For 10 years, Casa Nueva regulars could expect local group Rattletrap Stringband to take the Cantina stage every Monday, but now the band is giving up three of those weekly performances to fresh talent.
Coolville Hot Club, a local gypsy-jazz band, will take the third Monday of every month at Casa Nueva, 6 W. State St., bringing an acoustic style to the stage.
“They are purely acoustic, so we don’t have to set up a sound guy,” said Josh Brown, Casa’s booking agent. “I would ultimately like to fill those other two slots but it has to be acoustic and fit the atmosphere.”
Rattletrap Stringband will now perform only the first Monday of the month, and with Coolville Hot Club taking the third, Casa is still looking for bands for the second and fourth Mondays.
The switch came at a perfect time, Brown said, because he had just taken over as booking agent and it felt like the right time for a change.
The Monday night entertainment is meant to be acoustic and atmospheric for Casa patrons, and Coolville Hot Club’s gypsy-jazz style will fit right in, he added.
“Rattletrap played Monday nights every week for about 10 years, and I think they just decided enough already,” said Jeff Carr, guitarist for Coolville Hot Club. “I think it’s great for Casa to offer other varieties of acoustic music on Monday nights … and we’re happy to do it.”
The idea of gypsy jazz is taking classical jazz forms and translating it into string instruments as opposed to the traditional horns heard in most jazz.
Mark Burhans, violinist for Coolville and co-owner of Restaurant Salaam, said he fell in love with the music of Django Reinhardt, the father of gypsy jazz, when he was 18 and has since always wanted to play the genre. When he found two other members in Athens who shared his passion, they formed Coolville Hot Club and have been playing for almost eight years.
“It’s kind of hillbilly music. These musicians heard the music for the first time and said ‘we can do this,’ ” Burhans said. “They bring their own sensibility to it, which is kind of fresh and innocent.”
Burhans added that Coolville Hot Club tries to bring a more modern contemporary feel to the style as well, mixing in gypsy-jazz covers of songs such as “Dear Prudence” by The Beatles.
Many gypsy-jazz groups are trying to modernize because most people seem unaware of the unique style of music.
“We love music, so we want to share (the style), and it’s nice to turn people on to it,” Burhans said. “It’s a little bit different than the stuff you hear every day, so we want people to know about it.”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
