LAPOMPE, a Colorado band known for their eclectic combination of gypsy swing, blues, and soulful originals, joined KGNU’s Doug Gertner for a studio session. The band discussed their wide variety of influences, from the music of Django Reinhardt and the “hot club” style of early 20th century jazz to Colorado bluegrass (Interview date: 12/2/2024)
Doug Gertner: We are live in the KGNU Kabaret studio. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that for nearly a decade, LAPOMPE has been entertaining and delighting audiences in Colorado with their eclectic combination of Manouche jazz, swing blues, and soulful originals drawing on the legacy of Django Reinhardt and the hot club style of early 20th century jazz. LAPOMPE will bring a very Django holiday show presented by KGNU to the Chautauqua Community House this Thursday, December 5th, and we’ll give away a pair of tickets to that sold out show at the end of our session today. But let’s hear from LAPOMPE live in the KGNU Kabaret Studio.
That’s LAPOMPE, and they’re live at KGNU this morning, warming us up for their sold out Very Django Holiday at Chautauqua Community House this Thursday. It’s a sold out show, so congrats on that. Let’s start with introductions. Can we know who’s in the studio today?
LAPOMPE (David): My name is David Lawrence. I’m one of the guitar players and main vocalist for the band. To my right is Mr. Andrew Hannum. He’s the other guitar player, and I’m speaking for him a little bit because his microphone is pointed down his guitar, not his mouth. I’ll kick it over to our bass player. He can introduce himself.
LAPOMPE (Kevin): I’m Kevin Laxar, and I play the bass.
LAPOMPE (Eric): I’m Eric Fellenstein. I play the minibass, otherwise known as violin.
Doug Gertner: Welcome, LAPOMPE, back to the studio. I’m interested in your origin story. I noted a ten year history, but can you talk about how the band was formed? We were talking off mic about an early gig, but who can tell us how this came together a decade or so ago?
LAPOMPE (David): Andy and Kevin actually went to high school together at St. Regis. I moved to Colorado 15 or 16 years ago, and 12 years ago, me and Andy met through my now wife. We both heard through the grapevine that we were interested in this style of gypsy jazz, or the music of Django Reinhardt, which is a niche thing. So I was like, oh, I got to meet this guy. I very quickly met Kevin and we started rehearsing and trying to learn this music. I think our very first gig was at the arts district on Santa Fe for a first Friday, playing in the corner of an art gallery.
We got another gig at the Vine Street pub, which just reopened in Denver. After a year and a half, maybe two years, we really put the hunt out for a violinist because if you know anything about the music of Django and this style of music, the violin, which was made instrumental by Stefan Grappelli the great violinist virtuoso, we needed that for the band. We were just so lucky. We put up some posters at DU.
LAPOMPE (Eric): I saw a flyer in the Lamont School of Music.
Doug Gertner: Where you were hanging out at the time?
LAPOMPE (Eric): Yeah, I was going to DU at the time and studying violin. I wound up graduating with a theater degree later on, just for a switch of pace. But yeah, I started playing with these guys, and It’s amazing how ten years just evaporates right on by before you know it. We’ve been playing together a lot. It is such a rich style. It’s fun to continue to dive deeper and also put our own spin on it and do what we call a sort of mountain swing aesthetic, adding a little bit of folksiness, a little bit of Americana and bluegrass to the edges of what is a great and rich style.
Doug Gertner: Yeah, it is a great and rich style. And I wanted to follow up with a genre question, if you don’t mind. I refer to the music purposely as Manouche jazz, which is a newer term that’s a replacement for the term gypsy jazz that some consider a slur against the Romani people. I also like Django Jazz. Nobody’s ever named it Grappelli Jazz, but it might as well be. If you’d be so kind as to help us know how you like to refer to the type of music that LAPOMPE plays and why you’ve landed there.
LAPOMPE (David): Yeah, this comes up a lot because for a lot of Romani people, the term gypsy is used as a slur, just like the word Jew. I’m Jewish. I’m of Jewish descent. And in a context, it can be used in a derogatory way. In Eastern Europe, in Romania and Hungary, It has a lot of that connotation. So for those people, it can be very negative. I think a broader context is that it’s like an ethnicity. So for Jews, there’s Ashkenazi Jews, there’s Sephardic Jews.
The Romani people, in a large sense, they are a sub ethnic group of what could be termed gypsy. I don’t know if the Romani people have a better term for what is the more umbrella term. But Django was not Romani. He was Sinti. And that ethnic group comes from North India.
I’ve actually been to Rajasthan where the sort of lineage and roots are. For lack of a better word, there are travelers and gypsy people that play music on the street and they have an instrument. I don’t remember the name of it, but it’s very similar to a violin.
It’s played with a bow. I think it only had three strings. And the music I heard, I was like, oh my God. You can so clearly hear thousands of years of tradition that crossed into Europe and it spread everywhere. Flamenco music is a form of what could be called gypsy music.
There’s the folk music of Hungary, and it became something in Europe and in Holland with Sinti, like Django’s people, that became this style of music. It’s interesting because the term is used by the descendants of Django, like Lulu Reinhardt, on their website.
It says gypsy jazz. And Manouche is just the French word for gypsy. It can be used just as derogatorily, to say the word Manouche. It’s just the French word for it. Lulu has an album called Gypsy Meets Classical. He also has one that’s really cool called Gypsy Meets India, where he pays homage to that tradition from artists in Calcutta.
But yeah, it’s a really complex thing. The other caveat is, I’m not of that descent, and we’re not experts, and we’re trying to navigate those terms. At the end of the day, we’re just trying to say something so that an audience has an idea of what we are doing, which I don’t even know what any of those terms do.
Doug Gertner: Absolutely. We get ethnomusicology here. We get geography and I think we’ll land on all of the above with no offense intended because the music is so bright and lively and positive. I’m in the studio with LAPOMPE and we’re warming up for a show we’ll be talking about shortly at Chautauqua Community House.
Let’s hear a couple more tunes, whether we call it Django jazz, gypsy jazz, Manouche, Sinti. Thanks for the education, and bring on the music.
LAPOMPE: Awesome. This next one is a medley of a Django Reinhardt tune called “Blues en Mineur” with a classic, “Sugar Plum Blues”.
Now we’re gonna do another little classic for ya.
Doug Gertner: David, Andrew, Kevin, Eric, LAPOMPE in the KGNU Kabaret Studio mashing up Chicago Blues, Elvis, and Django. Remind us, if you would, what we just heard.
LAPOMPE: That last song was “Blue Christmas” mixed with another pop blues song that Elvis popularized, “Baby What You Want Me To Do”. And before that we did “Sugar Plum Blues” with “Blues en Mineur”. That was a medley of Django’s interpretation of blues and a minor blues into a more American and Chicago style blues with Elvis. There’s a little Tchaikovsky in there as well.
Doug Gertner: Dancin’ with sugar plums, of course. Yeah, as we’ve said, gypsy jazz, swing, blues, soulful songs this is apparently what folks lucky enough to have a ticket for the KGNU Presents LAPOMPE in a Very Django Holiday Show this Thursday, the 5th of December at Chautauqua Community House.
That’s what people can look forward to. Doors at 7:30, show at 8. You’re getting a little preview and warm up now. Talk about what folks are going to hear beyond what we’ve been listening to at this show, and we’ll mention other opportunities to see you if folks aren’t on the list yet.
LAPOMPE: You just listed off all the composers of those last tunes. It helps me remember just how many influences go into not only hot club jazz, but also what we like to do. We had gone in a purist direction for a while, playing the music of Django.
Then Dave was like, what if we throw in a blues number from time to time? We’re in Denver, Colorado, so you can’t help but hear bluegrass all the time. Some of that fiddle music starts getting in there. I think the best way to describe it would be an eclectic mix that certainly has swing music at its core.
We’re really excited about the show because it bridges off in all kinds of different directions. We got some Tchaikovsky. We got some Elvis and it’s a really fun night of music. We’re excited to get to, to tour it around this December.
Doug Gertner: In addition to this KGNU Presents show that is sold out at Chautauqua Community House, I noted Friday, December 13th, you’ve got an early show and a late show at Dazzle. Dazzlejazz.com, is where people can go for tickets. What else do you want us to know? What’s going on this season?
LAPOMPE: An important note for that was we actually are doing two nights at Dazzle. We are doing four seatings. So we’ve been performing our Django Carols night at Dazzle for maybe 3 or 4 years, but we’ve been doing this holiday show.
It started at the Vine Street Pub. I know we don’t have a ton of time, but a great little story. Last year, there was a young girl with her family, and she brought her friend. They were probably 13 years old or so. And she came over and she wanted to get one of our new beanies.
We made some cool beanies for the show, for Django Carols. And she comes over and the mother looks at me and goes, Just so you know she’s been coming to your Django Carols show since she was three at Vine Street Pub and we’ve been to almost every year. I have two little kids now. So that feeling of becoming a family tradition for people and getting to share this music year after year really hits home when you actually see it in living proof right in front of you. It was a really special moment. Dazzle, we do still have some seats available.
Doug Gertner: So Friday and Saturday, the 13th and 14th. Dazzlejazz.com for the holiday show, a variation on A Very Django Holiday Show at Dazzle.
LAPOMPE: I know it’s really hard to leave the Boulder bubble for you Boulderites, come on down to Denver. Get out of there. No, just kidding. We are coming back to Boulder for New Year’s Eve at the Avalon Ballroom for a New Year’s Eve celebration of dancing with all different modalities. There’s swing, there’s salsa, there’s all sorts of fun stuff happening there. We’ll just have some good opportunities for you this year.
Doug Gertner: Excellent. LAPOMPE, thanks for stopping by KGNU today. This sounds so great. Thursday is going to be so much fun. Can I ask you to play us out? Tell us what we’re going to hear and we’ll keep the music going here.
LAPOMPE: Medleys have been the theme of the day. Now we’re gonna really throw a curveball at you because we’re gonna do three songs in one.
Doug Gertner: All right, they’re going out on three. By the way, a big thanks to the man behind the glass over there. George Figgs makes it sound so good. Thank you for engineering. And Evan, our operations maven, helping keep things running here today along with Carrie, who set this up, the tickets maven, and Indra Raj, our fearless leader in the music department.
We’ve got a three song medley. This is LAPOMPE from KGNU Kabaret Studio.
