The relationship between music and the manouche people (Part 1)

How can manouche swing be considered essentially Tsigane music? First and foremost because this music is “the one they practice among themselves; between members of a community in which they identify.”

Gypsies of all generations, have always been extremely attentive to the developments of different  kinds of music; developments that -now more than ever- can be assimilated in large quantities through mass media such as radio, television and cinema. We can even say that there is a certain penchant towards the use of audio/video products, and often the trailers are fully equipped with everything needed. In this context, just like in the “outside world”, children and youngsters always have the latest hits in their ears, but there isn’t actually a real interest in the hit parade and the top ten.

The most commonly appreciated and valued element the manouche people listen to, is probably the voice: a clean, sophisticated and fancy voice. The opera, operetta and vocal jazz are three examples of highly appreciated musical genres. Regarding instrumental music, it seems that instrumental jazz in all its forms and Brazilian bossa nova are very much loved.

Rock and pop, on the contrary, do not generate much interest, being two genres usually associated with the process of globalization. That’s a phenomenon that greatly worries the manouche people and that generates a particular perspective in their vision of the relationship between media and music, leading them to shut out the trends that are popular within the so-called stationary society.

Adding to this perception of a music we can call “external” there’s also the existence of specific musical elements considered “internal” to the manouche community. We can even say that in this community, music occurs in much larger proportions than in other Tsigane groups around Europe, even to the point that there are manouche communities in which all members are musicians. This precise musical identity has some characteristics that make reference to community life, like a family musical practice that permeates the instrumental tradition constantly being generated. Also, a relatively “fixed” repertoire which draws from heterogeneous elements including the lesson of Django Reinhardt, the paramount manouche guitarist, holding a privileged position.

In Manouche music the leading instrument is -without a doubt- the guitar. The violin, too, plays a very important role, as well as the upright -or also electric- bass, that’s seldom missing. The tradition is essentially “stringed”, so to speak. Learning the skills to play is something that happens in everyday life, starting from an early age, through the teaching of the elders: at gatherings, at parties or around the fire, the kids discover the desire to learn. With family celebrations and religious journeys, the occasions that draw towards learning music are endless. The teachers are always present, being the fathers, cousins and uncles, always ready to impart their wisdom to younger generations.

The main learning system is generally based on imitation, through the direct observation of instrumental practice. It’s no wonder, then, that it’s precisely within manouche music that these particular traits, so characteristic and so difficult to define, are found. “C’est dans le sang” as those directly involved say, thereby demonstrating a completely natural relationship with life, to which culture is inextricably linked, “Ainsi la culture dans les coul Veines”.

Luca Leimer
Oncle Archibald

Today I’d like to further enrich the transcriptions of the great songs in the swing manouche repertoire, with the second part of the first solo featured on Bossa Dorado, which is characterized by the arpeggios and quadruplet runs over E7 and A7 chords.

Stochelo Rosenberg often spices up his phrasing with similar melodic lines.

Note also the extensive use of double stops and slides, as discussed in part one.

The video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzIj7mm8stE

The transcript is available here: Bossa Dorado BA first solo

Good job

Massimo Valvasori
Oncle Archibald

The Manouche people and work. The difficult relationship with the French state.

Regarding the jobs traditionally performed by the Manouche people, the most important consideration is their adherence to the lifestyle associated with those crafts, and threfore to the travelling way of living. Many of them, for example, work in markets and fairs, many others got to work in circuses. There are also blacksmiths, knife-grinders and tinsmiths; their highly refined skills in metalworking are in fact well known. Those skills greatly contributed, in the past, to enhance the aura of mystery and magic that surrounds them.

A considerable part of the Manouche people is also made up by those who earn their living through music, just by playing or devoting themselves to lutherie, and that are recognized as very skilled craftsmen.

Traditionally the works done by the Manouche people, much like the rest of their knowledge, are passed on from generation to generation, and the activities done during the winter, or the stationary period, are not necessarily the same performed during the summer.

The Manouche, though constantly on the road, are considered -and actually are- French in every aspect and they wish to be treated as such. However, living in the modern world and enjoying all the comforts that the Western system has made available, such as television, radio, etc., gradually deteriorated their traditional language, especially among younger generations.

Still, their feeling of being french is not enough to guarantee them a quiet life. Inevitably, during their trips they happen to clash with the police and security forces that constantly perform checks, evictions, and too often real abuses of power. Settling in a particular place is their constant problem.

It’s practically inevitable that they feel set apart from society, and even if some of them show some sign of rebellion against that, most of them manifest a great sense of fatalism, a true resignation. For them, the french government, the police, the gadjè, all belong to the same world of sedentary people that continually reject them.

Being the subjects of almost ancestral prejudices, and being victims of racism, dug an insurmountable barrier between us and them, causing them to despise and reject our society.

Above all, they feel threatened by the ‘imperialism’ embodied in the western civilization, they fear that one day they’ll be forced to settled down and condemned to disappear. They look with great suspicion at the laws that are imposed upon them. Not wanting to enter the world of the gadjè, the find shelter in their own universe, in their ancient traditions, and their families, where they are at peace with themselves, among their values.

Luca Leimer

Oncle Archibald

by Lukas Milani

The choice of woods used in lutherie is nowadays an established practice. Recently, however, due to the indiscriminate cutting of trees, some woods became scarce forcing luthiers to find alternative woods that could compensate that shortage, without altering the acoustic qualities of musical instruments. The adirondack fir is a famous example; it’s a tree that grows in the Adirondack Mountains, east of New York; its wood has exceptional acoustic qualities and it’s been used for the construction of Martin guitars‘ soundboards for many years. In the late ’40s, when this kind of tree became hard to find, it had to be replaced with the Sitka spruce, that had a softer and less resonant wood. The result was that Martin guitars lost their original expressive quality, and lost much of their appeal on the market.

The timber usually used for the construction of acoustic and classical guitars‘ soundboards are spruce and red cedar.

The spruce (of the Picea genus) can be found from Scandinavia to the Balkans. It grows in mountain areas from 200 to 1000 meters high above sea level. Its trunk can grow up to 50 meters tall and reach a diameter of up to 80 cm. It has a light color and has great tonal quality.

The red cedar has a reddish-brown wood, it’s harmonically less rich than the spruce, but it’s quite resistant to deformation, that can occur due to string tension.

The use of Sitka wood, a pinkish-white wood from North America, for acoustic guitars gives -compared to spruce- a brighter sound, albeit slightly less expressive.

The necks of plucked instruments are often made of mahogany, a reddish wood with a rather homogenous grain, quite common in Africa, in the far east and in America. Its strength and weight vary from species to species, but its lightness, combined with a certain resistance to tension and compression makes it the ideal choice for many manufacturers. For the electric guitars is generally used maple; it’s a white and non-porous wood from Europe, rather hard and heavy, but with a long tradition in the making of stringed instruments.

For the construction of the fretboard, ebony it’s normally used. A non-porous dark -almost black- wood coming from Africa, southeastern Asia or central America. Its tight texture is easily polished, making it an ideal candidate for many instruments. It has a rather high specific weight. An alternative to ebony is indian rosewood, a porous and light wood, usually employed for the construction of acoustic and electric guitars. It has a smooth sound, quite rich in the low-mid frequency range, which makes it the ideal candidate for the construction of the sides and back of stringed musical instruments. It also has a great sound projection.

Cypress is a wood used for the sides and back of flamenco guitar and it’s characterized by its bright sound, light weight and intense and pleasant scent. It has a light yellow color.

In the construction of back and sides, mahogany, maple and walnut wood are also used. Along these traditional woods, some alternative ones have recently been used in lutherie, such as bubinga, ziricote, koa, cocobolo, sapele, ovangkol, jacaranda, zebrano, padouk and many other tropical woods. They all have beautiful and figured grain, good tonal quality and high resistance to deformation.

The woods generally used in the construction of electric guitars‘ bodies, are alder -a rather strong and clear wood- and ash, that has a more pronounced grain than alder, but has excellent acoustic qualities.

Happy lutherie to everyone, and see you next time!

Lukas Milani

Oncle Archibald

Having survived the agonizing wet winter of the Val Padana, I decided to make a trip to Crete in April, to visit some friends and to breathe the sea and the sky I had missed so much. There I found the spring full of wild orchids and lush scents from the sea. And the people I knew, too, maybe with a bit more white hair but with more spirit than ever.

Among other things I had the opportunity to meet, in Heraklion, a jovial character, so frank and passionate about his work: Giorgos Xristonakis.

Thirty years old, curly haired and with an energy that seems inexhaustible, Xristonakis is known throughout the island of Crete as the best manufacturer of musical instruments’ cases. At a first glance, the most striking feature of his products is their beauty: elegant and completely handmade.

Giorgos shows them proudly: an elegant white leather case with brown stitching, or a brown leather one, with chrome stitching, or a double storage case to hold two instruments. A drum case, a percussion bag, or a bag with a curved-profile handle or… well, Giorgos may take hours to show his more ingenious, bizarre and beautiful models.

He builds everything to order: give him some measures and absolute trust, and he’ll manage to create a case that will match the reputation of your instrument. “Musicians usually travel with with cases that look like desolate coffins” he says, “I want to create stylish containers”.

Their light weight is the thing that strikes you most, when you pick one of them up. Giorgos Xristonakis’ cases weigh approximately half as much as the common ones, practically just a little more than the instrument they carry. That’s an obvious advantage while travelling. I know something about that, being a luthier and having bring guitars around the world …

Carrying the cases is also easy thanks to the shoulder strap: sometimes is easier lugging an instrument on a shoulder, when both hands are occupied holding amplifiers and pedals.

Opening up one of the cases, I notice that the metal latches are placed at strategic points: unlike the economic cases from Asia, the shape of the case itself  helps to cover the hinges hermetically, preventing access to rain or dust.

The interior covering can be fitted with long hair or short hair, depending on your personal taste.

Aside from their light weight, their resistance is what strikes me the most. They are virtually non-deformable. I, of course, asked him what’s the material they are made of, but Giorgos answers vaguely. “Let’s say the base is polyester, but I use it only to harden the materials, which are different and a little complicated to explain briefly.” In short, Giorgos holds the secret to himself.

In conclusion, Giorgos Xristonakis’ cases meet faithfully all the qualities required from a good musical instrument case: lightness, strength, protection from the elements, and a firm grip on the instrument they carry. Everything is handcrafted with elegance and precision. Prices are reasonable, considering the quality of labor and materials. Clearly they are not as cheap as those made in China, but they’re not out of reach at all.

To have more informations, you can send a message to xristonakisgiorgos@gmail.com

Lukas Milani

Oncle Archibald

Nomadism and travel as fundamental elements of life.

Unlike the Gypsies, who were forced to settle down in Spain, and the Roma, who were great travelers, but had the tendency of put down roots in a suitable location for two or three generations, the Manouche were almost constantly moving, therefore considering themselves true nomads. In a sociological survey conducted by Edith Falque, one hundred and forty Manouche travellers or former travelers were interviewed and recorded on tape. The place where the investigation was conducted was mainly Paris which, during the winter, is the final destination for a large number of travellers. Other interviews were conducted in small villages that typically are a pilgrimage locations for this population, such as Saint Marie De La Mer and Lourdes.

In winter, the Manouche people abandon the road due to the cold, settling down for a few months wherever possible, preferably close to big cities, thus guaranteeing the possibility of earning a living for themselves and send (willingly or not) their children to school. The duration of their stationary period may vary from two of up to six or seven months, although generally the time of departure is awaited with great impatience.

Moving abroad, or within the French territory, in order to reach the various pilgrimage destinations, the journey itself becomes a real reason for living and the greatest fear of each Manouche is that one day (which may already have arrived) the government will require them to abandon the road. The mandatory formal school training of their children is also perceived as an attack on their traditional way of life: a hard life, indeed, but still a life that they absolutely don’t want to give up.

When settling occurs, it’s usually never voluntary; it’s always perceived as a renunciation and it rarely corresponds to an assimilation. It’s usually due to major forces or causes, for example war or a disease. Giving up the travelling lifestyle, as mentioned above, does not correspond with the adoption of the stationary way of life: the Manouche keep their usual business activities, and their traditional crafts. On the other hand, although sedentary lifestyle is not realized fully and satisfactorily, it is nonetheless a tragic break with a life of constant travel, that turns, in most cases, into the disintegration -both physical and psychological- of the group and of each individual.

Luca Leimer
Oncle Archibald

History (Part One)

If you had to name a french-made guitar, which stood out right from the start for its great qualities and went on to be internationally renowned, it would definitely be the Selmer guitar. It’s also the guitar that, for seventy years, has been the first choice for all manouche musicians. Created in the early thirties by the hands of luthier Mario Maccaferri, it would soon be adopted by early English and French jazz guitarists. It will undoubtedly be Django Reinhardt, though, the one that will give it its notoriety. In the Selmer-Maccaferri guitar Django will find the perfect tool for his style and he will almost exclusively play these guitars. Consequently, they will soon be -and still are- associated with his music. All the many guitarists that Django influenced have always used the Selmer-Maccaferri guitar, confirming it as an invaluable tool for those musicians looking a well defined and caharacterized sound. The Selmer-Maccaferri guitars were in the hands of the great guitarists of the jazz and swing orchestras in the thirties and forties; the big bands that accompanied singers like Edith Piaf, Charles Trenet or Yves Montand and, of course, in the small combos that played the valse musette along with accordions.

It all began in the early twentieth century with a young promising son of a numerous family in Northern Italy. He decided not to work in the fields, avoiding to follow his brothers’ footsteps, and revealing -instead- an artistic attitude: Mario Maccaferri (1900-1993) was born in Cento, near Bologna; at the young age of eleven he became an apprentice in the atelier of the master luthier and guitarist Luigi Mozzani, who greatly influenced him. Maccaferri decided to follow his master’s path, devoting himself to the study of lutherie and classical guitar. In 1916 he enrolled in the Siena music academy, where he graduated. After his graduation he temporarily abandoned the lutherie craft to devote himself to a career as a classical guitarist; a career that allowed him to travel far and wide throughout Europe. In 1929 he lived in London where he was called to give guitar lessons to the Duke of Windsor. Unfortunately he fractured his left hand in an accident and was consequently forced to abandon his career as a concert guitarist. That allowed him to come back with renewed vigor to the lutherie, his great and first passion.

Luca Leimer
Oncle Archibald

The melody implies a somewhat minor quality to the chord progression, especially in the second bar where -for almost its entire duration-, there’s an E-flat on the melody, which is the diminished fifth of the first A chord and then minor ninth of the following D chord.

The progression, however, resolves immediately on a major chord built on the tonic (followed by a II and III degree chords).

The sequence is repeated for the next four bars (with the same call-and-response melodic line of the first four).

Bars from 9 to 12 show a II V progression in E minor (relative minor of G) and the main motif is presented again twice, with the necessary melodic variations, in order to provide a thematic response to be developed and brought towards the end of the first “A” section.

The last four bars of the first “A” section alternate between a V7/V -or secondary dominant- (A7) and V grade (D7), with some chromatic “planing” chords (a typical Django trait, indeed. Actually, in bar 15 is more common to find the sequence D7 Db7 than the one found on the Real Book).

The second “A” repeats the same phrase and the same harmonic structure that opens the song. The response phrase, however, is transposed a perfect fourth above, compared to the corresponding bars of the first “A” sequence. Naturally the chords, too, are transposed accordingly. The same reasoning applied earlier, also applies to the chords found in these bars.

In the following four bars the theme reaches its climax and, with a modal shift, changes from C major to C minor (that particular chord is often held for two whole bars, although in this score its function is of a second degree in a II-V progression) and then it goes back in G major to close the theme.

In the sung version (” It’s The Bluest Kind Of Blue“) an additional opening verse of twenty two bars -plus four of instrumental introduction- is added . Much like in the original score, some tritone substitutions and secondary dominants and applied, but overall it never moves away from the original key, practically making this opening section nothing but a long introduction to the already known theme.

Alessandro Arcuri
Oncle Archibald

Portable digital recorders were, only a few years ago, just a little more than dictation machines; their recording capability was good enough just to capture the human voice, conversations or interviews. In recent years, though, they’ve been rapidly evolving, delivering considerable performances, while mantaining a reasonable price tag.

The Zoom H2 digital recorder is one of those devices and its success is due to its sound recording quality, of course, but also to its versatility.

It apparently features a normal microphone, under the grid on his top, but there actually are no less than four microphones! Two of them are positioned at a 90 degrees angle, facing fowrard, while the other two rear-facing capsules, are angled at 120 degees, for a wider recording pattern. The available recording modes can be in stereo, with the two angles mentioned above, a stereo omnidirectional mode, in which the two front capsules and the  two rear capsules are paired in a righ-left configuration, and even a quadriphonic recording mode in which each capsule is kept separate and independent.

Using the quadriphonic recording mode you can then, directly from  the H2 interface, balance the relative levels of the four tracks, compensating for imbalances. If, for example, the H2 is put right in the center of the stage, surrounded by instruments, and in the resulting recording there’s an instrument that’s more prominent than the others, you can “shift the balance” of the four “recording areas”, to try and compensate the overall sound. Clearly all four microphones receive the full sound spectrum, but then again we are not talking about separate tracks. A certain degree of balance, however, is still possible. Afterwards, the quadriphonic recording can be converted into a normal stereo file for direct listening (through headphones or an amplifier connected to line out) or transfer to a computer.

Even in the simplest recording mode, that is in stereo mode, the H2 offers many useful functions. You can adjust the mic sensitivity, there’s a simple editor that can cut a recorded track in two at any given point, a normalize function, an automatic recording start and stop function that starts and stops the machine when the audio levels exceed or fall below certain points, and also a high pass filter  to limit the environmental background noise. It’s also possible to record directly from a mixer, using its line input that features a stereo mini-jack connector.

There are also various recording formats available, ranging from very high quality file types, such as 24-bit and up to 96 kHz wave files, to compressed ones as mp3 (at different bitrates, too, so you can get good quality recording too with compressed audio).

The usefulness of such a device for recording musical instruments, rehearsals or concerts, is obvious, and it’s clearly designed just for this purpose. It comes equipped with a small tripod, to securely put the recorder on a flat surface and also a microphone clip adapter, to put the H2 on the top of a mic stand.

We used the Zoom H2 to record the Osteria ai Kankari gig a few days ago. The place was noisy and the conditions were not exactly optimal for a clean recording of gypsy guitars and upright bass. If you look at the gig’s post there’s a photo where you can see how we placed the recorder. An example of what we got is here: Lulu Swing

If you really want to find a flaw in this excellent product, you can say that the controls and the small screen are not exactly comfortable. Sure, the basic functions for starting the recordings and then listening to them are immediately under your fingertips, but browsing through more advanced features using the few buttons on the control panel (that change their function depending on the operation to be performed) and following them on the small display, may not be straightforward. Given the size of that small gizmo, however, that easily fits in one hand, it’s clear that this is the only downside of its extreme maneuverability and portability.

Alessandro Arcuri

Oncle Archibald

Nuages is a medium-slow in 4 / 4, in the key of G Major. Its structure is A-A ‘, each section 16 bars long.

The main motif is the six-quavers phrase (which then ends on a longer note, usually a half-note or more) and that is first found as an anacrusis at the very beginning of the song. This motif is presented again – at different heights and with different harmonic relationships – several times during the theme, but it basically includes a two-note ascending chromatic pick-up, followed by a descending phrase of the remaining four notes, almost always chromatic. The use of chromatic passages is one of the typical traits of Django Reinhard‘s phrasing, a result of his particular instrumental technique.

The song opens with a sequence of II-V chords leading to the one built on root of the key the song is in. Considering that G6 chord and going backwards, the sequence can be seen as a II-V chord progression (one chord per bar) in which every II chord is then considered as V7 / V (or secondary dominant) and to which a tritone substitution is then applied. Each dominant chord is then introduced by its relative II grade.

| | Am | D7 | G6 | …

| | A7 | D7 | G6 | …

(V7 / V)

| | Eb7 | D7 | G6 | …

(tritone sub.)

| | Bbm7 Eb7 | Am7 D7 | G6 | …

Alessandro Arcuri

Oncle Archibald