The Little Theatre Café has always struck me as temporal
twilight, a layover in a caffeinated limbo if you will, on your way to or from
cinematic bliss. While in this holding pattern and holding a cup of hot joe, you can dig any number of
bands on the artistic fringe as they punch out acoustic or lightly amplified
sets of electrified eclecticity. It’s momentary,
fleeting, and beautiful in its brevity.
Folks come from the reaches to dig the tunes. Most are
passing through. The café isn’t what you’d necessarily call a destination. But
last Thursday it was crowded with fans of local gypsy-jazz sensations The Djangoners.
Sure, some were there on their way to one the Little’s assorted left-of-Hollywood
offerings, but the majority of the crowd that packed the house was there start
to finish for two sets of the quartet’s thrills, trills, and, augmented fills.
The sound centered around the
material of gypsy-jazz guitar godfather, Django
Reinhardt. When you ponder the fact that Reinhardt did what he did with just
two fingers on his fret hand — the other two digits were rendered useless in a
fire — it’s staggering. But honestly very few guitarists, or those in the
supporting fiddle and bass roles, have mastered the style’s syncopation, jump,
and zing as well as the Djangoners.
At the band’s core is Bobby Henrie,
a six-string-slingin’ southpaw wunderkind raised on
bluegrass and red-hot rockabilly. Watching this man play on his upside-down
guitar is a study in the style’s confounding elegance and complicated
simplicity. Five-string fiddle player (and maker) Eric Aceto
offered up a similar blur of bowed notes that countered the melody when not
countering it or harmonizing with it. His brother and rhythm guitarist Harry Aceto was absent, leaving Ithaca guitarist Dave Davies —
no, not that Dave Davies, Kinks fans — to add the percussive chop, charm, and
trombone. You might think that last piece would be a bit out of place, but in
reality it just added to the parade. Dog-house bassist Brian Williams kept the
bottom end thumping and hips twitching as he served up his trademark locomotive
swing.
You can see The Djangoners at The
Little Theatre Café every Thursday in December. See a movie too, if you’re so
inclined.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2013.
hard to find show times.