SHOW REVIEW: Stephane Wrembel in Ann Arbor by SAMER MCB

 

Stephane Wrembel is a master of the guitar.  Dynamic and expressive and fast as hell, his "gypsy-jazz" playing actually incorporates jam music, django, jazz, swing and romantic melody seamlessly.  It's clear Wrembel pushes his abilities on stage, especially his speed.  Watching him, I noticed something I once heard about Oscar Peterson: though he hits ten times as many notes as other players, they all seem to fit, and nothing seems rushed.  His very polished composition done for Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, Bistro Fada, was in fact a watered down version of a song he played later in the set, one with so much more music packed in as to be almost unrecognizable.

Wrembel heads a purely instrumental, somewhat jazzy ensemble, with fair stage time given to all of its great members.  There was a younger guitarist who could give Wrembel a run for his money, a damn good drummer, and a percussionist who used all ten of his steel tipped fingers to play an interesting collection of pots and symbols, displaying some of the most expressive percussion solos I've seen since I saw an Indian sage play a ceramic pot.  Wrembel's solos were long trance-inducing ballads, naked bits of expression played while the rest of the band watched along with the crowd, and a great change of pace.  The set, which included songs dedicated to and inspired by Carl Sagan, those involved in the current crysis in Syria, and the Voyager spacecraft, was balanced with few moments which didn't make me especially happy.

If my language so far hasn't made it damn clear that I loved this man's music, then this sentence will.