BRATTLEBORO-On Saturday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m., the Vermont Jazz Center will present the Rhythm Future Quartet in a special concert to raise funds for the Windham County Heat Fund.
According to the band's website, "the Rhythm Future Quartet has a straightforward agenda: to keep the spirit of Gypsy jazz alive and expanding in today's musical universe." The group, named from a popular Django Reinhardt tune, is influenced by the classic Hot Club of France, yet its influences embrace the broad diversity of jazz today.
Founded by violinist Jason Anick, the quartet also features guitarists Max O'Rourke and Henry Acker, as well as bassist Greg Loughman. The Wall Street Journal is quoted on the group's website as making the extraordinary claim that the Rhythm Future Quartet is "the worthiest current successor to the legacy of the great Django."
The net proceeds of the Rhythm Future Quartet concert will go directly toward the Windham County Heat Fund. The goal of this event is to raise a minimum of $5,000 to provide much-needed fuel assistance and cultivate awareness of the organization's mission.
The Heat Fund was established in 2005 by Daryl Pillsbury and Richard Davis to assist people struggling to pay home-heating fuel bills.
Over the past 20 years the fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has become a trusted institution that has received over $1 million in donations and helped more than 2,000 people.
According to Davis, this year has been especially difficult for poor and low-income Vermont households, which spend a far higher proportion of their income on energy costs than the 5.6% of income that the average household does. Ten years ago, poor people in Windham County were paying 44% of their income for gasoline and to stay warm.
To prepare for this winter's heating season, the Heat Fund raised $49,000 from individuals, local businesses, and churches. Davis states the Jazz Center concert "is not so much a celebration of our 20 years operating as a nonprofit, but a lamentation of the fact that the Heat Fund still needs to exist."
This benefit comes at an important time because March is the end of the heating season, and their coffers are down to just $3,000. The funds raised from the proceeds of this concert will help clients with emergency heating needs deal with the frigid cold of late winter and early spring.
Davis notes that there is a systemic problem at hand, "The gap between the haves and the have-nots is wider than ever. [... Many of our clients] have two or three jobs and they still often teeter on the brink of homelessness."
Davis continues, "It is not uncommon for local people to pay rent first, skimp on food and turn down the thermostat. [...] One mother told me that her children's friends won't come to play at their house because the place is too cold. A new kind of stigma.
"These people are your friends and neighbors who are probably suffering in silence," he says.
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The buoyant sounds of Gypsy jazz can warm us up and raise our spirits during this gray and muddy time of the year. This musical style was a critical stepping stone in the legacy of jazz. The music was originally developed in the mid-1930s, spearheaded by the Romani guitarist Django Reinhardt in collaboration with French violinist Stephane Grapelli.
Reinhardt and Grapelli's celebrated group was called the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Like the Rhythm Future Quartet's lineup, the instrumentation of Reinhardt's group focused on the interaction of lead guitar and violin over an accompaniment of rhythm guitar(s) and acoustic bass and did not include drums.
Although the repertoire and instrumentation of Gypsy jazz lay dormant for a few decades after its initial success, there was a huge resurgence in its popularity during the 1970s. Now in the mid-2020s, the music is quite popular. Numerous festivals celebrate the music's infectious rhythmic swing and charming melodic accessibility.
Rhythm Future Quartet is one of the top Gypsy jazz quartets on the circuit today. They have toured the world, performing in the panoply of festivals celebrating Gypsy jazz and have released three albums. Their recording Rhythm Future Quartet and Friends features vocalist Cyrille Aimée along with Brazil's top bandoneonist, Hamilton de Holanda, and world-renowned guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg.
Their release, Rhythm Future Quartet and Travels, was picked as one of the best jazz albums of 2016 by All About Jazz and The Huffington Post. As an indication of their popularity, their version of Django's "Minor Swing" has more than four million views on YouTube, and their version of "Bushwick Stomp" from Travels has more that three million Facebook views.
The quartet is led by Jason Anick, an award-winning composer and violin professor at the Berklee College of Music. He has shared the stage with an array of artists including Grammy Award-winning guitarist John Jorgenson, Stevie Wonder, The Jim Kweskin Jug Band, and Tommy Emmanuel.
Two guitarists will alternate between playing the rhythm and lead functions.
Henry Acker began playing at age 8 and is a five-time winner of the Downbeat magazine Student Award for jazz guitar soloist. He performs in the style of Django Reinhardt and is an excellent traditional jazz player.
Max O'Rourke hails from Rutland, Vermont. They were the winner of the 2015 Saga Award from DjangoFest Northwest and have toured and recorded with many of the top North American Gypsy jazz players.
Bassist Greg Loughman teaches at the Berklee College of Music and is noted for playing in a variety of styles.
Let's pack the Vermont Jazz Center on March 29 and raise the severely needed funds for the Windham County Heat Fund.
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Tickets for the Rhythm Future Quartet at the Vermont Jazz Center are $25 general admission (audience members are encouraged to pay more if they are able) and available at vtjazz.org or by phone at 802-254-9088, ext. 1. This concert will not be livestreamed.
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A note about language, in Jason Anick's words: "There has been an ongoing debate on the usage of 'Gypsy jazz' when promoting this music. The pioneers of this music who are of Romani descent, like Django, continue to use the term themselves when performing/recording. They have a deep sense of pride in the music and don't get as hung up on the terminology as non-Romani musicians interpreting this music do. That being said, the term has historically been used in non-musical settings in a derogatory way."
The Commons will reference the genre in that spirit and with that respect.
Eugene Uman is director of the Vermont Jazz Center. The Commons' Deeper Dive column gives artists, arts organizations, and other nonprofits elbow room to write in first person and be unabashedly opinionated, passionate, and analytical about their own creative work and events.
This Arts column was submitted to The Commons.