MY NORTHERN SKIES

Featured Album | 392

Bireli Lagrene | Bireli Swing ’81 | Jazzpoint | 1981

When I first heard the virtuoso playing on Bireli Swing ’81 a good few years ago, which featured a cover shot of a seated 14 year-old French guitar player, looking only slightly bigger than the guitar, I couldn’t quite connect the image with the music. This was emphasised further by the image on the back of the sleeve, with a standing Bireli Lagrene, who was clearly a toddler at the time. I later reasoned that if you pick up a guitar at the age of four and hang around the right people, you are likely to excel early. Born into a musical family, both his father and grandfather guitar players in their own right, Bireli Lagrene took to it like a duck to water and soon had Django Reinhardt tunes down to a tee. Amazingly, Bireli Swing ’81 is Lagrene’s second album, having already released his debut at the age of 13, and features a couple of Django standards, “Djangology” and “Nuages”, but also introduces us to a handful of Lagrene originals, which stand up beside those of the undisputed master of the gypsy guitar style, certainly the album opener, “B.L.” Equally at home with Reinhardt tunes as with his own compositions, Lagrene at such a young age, tackles such well worn tunes as George and Ira Gershwin’s “Lady Be Good” and Kurt Weill’s “September Song”, yet appears to bring something new to the table at the same time. Lagrene’s youthful flair and advanced dexterity makes this album essential listening.