Wednesday, May 11, 2011

LULO REINHARDT

Reinhardt back in the swing
BY RAY PURVIS

FROM THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/music/9356849/reinhardt-back-in-the-swing/
May 11, 2011, 1:32 pm

"I don't want to copy Django," Lulo Reinhardt, the grand-nephew of legendary 1930s gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt insists. "We have hundreds of brilliant guitar players in Europe who just play Django's music. I've always wanted to play my own style of music, not copy someone else."

Along with his international band, the Latin Swing Project, that features Australians Sean Mackenzie on keyboards and Daniel Weltlinger on violin along with drummer Uli Kramer and bassist Harald Becher from Germany, the dashing, ponytailed guitar virtuoso has established his own niche by blending fast-swinging gypsy rhythms with a fusion of Latin styles including flamenco, Cuban and Brazilian jazz.

Over the last decade he's built up a strong Australian following.

"It's like coming home," he says over the phone from Sydney only hours after touching down from Germany. "It's my 11th visit in the last 10 years and my last two albums — Live in Melbourne and Katoomba Birds — were both recorded here."

He remains true to his heritage of "Le Jazz Hot" — the tradition of jazz manouche, started by his famous grand-uncle in the group Quintette du Hot Club de France.

"I grew up with gypsy swing music and everywhere I travelled I brought a little bit of the different music back with me," he says.

"In the 90s I listened to a lot of Cuban music because I had a band with my father called I Gitanos and we had a percussion player from Puerto Rico, who played with the Cuban All Stars. These kinds of influences helped to open my mind to different music."

Reinhardt started playing at the age of five when his father, Bawo, taught him to play rhythm guitar. As a youngster he spent every day rehearsing with an older cousin, Mike Reinhardt, and performed at parties, weddings and family gatherings.

"Mike played solo and I always played rhythm because in our family if you have one solo guitar player the other guys aren't allowed to play solo," he says.

To this day he refuses to sit out front of the band like a leader.

"I'm totally a band musician and sitting out front you have no connection with the other players. I really like it when either Sean or Daniel is playing solo and I just play rhythm. It's a great feeling."

Further strengthening his ties with Australia, the prodigious songwriter and guitarist wrote the new numbers for his latest album, Katoomba Birds, while here on tour in April last year. A number of tracks such as Bossa Lismore, Millwood Reeta and Hobart Swing take their name from the band's many stopovers on the cross-country jaunt.

During his last tour, Reinhardt performed at the Charles Hotel in North Perth, where he was joined on stage by legendary Shadows guitarist and gypsy swing fanatic Hank Marvin.

"My father and his two brothers had a Shadows cover band at the end of the 60s and I grew up listening to the Shadows,"

Reinhardt says. "Hank told me 'You're the founder of Latin swing', and I'm really proud
of that."

Lulo Reinhardt and the Latin Swing Project perform at Friends Restaurant on May 21, the Ellington Jazz Club on May 22 and the Fly by Night Club on May 23. See the venues for tickets.

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