Pearl Django

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More About

• Django Reinhardt
• Wes Montgomery
• Stephane Grappelli
• Paris (France)
• Martin Taylor

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Veteran local quintet Pearl Django is known for its revivalist style of tight, uptempo guitar jazz in the manner of Django Reinhardt and his Quintette du Hot Club de France. Their skill and fidelity to such gypsy-Gallic tradition is admirable, but sometimes you wish they’d slow things down a bit. That brake may come from virtuoso guest guitarist Martin Taylor, who joins them in a six-night stand. The English finger picker once served as a sideman to Stephane Grappelli (Reinhardt’s musical partner back in the ’30s), but his later career has reflected postwar influences like Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass. He’s a master of contrapuntal rhythms, of finding a secondary fill groove that can be hidden in the main song. But this week’s teaming with Pearl Django is no accident: 2010 marks the centennial of Reinhardt’s birth, meaning you’ll likely hear standards like “Nuages” and “Minor Swing,” rendered with millennial verve and that old-fashioned Paris stomp. BRIAN MILLER
Jan. 4-7, 7:30 p.m.; Jan. 8-9, 7:30 & 10 p.m., 2011