DJANGO FESTIVAL ALLSTARS DEBUTS NEW ALBUM ON MOTÉMA: EVOLUTION, OUT FEBRUARY 13, 2026 – ALL-ORIGINAL PROGRAM OF ‘NOUVELLE GYPSY SWING’ MARKS 25 YEARS OF THE DJANGO REINHARDT NY FESTIVAL
ALBUM RELEASES FEB 13, 2026 • SINGLES DROP: NOV 7/DEC 5/JAN 9
The thrilling Django Festival Allstars, who just toured with Veronica Swift to celebrate 25 years of the Django Reinhardt NY Festival, are excited to announce a new chapter in their fabled history. After a change in leadership in 2018, recovering from the loss of a band member in 2023, and the addition of an essential new player, the group has emerged revitalized. Having tightened personal bonds within the group and committed to expanding touring beyond their established North American circuit, they landed a multi-album deal with the GRAMMY®-winning Motéma label and teamed up with a world-wide booking agency. It’s all part of the EVOLUTION they are celebrating with the February 13, 2026 release of the Festival’s fifth album, and the Allstar’s second quintet studio recording of timeless, all-original ‘nouvelle Gypsy Jazz’.
Soulful, kinetic and brilliant, the Django Festival Allstars ensemble, led by Manouche Gypsy jazz legend Dorado Schmitt from its founding in 2002 until 2018, constitutes a 21st century response to the seminal Hot Jazz innovated by Manouche Sinti guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli’s ‘Quintette du Hot Club de France’ which was all the rage of Paris in the 1930s and ’40s. Ludovic Beier, a founding pillar and spokesman for the Allstars relates, “Reinhardt’s Hot Gypsy Jazz was the first answer to American jazz in Europe. We respect Django’s giant legacy while moving the music forward, which Django would have wanted.”
Having shaped and internalized Evolution’s repertoire at dozens of concerts prior to their 2024 recording sessions, the Allstars play from the heart, fully accessing the astonishing prowess that once provoked jazz icon Grady Tate to remark “They are true concert masters who do what is almost impossible on their instruments.”
The front-liners – Samson Schmitt (the stratospherically gifted lead guitarist who inherited the role from his father), Ludovic Beier (a no-limits improviser on accordion and accordina), and Pierre Blanchard (a pan-stylistic French violin maestro who joined in 2006) – flow through intricate melodic riffs at warp speed on Schmitt’s playful ”Rire Avec Charlie” and quicksilver “Casse Noisette,” on Blanchard’s dervish-raising “Balkanic Dance” and sparkling tribute “Dorado’s Smile, and on Beier’s ferocious “Swing and Ready.” The soloists navigate the changes with impeccable articulation, narrative inflection, and structural knowhow, inspired by highest-level think-as-one collective harmonizing and the inexorable swing feel generated by fat-toned bassist Antonio Licusati and the aptly-nicknamed rhythm guitarist Francko “Locomotive” Mehrstein (a cousin of Schmitt’s), whose beat is so strong that it can trick the ear into hearing a drum kit in the room.
“We play fast and hard not as a sporting competition, but because it’s part of our aesthetic.” Beier explains. “The Manouche backbone is always there, but our 21st century experience is key as well. Swing and Ready blends an old-fashioned theme with a modal approach in the solos, balancing swing tradition and Gypsy heritage, enriched with new licks and phrases from the bebop and cool eras, even touching a bit of jazz-rock. This is exactly the concept of EVOLUTION for us – ‘Django meets Miles, Charlie, and Herbie at the Allstars’ house party. ”
At down tempos, they play with maturity, nuance, and deep emotion, conveying the touching humanity of Blanchard’s “Nothing But Kind;” the quiet tenderness of Schmitt’s “Lovely Wife” and “Stenli”; and the inflamed-soul ambiance of Beier’s Morricone-esque “El Destino” and his poignant feature, “Around Toots,” where he evokes the signature “teardrop” sound of Belgian harmonica icon Toots Thielemans on the rarely heard accordina (an accordion/harmonica hybrid). “It took me many years to shape this tribute,” Beier says. “The title reflects the influences around Toots, and also my very personal sound on accordina, which developed almost entirely around Toots’ monumental legacy.”
MORE ABOUT DJANGO FESTIVAL ALLSTARS:
The Allstars’ story originates with Django Reinhardt’s profound impact on the oral and improvisational culture of his European Manouche descendants. They came to regard his “Gypsy Swing” as a vernaculardance-oriented folk style unto itself – fast, fluid, clean, on top of the beat, melody-oriented, and imbued with deep emotion and a spirit of “let-the-good-times-roll.” The dazzling French Sinti guitarist, violinist and composer Dorado Schmitt (b.1957) became one of the most beloved Django torch bearers of his generation in France, and in 2002, the esteemed New York City impresarios Ettore Stratta and Pat Philips, caught wind of his talent, and flew him to Birdland to headline the third year of their fledgling Django Reinhardt NY Festival. Dorado’s son Samson (21) and the talented young accordionist Ludovic Beier (22) participated that year as well.
“Such a good time was had by all, that we never let them go,” says Philips. “Dorado led our Fall festival each year at Birdland and we toured the group as the Django Festival Allstars. Over time, as I witnessed Samson and Ludovic maturing into stars in their own right, I had the idea to produce a summer leg of the fest led by these young lions. The summer band took root and thrived, alongside the main festival, and eventually, after writing new repertoire, they recorded Attitude Manouche, our first album without Dorado, which we launched in 2018 at a Carnegie Hall concert titled ‘Forever Django: Passing the Family Torch’. ” At that concert, Dorado proclaimed: “This is a celebration that father and sons are now on the same level. I taught them just as my father taught me, by ear, and now they’re developing their own ideas. Django is at the root, but it’s a tree with so many branches.”
Asked to reflect on a quarter-century of deep friendship and alchemically telepathic music-making with the Schmitt family of Manouche Gypsies, Beier and Blanchard reveal that the bonding agent all along is respect.. “The etymology of Manouche is ‘free man’,” says Beier, “The gypsies have been travelers since they migrated west from India, settled in Eastern Europe, and then the Sinti part of their community spread to France and Belgium. They travel with a caravan, and the world is their hearth. If, like Pierre, Antonio, and me, you aren’t born into the culture, you are a gadjo. And if you are a gadjo you need to understand and respect what you can say and do inside the community. First, you listen, you play the notes to understand, and when everybody asks you to play, you play. Once you’ve been accepted, you’re in the family for life!”
Samson Schmitt concurs: “That’s how it is when we perform. We play only for the music. Like a family, we sometimes fight, but never on stage.” Blanchard chimes in, “I play in so many situations, classical, theater, jazz, but this music is very special. It demands you bring your whole heart.” “True,” concludes Beier, “You have to leave your ego behind. When there’s no ego on stage, it’s easy to play with no scores, no written notes, and understand exactly what to do, and to play like you’ll never have the chance to play again.”
“I love this band,” comments Motéma label head Jana Herzen on her new signing. “The musicians are top-of-the-tops, the compositions are memorable, the ensemble work is off the charts, their heritage is deep, they’re super soulful, and also a whole lotta fun.” This second quintet studio recording, follows up the Festival’s acclaimed live recordings made in 2006, 2012, and 2013 each featuring Dorado Schmitt with the Django Festival Allstars and guests. Those followed Atlantic Records’ Django Reinhardt NY Festival: Live at Birdland, an historic record that brilliantly documents the landmark debut of Stratta & Philips’ festival in 2000, featuring legendary gypsy artists Jimmy Rosenberg, Birelli Legrene, and Babik Reinhardt (Django’s son), with very special guest, Regina Carter.
Through the years, dozens of crème de la crème jazz guests have enjoyed collaborating with the Allstars at the Birdland-based fest including Grady Tate, James Carter, Randy Brecker, Cyrille Aimee and Madeleine Peyroux, to name just a few. Two recurring favorites, Veronica Swift and Ken Peplowski, will join the Festival’s 25th Anniversary celebration at SONY Hall in NYC on November 13th, and Swift will also guest with the Allstar’s on their west coast tour from Nov 16th to Dec 1. “It’s been a great ride filled with a lot of joy,” says Pat Philips, who continued to produce the festival and manage the band after her esteemed producing partner (and husband), Ettore Stratta passed away in 2015. “New dates and new recording plans are already brewing for 2026 and beyond, so come join the party!”
WINTER ‘25 TOUR – Django Festival Allstars US TOUR w/ guest Veronica Swift
Nov 13 – SONY Hall, NYC – 25th Anniversary Celebration
Nov 14 – City College Workshop, NYC
Nov 16 – The Dakota, Minneapolis, MN
Nov 18 – Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Nov 19 – Scripps Research Aud., San Diego, CA
Nov 20 – The Raymond Kabazz Theater, Los Angeles, CA
Nov 21 – The Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara, CA
Nov 22 – Healdsburg Festival, Healdsburg, CA
Nov 23 – Bach Dynamite and Dancing Society, Half Moon Bay, CA
NovNov 26 – Beale Street Theatre – Kingman, AZ
NovNov 28 – The Center for the Arts, Grass Valley, CA
NovNov 30 – S.F. Jazz, San Francisco, CA
DecDec 01 – Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz, CA