Submitted photo Carolyn Dutton of Bleu Django is shown at a past performance.
A truly unique jazz performance will be returning to Helen Haddad Hall this summer. Known as Indiana’s premier hot club style swing band, Bleu Django will be presenting an encore Jazz at Helen’s performance on Aug. 22.
Bleu Django’s origins come its founding members’ interest in a style known as gypsy jazz. According to violinist Carolyn Dutton, who hails from Nashville, this style originated in 1930s Europe with Quintette du Hot Club de France. It differed from other jazz styles in that it featured three guitar players, one violinist and one bass player.
“I like to say it was 26 strings, right? So that’s not the usual make up of a jazz group. I mean, jazz groups, you think of drums and pianos and saxophones and trumpets, but this is all strings,” Dutton said. “And they created this very unusual style of music, a swing style, because they were entranced by the music of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong…”
This group included gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli, two jazz artists who became very popular in Europe. While the style and its music fell out of fashion in the following years, gypsy jazz experienced a boom in popularity in the 1980s, and by the 1990s and 2000s, hot clubs could be found all across the States.
In the present day, Bleu Django has continued to perform this style authentically for nearly 20 years. Its founding members include Dutton, rhythm guitarist Bob Foster and lead guitarist Daryl Jones. They recently introduced Michael Davis on rhythm guitar and rotate between Jesse Wittman, Fred Withrow and Ron Kadish on bass, Dutton said.
“And we’ve recently added a singer, Emily Dunn,” Dutton said. “So we do a whole different collection of music focusing on the originals that the original band wrote, plus the swing tunes from the 30s that are very popular, still popular today. Things like ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ and ‘All of Me,’ those kinds of tunes.”
Their upcoming Jazz at Helen’s performance will feature tunes from Grappelli and Reinhardt, in addition to some tunes that Bleu Django has written and ballads from Dunn. Dutton also likes to sprinkle in facts about gypsy jazz and its history throughout the show. She said the group looks forward to performing at Helen Haddad Hall again, as they performed last year to a very receptive audience.
“We hope that the people who heard us last year will come back and hear us again, and we also hope to attract new fans to this style of music,” Dutton said. “Of course (we’re) looking forward to it tremendously because it’s such a great venue and the response was so warm last time, and we hope it’ll be similar this time.”
Tickets, at $45 for Bleu Django’s upcoming show, may be purchased at thecip.org.
