Brooklyn’s Band of Gypsies

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

The French guitarist Stephane Wrembel, Brooklyn’s master of Gypsy jazz, wanders the borough five nights a week, but it is at Barbés, the small bar and jazz club on 9th Street in Park Slope, where he is most at home.

The bar’s back room is perhaps 400 square feet, stuffed with small tables and five or six rows of seats. Despite the dread of another Monday fast approaching, fans of Mr. Wrembel consistently squeeze, jostle, stand, and, depending on the mood of the club’s air conditioner, shiver or sweat through two hours of uplifting music. Breaks between songs are brief, if there are any at all, and Mr. Wrembel never tires as he unleashes flurry after flurry of Django Reinhardt riffs. Jared Engel plays bass and David Langlois plays laptop washboard; oftentimes the drummer Julien Augier and the young saxophonist Christophe Panzani, a friend from France, swing along with them. One could not spend $8, the suggested contribution, more wisely in New York City. For another $5, fans can buy a recording of the performance they just witnessed from Listenhearnow.com, which recently began recording Mr. Wrembel’s visits to Barbés.

Mr. Wrembel does not look like a virtuoso. He is 32 but has a boyish face. His hands are not especially big, his fingers are thick, and he dresses casually, usually in jeans and a T-shirt. He used to shave his head and wear a goatee, but he now favors a mop of brown hair and not the slightest stubble. The grimaces and pained expressions that many guitarists make while soloing are rare for him — no matter how furiously Mr. Wrembel strums or how nimbly his fingers dance along the fretboard, he seems at ease, often looking at the ceiling or a member of the band. On a recent Sunday at Barbés, the air conditioning was acting up and Mr. Engel was sweating profusely after an hour’s playing. Meanwhile, Mr. Panzani had to squat for a few minutes between songs, catching his breath as the rest of the band ribbed him with calls of “allez, allez.” But Mr. Wrembel was cold. At one point he put down his guitar, pulled on a hooded sweatshirt, and got back to business.

If not for his uncle and the music of Pink Floyd — “still my favorite band ever,” he said — Mr. Wrembel might have become a concert pianist. He grew up in Chartrette, a small town outside Fountainebleau, and began playing classical piano at 4. His uncle, a blues player, inspired him to take up the guitar at 15. He practiced constantly and played in rock bands, but did not discover the music of Reinhardt until he began to study jazz at the American School in Paris. His instructor, Laurent Hestin, who performed with Reinhardt’s son, Babik, taught Mr. Wrembel “Minor Swing,”and the young guitarist was smitten. He soon met his most influential teacher, Serge Krief, a French guitarist who performs sparingly in America (George Benson brought him to Blue Note in 1999). From there he moved on to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied jazz and became fascinated with ragas. He continues to dabble, most recently in classical music. “In 10 years or something like that, I want to build a nice repertoire,” he said. “And also I want to stop using the pick.”

But he is not about to abandon the music that takes him from his home in Maplewood, N.J., where he lives with his wife and 2-year-old son, to the clubs of Brooklyn: Sundays at Barbés, Tuesdays at Bar Tabac in Carroll Gardens, Wednesdays at Chez Oskar in Fort Greene, Thursdays at Cornerstone in Ditmas Park, and Saturdays at Fada in Williamsburg. Rather, he wants to incorporate new techniques, and spend more time writing music. In November, he released his second self-produced compact disc, titled “Barbés-Brooklyn.”

It is a leap forward from his first effort, 2002’s “Introducing Stephane Wrembel,” a collection of brief Reinhardt compositions and traditional Gypsy songs. The new disc includes renditions of Reinhardt’s “Fleche d’Or,” Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia,” and Mongo Santamaria’s “Afro Blue,” but otherwise the songs are Mr. Wrembel’s, and several of them sparkle. The title track brims with energy, “Big Brothers” soothes and features the violin of Olivier Manchon, and the melody of “Buster Swing” will rattle around your head for days. The recording also gives Mr. Langlois and Mr. Engel room to show off their talents.

“They need to have more space,” Mr. Wrembel said. “I am trying to do something very important, which is not to play with my first impression anymore. Anytime I have an idea, I’m not going to play it. I’m just going to play a phrase. I want to play the next one, but I’m not. I’m just going to keep my impression, and keep my focus on the other guys.”

Mr. Langlois, also from France, has rigged his washboard with a Teflon pie pan, a clay pot, and a hollowed-out wooden block; he taps out intricate rhythms with thimbles, or swirls his fingers to mimic the sound a drummer creates with brushes. Mr. Wrembel credits him with bringing reggae influences to the band. Mr. Wrembel knew of Mr. Engel at Berklee, but they did not connect until Mr. Wrembel, suddenly without a bassist, was “blown away” by a chance encounter with Mr. Engel, who was playing banjo in the Boston subway.

Practicing for hours a day, composing, and playing five nights a week makes life hectic, and Mr. Wrembel’s chosen style is not about to bring him riches. He teaches on the side. One of his regular students, Michael Zakarin, is on the cusp of mega-stardom as the guitarist for the popular band the Bravery; another one-time student, Mariah Carey, is a multi-millionaire. This doesn’t bother Mr. Wrembel a bit.

“I don’t mind playing for 10 people or 20 or a 100 or 5,000,” he said. “I’m able to feed my family. I play the music I want, I don’t compromise, I don’t bend for anybody. The purpose is to build a solid audience that really loves the music, and that I really love.”

tperrotta@nysun.com


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