Koen De Cauter is a Belgian player steeped in the music of the Sinti-Manouche, the Romani community that produced Django Reinhardt. De Cauter and his band used to come every year for JazzFest, appearing at the Fairgrounds as well as the Palm Court Cafe where I, working as a waiter in 1991, heard him a few times. Like Duke Ellington said of Django, De Cauter (on guitar, soprano sax and clarinet), is one of those musicians who "never played an un-musical note in his life."

After one of my shifts I picked up a CD on which De Cauter had played titled Rhythmes Gitanes, (“Gypsy Rhythms”) from a group called Alma Sinti ("Sinti Soul"). There was one tune in particular that really grabbed me. Written by French guitarist and band leader Patrick Saussois (1954-2012), Adieu Lacheben is a minor key waltz with a slow, rubato intro. The thing that especially caught my attention was the intensity of the chord changes. Like so many of the tunes in our book, it was something where, once I'd heard it, I couldn't sleep until I'd learned it.

"Adieu" was in regular rotation for several years. We even played it to accompany a trapeze act in a circus production at the CAC and recorded it for our third CD, Come Out Swingin' (2010). But it eventually fell off the set list and, until the May 16 recording session, I don't think we'd touched it in... Idunno 8 or 10 years.

Although I used to play lead on the intro, I decided to ask Aurora to give it a go. I admit I had mixed feelings about that because I always loved playing it myself - surfing time on that achingly beautiful line while the band shifts and oozes through those lilting, chromatic changes. But I was also eager to hear how she would make magic with it because Aurora (the cats breathing along with her) is a master magic moment maker.

After she tells her story, Mark establishes the waltz tempo and Matt leads us through the head. The pathos of the tune takes on a different shade of meaning in the bass register and Matt, an especially adept melody player on tuba, gives it the phrasing and articulation needed to lift it into the ear.

Mind you, I had every intention of playing along on this one but, after a couple takes (and me still getting over a bout of the flu), I wasn't finding any available chord tones so opted to take a stroll and let the other six do their thing with it. When I finally heard the result I was knocked out by the flow and the alternating moments of peace and drama. Let me know how it strikes you.

The concept of our May 16th recording session was to get a bunch of material in the can we can send you over the next few months. Toward that end, we revisited some numbers from our first three albums, many of which we hadn't played in some time. It was cool and surprising to hear how they'd evolved.

Thanks as always for listening and for your continued support. We couldn't do this without y'all.
At your service,
Ben Schenck
Panorama
NOLA