Django Fest 2009 - The Laguna Beach Festival of Arts Forum Theater - Jessica Fichot and Andreas Oberg with Gonzalo Berara Keith Boyd 4.27.9

This was a great show with a few surprises and a touch of the atmosphere that perhaps keeps this music from reaching a broader audience or makes it so that the primary venue to hear it is at festivals instead of the clubs. Jessica Fichot and her band OWNED IT!!! She was so great. She played a toy piano and accordion and she sang in French, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and Arabic! All of her songs were superb balances of French “chanson” styles and an originality that drew from but didn’t imitate folk music from around the world. There was an edge of cabaret to her performance and all the while it was sweet and sexy and light hearted and scary and just really perfect. Andreas Oberg was a bit arrogant in demeanor and approach to the guitar. He’s from Sweden and is a bit of a ROCK STAR in the Gypsy Jazz world so he filled that role with about 9 MILLION notes per second and to my ears lost all musicality at times. This not to imply that the man can’t play. It was perhaps that he played TOO MUCH that got in the way. There was a sense of not being able to breathe during his solos and though they were virtuoso in their delivery, they left one feeling flat or even a touch oppressed. After a touch he brought out a small ensemble of other musicians and things dramatically improved. One was guitarist Gonzalo Bergara and he was EXCELLENT!!!! He played with taste and restraint but it was liquid and precise as well. At one point he was playing the lead way down the neck on his guitar and Oberg walked over and started playing rhythm on the upper part of the neck! It was a cool trick and one that entertained as well as highlighted the talent on display. The Forum is a great little theatre in Laguna and all things considered it was a really lovely night. You can hear Jessica Fichot’s stuff on itunes and my pal Gail bought me her CD, “Le Chemin” as a little present! Although it was a lovely show it also made me realize that what this music needs is the equivalent of a band like the Pogues to come in and do it all up with swagger and punky panache! It would bring Gypsy Jazz back to the people it was meant for: The night loving drinking, smoking and dancing party people!