It's always a blast to pay a visit to the Michael Horrowitz's DjangoBooks website. This perpetual labor of love includes some of the best Gypsy Jazz resources on the planet, including books, CDs, and of course timeless treasures of video archives.

A couple of the lastest clips just added to the DjangoBooks website:

Romane and Stochelo Rosenberg: Jam Session in the Netherlands (Late 90s) Part VI

Bireli Lagrene and Richard Galliano - Live in Montruex
Who says accordians aren't a real musical instrument? (Makes us rethink all those accordian jokes, for sure...)

Angelo Debarre, Moreno, Tchavolo Schmitt, and Ninine Garcia: Documentary
Ninine is a regular sideman with premier jazz mandolinist, Will Patton, by the way...

Check out the rest of the video archives. Feel free to make a donation if you're so inclined.

Posted by Ted at 01:11 PM

June 28, 2007 | An American Tradition

Cool Mandolin Company has an outrageously important CD for you to add to your collection, "An American Tradition". This is a compilation CD that includes tracks from the talented artists you'll hear when visitng the Cool Mandolin Company Website.

Most of the world's best mandolin artists have donated a track and 100% of the profits goes towards mandolin scholarships. These greats include Butch Baldassari, Andrew Collins, Rich DelGrosso, Scott Gates, Ryan Holladay, Sierra Hull, Dominick Leslie, John Lowell & Ben Winship, Simon Mayor, John McGann, Justin Moses, Josh Pinkham, and Frank Solivan II. It's quite a thorough collection of bluegrass, newgrass, Americana, blues and Celtic styles.

It's available for purchase on the Cool Mandolin Company website, but you can hear sample tracks on CD Baby.

Support this important sponsor of our own JazzMando site as well as its own mission of offering scholarship opportunties to emerging mandolin talent.

Ours is on the way now. Have you ordered yours yet?

Posted by Ted at 01:47 PM

June 26, 2007 | Mix A5

We had the opportunity to review a New-MAD Mix A5 last spring, and have been all atwitter ever since. The demo instrument, one of the very first made, performed marvelously and exceeded all expectation, enough so that site author, Ted Eschliman, himself spent the next several months liquidating prized "toys" to make room for an acquisition of his own. It was unavoidable; it would be fate...

The prototype was good, but the one received yesterday on the UPS truck was even better. The conclusion prior was this was a superlative stage instrument; plugged in it would surpass any instrument for acoustic tone and player response under the harshest of loud stage conditions. If it lacked anything, it was would be the subtle nuances of other $4K instruments in the intimate, front-porch picking environment.

"Wrong," says Ted. "This instrument is even BETTER than the prototype we passed around several months ago. Peter has exceeded his own standards for quality." The instrument is impressively responsive, robust in tone, but capable of the intricacies of subtle, demanding acoustic music.

Everything you've heard about it is true. This is a major, front-line keeper!

Nice job, Peter, Will, and crew!

Read review

Sales information.

Posted by Ted at 11:39 AM

June 23, 2007 | The Next Draleon

We had the privilege of hooking up near the beautiful Baltimore Harbor with Gordon Roberts, Century Strings co-founder and designer of the new Royale jazz mandolins during lunch meeting on a recent road trip. Discussed were plans and speculation of potential expansion of the line; the question arose, "With the great success of the first one, what should the next ground-breaking Draleon instrument be?"

A vintage sunburst L-5 guitar-body seemed to surface at the top of the priority list. A good example, the Arrow Jazzbo remains a personal fave around the JazzMando Research Lab. The introduction of this would indeed mirror and homage Django's own personal musical journey; the earliest of his music with a Selmer/Maccaferri style is already expressed in the Royale, and subsequent musical journey into amplified guitar with the Gibson style jazzbox archtops later in his legendary career.

The market also seems ripe for a similar guitarbox style octave mandolin. Cutting-edge pioneer builders like Bill Bussmann and Fletcher Brock have already broken new ground with their marvelous octaves. These are magnificent for comping as well as chord/melody and soloing.

Survey:
We would be interested in what the JazzMando readers would like to see in an affordable, mid-priced auxiliary instrument. Give us your thoughts on what the next unique Draleon should be.

An L5? An octave mandolin? A 4- or 5-string? A larger mandola "Royale?" A Jazz-Dola 4-string? An assymetrical two-point?

You have a chance to make a difference. Weigh in with your wish list; what you would you like to see, what would you strongly consider owning? Your thoughts.

Posted by Ted at 12:24 PM

June 21, 2007 | New Bandolim

Always great to hear from our friend, Tércio Ribeiro, brilliant Brazilian builder of Hamilton de Holanda and Joel Nacimento. His latest is being performed on by Hamilton at the Mandolin Symposium in California, and he is also busy with a group of 12 in the works being constructed for the American market. (We'd love to hear from you if you are one of the lucky!)

Below are pictures of his latest tweaks; Tércio tells us, "It has the same shape of the second bandolim of Hamilton. I made some internal changes to try a better sound - looking for more bass. It has a beautiful rosette made of mother-of-pearl, and I'm always trying a personal pattern to each instrument. The bridge has the same curves of Hamilton's last bridge. The last photo is from my workshop. You can see the bandolim resting on a board (left/middle), inside the acclimatized room, where the instruments are constructed and where the wood are stocked."

Recently he's finished the 8-string Joel Nascimento Signature Model, an instrument based on the model of Brazilian legend Jacob do Bandolim. He's been studying American musician, Darren Dix's 1929 Gibson (more of a bluegrass model), incorporating some of the tonal qualities by experimenting with the bracing. This ought to be an incredible venture and we hope to keep you posted.

Enjoy the following some pictures:

TR_Binding
TR_Face
TR_HdstInlay
TR_Side
TR_SoundHole
TR_Workshop

Contact Tércio Ribeiro

Grande abraço

Posted by Ted at 06:13 AM

June 20, 2007 | Mowry on the truck

One of our favorite messages, "On FedEx vehicle for delivery" and with the latest from Andrew Mowry, we're looking forward to some hands-on experience with the rising star builder's jazz two-point later this morning. Making the trek from Oregon for official JazzMando staff review in our favorite cosmetic combination, blonde stain with tortoise trim (goes together like blonde hair and black leather), Andrew has paid special attention to the needs of jazzers in this beauty; "I try to voice the two-point a little more for jazz than bluegrass, and part of that just comes from the wood choice (engelmann and bigleaf maple). I'm a big fan of engelmann, and I recommend it to my customers unless they're going purely for that bluegrass sound.

We're having this shipped to the "day gig" address. Feeling a little cough coming on; better take the rest off after it comes in.

View picture

Posted by Ted at 05:44 AM

June 17, 2007 | Jonatha Brooke

You've no doubt been following the latest incarnation of Paul McCartney's instrumental talents, his discovery of the mandolin. A perennial favorite singer/songwriter fave around the JazzMando water cooler has been cerebral-folk artist Jonatha Brooke, and to our amazement, she's recorded mandolin on one track (After the Tears) of her latest CD, the stellar "Careful What You Wish For."

A different version of this particular track was originally written for the movie "Because of Winn Dixie" with Jeff Daniels. Unfortunately it never made the score, but according to Jonatha, "I was soooo in love with the chorus that I kept chipping away at a way to make it mine."

A brilliant songwriter and amazing vocalist, she is noted for her clever use of alternate tunings on guitar; it comes as no surprise she would be attracted to the magic of the mandolin as well. We can only hope she continues to use and explore our eight-stringed wonder in her noble efforts to push new horizons in folk music.

Of course, the rest this CD is quite good as well. A refreshing submission for those who like turbo-charged "New Acoustic" music. Highly recommend!

Purchase information: Careful What You Wish For

Artist website: Jonatha Brooke

Her MySpace


Jonatha Brooke with Site Author Ted Eschliman,
Winter NAMM 2001

Posted by Ted at 06:25 AM

June 15, 2007 | Tribute to Bob Wills

We mentioned this last winter, but friend and JazzMando mentor Don Stiernberg recently brought it to our attention again. There's a cool 8 minute tribute to Bob Wills on YouTube worth a gander. These guys had incredible Western Swing mojo and the hats to match. Included in the video are Tiny Moore and Johnny Gimble, MC'd by Merl Haggard, and introduced by Dolly Parton, we get a tasty glimpse of this genre in its romping purity.

Check it out: Texas Playboys

Thanks, Don!

Posted by Ted at 05:40 AM

June 13, 2007 | New-MAD Sponsor

JazzMando bids welcome to our latest sponsor, New Millennium Acoustic Design. Peter Mix, company President has taken the latest in Carbon Fibre Technology and through cooperative design efforts with world-class builder, Will Kimble, brought to production an amazing mandolin. The "New-MAD" Mix A5 is creating quite an industry stir; an F5 is about to be unveiled at the Summer NAMM show in Austin, TX later in July.

We're delighted to add New-MAD to our stellar line-up of JazzMando underwriters.

Read our review: Mix A5

Visit website for information and product sound clips: New Millennium Acoustic Design

(or just click on the New-MAD banner ad!)

Posted by Ted at 07:40 AM

June 10, 2007 | Ashley Broder & Jamie Laval

One of the treats of MySpace is you often stumble across great but undiscovered musical treasures. Such is the case with mandolinist Ashley Broder and playing partner, Jamie Laval in their recent release, Zephyr in the Confetti Factory. Odd that Ash would have been a stranger to us, her reputation precedes her despite her ripe young age as Western Open Master Picker Champion (2003 and 2004), her service on the faculty of the Mandolin Symposium in Santa Cruz, CA, and of course her assistance with Mike Marshall in his five book series, Mike Marshall Methods.

We've had the privilege of writing a few words of praise for Jamie and Ashley's debut CD. This music is fresh and compelling, and though it isn't exactly jazz, it's worth a listen for anyone mandolinist to see what the instrument is capable in more intimate ensemble settings.

Be warned, these are unrelenting notes, magnificently performed, and you'll wonder how the two retain a mature, soulful hand midst the technical test. This is amazing stuff, but you won't think of it as just fast, challenging music.

You'll think of it as music.

Read the review: Zephyr in the Confetti Factory

Posted by Ted at 05:22 PM

June 06, 2007 | Beijing & Taipei

Site Author Ted Eschliman is away for the week. Regularly posted articles will return approximately June 12, which is also when the JazzMando Merchandise Center will resume shipping again.

Latest from Ted, though: "What I Did on My Vacation..."

Posted by Ted at 11:00 AM

June 01, 2007 | Clean Sweep...

Thinking Good Tone Part 2. It's our latest entry at the MandolinSessions.com webzine at the Mel Bay website, and it's a follow up to the, you-guessed it, "Thinking Good Tone Part 1." (Clever, huh?)

Seriously, if you've never really focused on the importance of a good right hand, you're missing important opportunity to kick out the most gorgeous tone you ever thought you could muster. Clean, accurate picking is literally where the it all starts, and it's worth taking a look at the exercise and incorporating it into your daily warm-ups.

Check it out: Thinking Good Tone Part 2

Accompanying exercise: Sweeping for Tone

A practice routine without picking exercises is like a day without sunshine.

A kiss without a mustache...

Posted by Ted at 03:50 PM