From Staff Reports

A belated birthday show paying tribute to Django Reinhardt will be performed at 7 p.m. Feb. 7 on the Main Stage at Isis Music Hall in West Asheville.

Jean Baptiste “Django” Reinhardt was born on Jan. 23, 1910 and died on May 16, 1953.

The celebration will feature jazz and gypsy jazz music, chosen from among the nearly 100 songs Reinhardt wrote during his career. The music will be performed by the Page Brothers, along with members of the Hot Club of Asheville and One Leg Up band.

Reinhardt “was a Belgian-born, Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was the first major jazz talent to emerge from Europe and remains the most significant,” Wikipedia noted. 

Isis’ promotion stated, “... jazz pioneer Django Reinhardt is widely recognized as one of the world’s greatest guitarists. Django combined his love of early American jazz with elements from his Romani heritage to create an intoxicating style known as jazz manouche. Tonight’s program will feature his most celebrated compositions, collaborations with violinist Stephane Grappelli, as well as bebop and modern jazz tunes done in Django’s inimitable style.”

The group performing the salute is being “modeled after Reinhardt’s classic ‘Quintette du Hot Club De France’: three guitars, violin and acoustic bass. Twin brothers Andy and Zack Page will be joined by Steve Karla from The Hot Club of Asheville and Jim Tanner and Steve Trismen from long-running Asheville group, One Leg Up.”

For tickets, which are $15, call 575-2737.