Joscho Stephan - Swinging Strings (1999)

Joscho first held a guitar at the age of 6. His father showed him the first chords and thereby opened a world for his son filled with swing and wild dances on six strings. Günter Stephan today is Joscho's rhythm guitarist. Whenever we hear Gypsy swing, the influence of super-daddy Django Reinhardt can still be felt. Joscho is has secure and effortless command of this tradition – no doubt the most important European-born contribution to the development of the jazz guitar. And who would ever criticize a musician for taking an earnest look at history? On the contrary, awareness of tradition is the safest foundation for a successful departure to new climes. This concern with history has supplied him with a solid basis for the development of a personal voice: a broad and clear acoustic tone, a supple swing, harmonic subtleties, and the cultivation of strong and explosive touch. The quartet recordings in the classic Hot-Club-de-France formation with Sören Leyers on violin especially owe a great deal to the manouche tradition. Joscho's stylistic open-mindedness, however, which he can live out in the trio, is focused on the future. Here, without ever denying his origins, he explores various directions, flirts with open, flowing Latin grooves and hefty blues lines. He combines the freshness of youth, the wildness and fun in rattling the gates of technical limits, with calm and serenity that can be felt even in the most unbuttoned phrasings. This stability and maturity are what prevent him from becoming "just another" wunderkind of the guitar. A top musician is at work here, and what better proof is there than the fact that all the cuts from "Swinging Strings" are first takes.