Fapy Lafertin New Quartet

Gypsy Jazz With Great Finesse

Fapy Lafertin is undoubtedly one of the most important and purest representatives of the Django style. This guitar maestro of the gypsy jazz world is surrounded in this brand-new original project by Belgian musicians from the latest generation: Alexandre Tripodi on violin, Renaud Dardenne on guitar and Cédric Raymond on double bass. They perform with great finesse a repertoire of swing, choro and own compositions, full of divergent and surprising soundscapes. Fapy Lafertin, known for his very delicate and expressive interpretations, will also play the unique instrument that is the Portuguese guitar. Lafertin has an amazing guitar technique, while always keeping the melody in mind. He has not turned out to be a prisoner of the past by following Django’s style. On the contrary, he makes Django’s music sound more modern than ever before.

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	Fapy Lafertin Born in 1950 in Kortrijk (Belgium), Fapy Lafertin started playing the guitar at the age of 5. As always with the Gypsies, music is a family story. In 1972, Fapy formed with Koen De Cauter the WASO quartet, which recorded ﬁve albums and toured regularly around Europe. A dozen albums followed under his name, bearing the music of Django Reinhardt high and anticipating the coming gipsy jazz wave by about ﬁfteen years. Quickly recognized by his peers and by a public of aﬁcionados as a master of the gypsy guitar, he is undoubtedly one of the stylists who, in terms of sensitivity, comes closest to Django, because having retained the essential lesson: “play simple, play pure notes (…) of emotion, feeling, a note played at the right time with the perfect feeling; that’s music and that’s Django (…) feeling is more important than speed “. In his chorus, Fapy will always show restraint, melodic sensitivity and clarity of articulation that will absolutely distinguish him from the plethora of Django’s heirs who often confuse music and gymnastics!
	Renaud Dardenne As multifaceted musician, guitarist Renaud Dardenne evolves from gypsy swing to choro, from Venezuelan music to rebetiko, including jazz. He composes for the theatre and its various groups. He is a former member of the Violons de Bruxelles.
	Cedric Raymond Pianist, double bassist and bassist but also drummer and sound engineer, Cédric Raymond has also performed in formations with very diﬀerent styles; he works in the theatre and musical comedy. Its double bass with the beautiful roundness of sound, forms with Renaud’s guitar an exemplary rhythm combining exemplarity and ﬂexibility, sobriety and eﬃciency.
	Alexandre Tripodi As for violinist Alexandre Tripodi, he is a well-known ﬁgure among lovers of gypsy swing and acoustic jazz in Belgium. Above all a sideman, he oﬃciates in many projects. Combining lyricism and sensuality, her interventions are always of great melodic sensitivity.

Jazzwise

*** « Lilting music, beautifully wrought, often delicate, never rugged ».

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Jazz Journal

" It’s an excellent addition to Frémeaux’s manouche catalogue as well as a step forward for the accomplished Lafertin".

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The Guardian

**** « The clarity and warmth of Fapy’s playing, not to mention his apparently effortless technique, are marks of real artistry. His three companions, especially violinist Alexandre Tripodi, match him to perfection […] Simply irresistible ».

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RNR Magazine

"Vibrant, relevant and always worth a listen"

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The Jazz Rag

"Subtlety and delicacy. A common factor of an excellent album is the regard for melody »

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Songlines

TOP OF THE WORLD selection "Simple and sophisticated manouche à la Django"

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COULEURS JAZZ

« An attentive listening to the other, common artistic values, the desire to play together and a unity of tone in the interpretation make the coexistence of these sometimes diﬀerent musical universes harmonious. The four members of the quartet favor beautiful sound. They all know how to exploit the richness of a melody with an elegance carried by the spring of swing. A musical journey rich in beautiful surprises.»

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DNA

"In the end it gives a swing in the great tradition of Django jazz, vintage sound and silky notes. An album that travels, as Francis Couvreux says so nicely in the note of the album, since Portuguese and Brazilian sounds intersect here and there. Masters in melancholic elegance, led by a great gentleman of string jazz, Fapy Lafertin and his New Quartet"

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Jazz Hot

« Fapy Lafertin, who fell into the pot of Django's legacy at a very young age, is of course a virtuoso guitarist, but with this kind of virtuosity which does not overwhelm music because it serves imagination, poetry, expression. Fapy Lafertin, the artist musician, is a hidden treasure, it is a privilege to be able to discover him on records from time to time».

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