 Rose Oyamot
Minnesota continues to be a hotbed of Hot Club music, also called
Gypsy Jazz,
played in the tradition of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli's
1940s
Quintet of the Hot Club of France.
Honeysuckle Rose is a Hot Quartet of Minneapolis named for
Fats Waller's classic tune and for its vocalist, Rose Oyamot.
The group began in the 1990s when violinist David Stenshoel
started jamming with some fellow Minneapolis Public Library
employees. He and Oyamot are the only library veterans in the
group now. The current band includes guitarists Dean Harrington
and Dan Hansen and Holle Brian on bass.
In recent years Honeysuckle Rose played at a West Bank
coffeehouse and the now-closed Molly Quinn's on Lake Street in
Minneapolis, and released a CD ("Honeysuckle Rose") locally in fall
2006.
The band just started a regular engagement on Friday nights at the
Aster Café in Minneapolis' Main Street entertainment district.
On Friday, opening night at the Aster, the four instrumentalists
drew enthusiastic
applause as they cruised flawlessly through Django classics such as
"Daphne" and
"Minor Swing" and some standards such as "Paper Moon." Lead guitarist
Harrington
produced a dazzling solo on "All of Me," a number that has been done to
death elsewhere
but took on a fresh appeal in their hands.
Harrington began as a classical guitarist, and that training shows
in the deftness of his left
hand. He later learned many of Django's solos note-for-note. But these
days he and
Stenshoel trade improvised choruses that are inventive but still
faithful to the Reinhardt-
Grappelli style. Friday night they get solid backing from rhythm
guitarist Hansen and
bassist Jesse Harms, who substituted for Holle Brian.
A bouquet of roses stood on the front table at the Aster, possibly a
silent stand-in for
vocalist Rose Oyamot. She couldn't make the gig, but promises to sing
with the group
from now on.
The details:
6:30-9:30 p.m. Fridays: April 6, 13, 20, 27
Aster Café, 125 SE. Main St., Mpls. (612-379-3138)
No cover charge.
Information, sample tunes n the Web:
www.myspace.com/honeysucklerosemusic
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