The Ben Holder Trio made an exhilarating return to Kingsbridge Jazz Club’s second concert of the 2023 season at the Crabshell Inn. It was cold outside, but inside the atmosphere was very Hot Club de France. Ben Holder on violin, Caley Groves on guitar and Mike Green on double bass were all on fine form as they performed some classics of the genre and some lesser known tunes in their characteristic exuberant style. There is no doubting the sheer virtuosity of their individual and combined talents. It’s a joy to hear them and on such fine world-class form.

Gipsy swing style was made popular in the 30’s by Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt and has continued to develop in modern times with artists such as Jimmy Rosenberg and Pearl Django among others. The distinctive sound is created by sophisticated violin melodies accompanied by pulsating guitar picking and a rhythmic double bass. Django famously only had two working fingers on his left hand after a fire in his caravan. This led to him developing an unorthodox fingering system which led to the creation of a whole new style of guitar playing. Whilst Django was a Romani gipsy, honing his style round a camp fire, Stephane was a classically trained violinist and would comfortably have played great classical pieces. Their combined skills created the Gipsy Jazz movement.

Particularly enjoyable tracks were Fapi Lafertin’s Fleur de Lavande, Django and Stephane’s After You’ve Gone and the delightfully rude Nagasaki. However, for me, the stand-out piece was undoubtably the classic Django composition Nuages, which was even more impressive as it came as an ad hoc request from an audience member. My companion whispered that it was the best rendition of the song she had ever heard and I have to say that I agree.

And now we are eagerly looking forward to the return of Hotsy Totsy’s all-female group on 7 March when spring should definitely be in the air.