The Gadjo Players is an acoustic jazz band based out of Madison, Wisconsin. We play a mix of styles including Gypsy jazz, Latin, and even a little bit of Celtic and Bluegrass.
We started out playing bluegrass with our good friend and banjoist extraordinaire Matt Amati in an original band known as Large Marge. We were the hosts of an open mic at the Liquid Lyrics Lounge. It was there that we met our good friends from the Caravan Gypsy Swing Ensemble - a band influenced by the awesome music of Django Reinhardt. Caravan's leader Chris Ruppenthal and Mike Kratochwill would jam regularly and it was there that Mike's love of gypsy jazz started to develop.
It wasn't long before Large Marge started to dabble in this wonderful genre. Ben, Matt, and Mike soon added mandolinist Nate Hess to the line up. We started out learning standards but soon we were writing lots of originals. Shortly after we discovered there was a punk rock band who were also called Large Marge so a name change was in order. Thus, The Gadjo Players was born!
In the summer of 2006 Nate deciced to head off to Redwing, Minnesota to attend a school for luthiery. It looked as though the Gadjo's would have to function as a trio but it wasn't long before fortune smiled upon us and Amber Dolphin joined our line up on the violin. We still consider our friend Nate a key member and invite him to play gigs whenever the opportunity presents itself for his schedule.
Recently the Gadjo's added Blaine McQuinn as a second violinist. Blaine has been a great addition to our line up and we look forward to having him around for a long and fruitful musical adventure.
In February 2007 we released our debut CD Between Two Waters! It features 10 original tunes of ours and was recorded in our own Wavelength Studios. The CD features our original lineup of Ben, Matt, Mike, and Nate with Amber playing on four of the tracks. We also invited some of our favorite friends to play on the CD as well including Chris Rupenthal and Ed Fila (both guitarists of Caravan G.S.E) and Matt Amati (aka Beefus) on the banjo.
Currently the Gadjo's are in the studio working on their second CD of 12 original tracks of eclectic acoustic music! Be sure to keep your eye out for its release and come and check us out live sometime.
