Parisota Hot Club features founding member, bandleader and guitarist Robb Henry.
The group has evolved from the original quartet of 2002-2004 to a current collective of some of the finest Hot Club musicians in the Twin Cities area.
Recent performances ( May 2006 to present ) have included the following players:
Violin-Gary Schulte, Tom Schaefer, Kip Jones, David Stenshoel, Zack Kline, Jim Plattes...
Guitar-Sam Miltich, Reynold Philipsek, Mark Kreitzer, Dean Harrington...
Accordion-Patrick Harison...
Clarinet-Tony Balluff...
Saxophone-Dave Karr...
Bass-Jim Chenoweth, Jeff Brueske, Matt Senjem, Keith Boyles, Matthew Miltich, James Buckley...
Drums-Jay Epstein...
PHC have also played a number of shows with vocalist Connie Evingson ( March 2004 to present ) and are one of the featured groups on her "Gypsy in my Soul" CD... Group size is usually trio or quartet with seven pieces being largest to date. Photo by Tom Henry
Influences
Some of my personal musical influences are...
Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian,Wes Montgomery...Les Paul's echo-drenched multi-tracked masterpieces..."Rumble" by Link Wray ( my first guitar
piece )...Seeing Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck play live when I was a teenager...My brother's Chuck Berry records... Hot club styled string jazz from pre-war Paris...Post-war Django on the electric guitar...Chicago blues and Chess records from the 50's...English rock from the 60's...The Django Reinhardt festival at Samois-sur-Seine, France...small sounds, big spaces and vice versa...stereo....all of the musicians I have played with......
As for the band, Parisota Hot Club mainly plays the music of Django Reinhardt
while incorporating bits and pieces of the above.
-R. Henry
-Above...November 29 2003 Live at the Loring Pasta Bar Minneapolis MN.
-Below...Orchestra Hall Minneapolis February 18 2005. Jim Chenoweth-bass...Bobby E. Ekstrand-guitar...Kip Jones-violin...Raphaël Fraisse-violin...Tony Balluff-clarinet...Patrick Harison-accordion...Robb Henry-guitar
Below is a poster ad for the "Swing in Djune" CD autumn of 2002. This same room is the current location of the Dakota Jazz Bar, pictured at bottom. We have had many nights of music at 1010 Nicollet.
The blue and red player below contains six live recordings from September 30, 2005 and features Kip Jones-violin...Patrick Harison-accordion...Jim Chenoweth-bass...Robb Henry-guitar. Above photo by Andrea Canter
September 28, 2003 Casual Observations of Raphaël Fraisse
Various stages of the Parisota Hot Club...Above can best be described by the song title "I'll See You In My Dreams"...Below top is from Dunn Bros. St. Paul, March 2002...middle is January 2003 at the Sheldon Theater in Red Wing and lower photo is from February 2005, Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, where things got a bit more roomy.
Photos:top-Dale Hanson, middle and bottom-Tom Henry, background-Hilary Bullock
Hey Parisota Cool name and music. "One small step for man, one giant leap for musickind" say the GYPSYBILLY-MAN Who knows that might inspire you? Thanks and Keep swingin' the Vignatis
Robb, we hope you can make it over to the AQ this weekend:
Impulso! Dean Magraw: guitar Brandon Wozniak: saxophones Jay Epstein: drums Originals & interpretive reflections of other oblique material at the The Artists' Quarter, 7th Place & St. Peter, St. Paul, MN 55102, 651-292-1359. This Friday, Saturday, March 13,-14 @ 9PM