Frank Kilkelly

Gypsy Jazz is the style of music generated by French gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, who formed the Quintet of the Hot Club of France with violinist Stephane Grappelli in 1934. The Gypsy Jazz Quartet was borne out of a long standing residency at Brennan's Yard Hotel, in Galway city. Since then we have been busy, being in demand for a wide variety of work, with the non-stop festival calender in Galway, as well as concerts at Arts Festivals around the country. In the recent past, we played at arts festivals in Dun Laoighaire, Mountshannon, Westport, Galway. These days, the band digs a bit deeper into the ever-broadening repertoire now flourishing in today's gypsy jazz players, and includes some latin-flavoured tunes. We have a new format for theatre/arts centres performances. Billed as The Django Story, we use multi media to illustrate the colourful life and music of the genius gypsy guitarist and his band. We had our first concert in this series on the 15th of January, and it was a resounding success.Band Members.....Frank Kilkelly lived and played in Co. Mayo for many years before moving to London in 1986. There he toured extensively with a string of well-respected acoustic groups, ranging very broadly in styles through folk and jazz. Since his return to Ireland in 1998, he has worked with the top names in the acoustic music world, including Sharon Shannon, Mairtin O'Connor, Alan Kelly, Finbar Furey & Cafe Orchestra. The line-up has Paul O'Driscoll on double bass, (well known for his work in traditional Irish music with Deiseal, Josephine Marsh and Sharon Shannon,) Bertrand Huve plays saxes and clarinet, and Damien Gilligan comes to us from The Hot Club of Dublin, laying down the rhythm on acoustic guitar.Watch a clip of the band in the blog section