Fine & Dandy

If you're looking for innovation or a new twist on an established and venerable jazz style, you'll want to look elsewhere. But if all you want is to spend about an hour reliving the glory days of Django Reinhardt, Stephane Grappelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, then you've definitely come to the right place. Like most exponents of gypsy jazz, the Fapy Lafertin Quintet and Tim Kliphuis are traditionalists, not innovators; their goal is to preserve something great rather than lay claim to something new. What, then, you might ask, is Lafertin doing playing a bolero (the lovely original composition "Aurore") halfway through the program? Well, just because he's a traditionalist doesn't mean that that's all he is. Listen a bit more closely to his more Django-esque excursions and you'll hear the unique stamp he places on this familiar repertoire — his careful note choices, his unusually rich tone, the maturity that prevents him from slipping into mere show-off virtuosity. Violinist Tim Kliphuis, whose debt to Grappelli is more pronounced than Lafertin's to Reinhardt, is the band's secret weapon; his elegant glissandi and warm, sweet tone drip all over the proceedings like warm caramel. It would have been nice if the string bass were mixed just a bit more clearly, but that's the only quibble. Very highly recommended.