Le Hot Club de Hilo, the Big Island’s gypsy jazz band, will host world-class Paris jazz violin virtuoso Aurelien Trigo in two performances later this month.
Le Hot Club de Hilo, the Big Island’s gypsy jazz band, will host world-class Paris jazz violin virtuoso Aurelien Trigo in two performances later this month.
Trigo will perform from 7-10 p.m. April 22 at the Hilo Elks Lodge and from 6- 9:30 p.m. April 23 at The Blue Dragon in Kawaihae.
Trigo, 27, started playing when he was 6, and holds a conservatory diploma in classical violin.
But at 18, he was drawn to the jazz style of Stephane Grappelli, a classically trained French violinist who, with gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, formed the seminal Quintette du Hot Club de France in the 1930s. The quintette dazzled dancers and jazz aficionados with catchy instrumentals and gypsy-inflected arrangements of popular songs.
Since 2004, Trigo has recorded and performed around the world. Visit www.aurelientrigo.fr/accueil.
Le Hot Club de Hilo includes University of Hawaii at Hilo music professor Richard Lee on woodwinds, Richard Schutte on mandolin and vocals, Jerry Dicey on bass and Hal Glatzer on guitar and vocals.
For their appearance at The Blue Dragon, they will be joined by guitarist Emmett Mahoney, from the Hot Club of Hulaville in Honolulu.
The Hilo Elks Lodge, at 150 Kinoole St., has a large dance floor and a cash bar; tickets are $15 at the door. The Blue Dragon is across from Kawaihae Harboor and has a $5 cover charge.
Trigo gave his first concerts, and recorded his first CD, in 2004, and has since been a member of several gypsy jazz bands, performing not only in France but in Corsica, New Caledonia, Belgium, the U.S. and Canada. This month, he will also play in a jazz festival on Maui.
At home in Paris, he is working on an album project honoring another of his idols: the African-American violinist Eddie South, who made celebrated recordings with Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli.