded with Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Roger Waters, Kenny Barron, John Legend, Chris Potter, Christina ...
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Tchavolo Schmitt
Tchavolo Schmitt (born 1954 in Paris) is a Romani jazz guitarist. Schmitt performed as a member of various ensembles in the 1970s. Then he settled in Strasbourg and left the professional circuit for a time, releasing solo albums in 2000. He played Miraldo in the Tony Gatlif film '' Swing.'' Biography Tchavolo Schmitt was introduced to the guitar at the age of 6 by his mother; his father played the violin. He developed a virtuosity in the manouche style (gypsy jazz) and his renown rapidly exceeded the limits of Alsace, his ancestral region. He became influential among his peers, in particular at Porte de Montreuil or Chope des Puces in Saint-Ouen, homes of tavolo-manouche swing. In 1979, he became a professional musician, and after leaving Paris to return to his Alsatian roots, he joined the band Hot Club da Sinti, which included violinist Wedeli Köhler, guitarist Schmeling Lehmann, and bassist Jani Lehmann. A single LP recording (now a collector's item) was released in 1981 ...
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Henri Salvador
Henri Salvador (18 July 1917 – 13 February 2008) was a French Caribbean singer, comedian and cabaret artist. Biography Salvador was born in Cayenne, French Guiana. His father, Clovis, and his mother, Antonine Paterne, daughter of an Indigenous Carib, were both from Guadeloupe, French West Indies. Salvador had a brother, André, and a sister, Alice. He began his musical career as a guitarist accompanying other singers. He had learned the guitar by imitating Django Reinhardt's recordings, and was to work alongside him in the 1940s. Salvador recorded several songs written by Boris Vian with Quincy Jones as arranger. He played many years with Ray Ventura and His Collegians where he used to sing, dance and even play comedy on stage. He also appeared in movies including ''Nous irons à Monte-Carlo'' (1950), ''Nous irons à Paris'' (Jean Boyer's film of 1949 with the Peters Sisters) and ''Mademoiselle s'amuse'' (1948). He is known to have recorded the first French rock and ro ...
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Jimmy Rosenberg
Joseph "Jimmy" Rosenberg (born 10 April 1980) is a Dutch Sinto- Romani guitarist known for his virtuoso playing of gypsy jazz. Music career A cousin of Stochelo Rosenberg, Jimmy Rosenberg started playing guitar when he was seven years old. Two years later he led his own trio, the Gypsy Kids, which played in the Gypsy jazz tradition and appeared on the British documentary ''Django Legacy''. The trio released its first album, ''Safari'', when Rosenberg was twelve. A year later Rosenberg released his debut solo album, ''Swinging with Jimmy Rosenberg''. To avoid a lawsuit by the Gipsy Kings, the Gypsy Kids changed their name to Sinti in 1989. In 1995, the group consisted of Jimmy Rosenberg, Johnny Rosenberg, and Rinus Steinbach. They performed at the Django Reinhardt Festival in France and toured the U.S. Rosenberg pursued a solo career in 1997. In 2000 he made his debut at Carnegie Hall as part of the Django Reinhardt Festival at Birdland in New York City. He has worked with Nor ...
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Babik Reinhardt
Jean-Jacques "Babik" Reinhardt (8 June 1944 – 13 November 2001) was a French guitarist and the younger son of jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. He was christened Jean-Jacques, but generally known by his family nickname, Babik. His elder half-brother Lousson was also a guitarist, but the two grew up in different families and rarely met. Biography Reinhardt was born in Paris. He learned guitar not from his father, who died when he was nine, but from his uncles, including Nin-Nin (Joseph) and Eugène Vées,Dregni, Michael, 2008. Gypsy Jazz: in search of Django Reinhardt and the soul of Gypsy Swing. Oxford University Press. and musicians of his own generation such as Vées' sons Loulou and Mitsou. According to writer Fred Sharp, his father initially encouraged him to take up the piano, believing "there would be more work for a pianist than a guitarist".Fred Sharp (1998/2001)Babik Reinhardt www.hotclub.co.uk At age 15 he appeared in Jean-Christophe Averty's 1959 film "Hommage a Djan ...
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Bucky Pizzarelli
John Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli (January 9, 1926 – April 1, 2020) was an American jazz guitarist. He worked for NBC as a staffman from 1964, including for Dick Cavett (1971) and ABC with Bobby Rosengarden in (1952). Musicians he collaborated with include Benny Goodman, George Barnes, Les Paul, Oscar Peterson, Stéphane Grappelli, Benny Green, and Antônio Carlos Jobim. Pizzarelli cited as influences Django Reinhardt, Freddie Green, and George Van Eps. Early life Pizzarelli was born on January 9, 1926, in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. He learned to play guitar and banjo at a young age. His uncles, Pete and Bobby Domenick, were professional musicians, and sometimes the extended family would gather at one of their homes with their guitars for jam sessions. Pizzarelli cited blind accordion player Joe Mooney as an inspiration. Mooney led a quartet that included Pizzarelli's uncle, Bobby Domenick. During high school, Pizzarelli was the guitarist for a small band tha ...
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Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. As a virtuoso who is considered to be one of the greatest Jazz piano, jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the The Recording Academy, Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, simply "O.P." by his friends, and informally in the jazz community, "the King of inside swing". Peterson worked in duos with Samuel Jones (musician), Sam Jones, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Joe Pass, Irving Ashby, Count Basie, and Herbie Hancock. He considered the trio with Ray Brown (musician), Ray Brown and Herb Ellis "the most stimulating" and productive setting for public performances and studio recordings. In the early 1950 ...
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John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin (born 4 January 1942), also known as Mahavishnu, is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Classical music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made ''Extrapolation (album), Extrapolation'', his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with drummer Tony Williams (drummer), Tony Williams's group The Tony Williams Lifetime, Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his 1969-72 electric jazz fusion albums ''In a Silent Way'', ''Bitches Brew'', ''Jack Johnson (album), Jack Johnson'', ''Live-Evil (Miles Davis album), Live-Evil'', and ''On the Corner''. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences. McLaughlin's solo on "Miles Bey ...
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Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, and music instructor, who is currently the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been active in promoting classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won nine Grammy Awards, and his oratorio '' Blood on the Fields'' was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Marsalis is the only musician to have won a Grammy Award in both jazz and classical categories in the same year. Early years Marsalis was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 18, 1961, and grew up in the suburb of Kenner. He is the second of six sons born to Dolores Ferdinand Marsalis and Ellis Marsalis Jr., a pianist and music teacher.Stated on ''Finding Your Roots'', PBS, March 25, 2012 He was named after jazz pianist Wynton Kelly. Branford Marsalis is his older brother and Jason Marsalis and Delfeayo Marsalis are younger. All three are jazz musicians. While sitting at ...
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Jon Larsen
Jon Larsen (born 7 January 1959) is a gypsy jazz guitarist, record producer, painter, and amateur scientific researcher. He is the founder of the group Hot Club de Norvège. In 2007 he received the Buddy Award for his lifelong contribution to jazz. Career When he was in his early teens, he learned rock and soul songs on an acoustic steel-string guitar. Through friends, he learned about blues, jazz, flamenco, and classical guitar. After he heard "Tears" by Django Reinhardt on the radio, he decided that this is how he wanted his guitar to sound. At seventeen he formed a string trio and had his first professional job. In the 1970s, Larsen worked mainly as a painter. He started the Hot Club de Norvege in 1980 with guitarists Per Frydenlund and bassist Svein Aarbostad. They had a hit record when they performed with pop singer Lillebjørn Nilsen. Larsen started the label Zonic Entertainment to record musicians who have been influenced by Frank Zappa. He has worked with Chet Baker ...
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