Gypsy jazz quartet Hot Club of Zion is the by-product of pure happenstance. After a quick introduction fostered through the U School of Music, guitarists Nathan Royal and James Martak did not expect to develop a jazz-like sound or pay homage to jazz legend Django Reinhardt, but that is exactly what they are doing.
With Royal having ties to bluegrass and Martak holding jazz curiosities, the two, along with bassist Kevin Shultz, grouped up for a school project, which eventually fashioned a love for the underground genre of gypsy jazz. This admiration later added another member and they became the Hot Club of Zion.
Since the band’s founding in 2011, the Hot Club of Zion has pushed out a debut album and soon-to-be released EP, which is the first installment of four EPs, each one focusing on a different season. Along with recorded versions of its music, the quartet has performed on the stages of the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival and City Live. Making one more platform its temporary home, the ensemble will hit the Gallivan Center this Thursday as part of the Excellence in the Community concert series.
With a rapid stream of success, the group hopes to resonate the sounds of its French mentor at its upcoming performance. Falling into a sound Reinhardt made famous in the 1930s and 40s has worked well with the Hot Club of Zion’s coincidental luck. Like the Hot Club of Zion, Reinhardt found his sound accidentally. Working to recreate the tunes of jazz players like Louis Armstrong, he unintentionally fashioned the genre of gypsy jazz, which is the implementation of acoustic instruments into the melodies of classic jazz.
“[Django Reinhardt] did not set out and say, ‘I want to make this new style.’ He set out saying, ‘I want to swing and play like Louis Armstrong on the guitar with what I have,” Royal said.
Royal and Martak want to incorporate Reinhardt’s eagerness to learn anything-and-everything about music, but they also want to add their own flavor. The two, along with Schultz and trombonist Tom Young, strive to spice up their music with spontaneity.
“We have a lot of people sit in with us. It’s kind of a rotating cast of ‘fifth members,’ who will come in and jam with us at gigs. We have had people who play the clarinet, saxophone [and] trumpet. We’ve had singers and accordion players. All guys we enjoy playing with,” Martak said. “That’s kind of the spirit of this music. It’s a come play [vibe] and a communal thing.”
Accepting new members savvy to improvisation techniques allows the Hot Club of Zion the ability to add its own style of gypsy jazz. While they try to stay in the confines of the jazz subset’s notes, they do not necessarily pay tribute to players such as Reinhardt by mimicking original tunes.
Alongside improvisation, the resurgence of gypsy jazz through technology has garnered triumph for the group. “Before you had to be in Europe [to listen to this music] … Now, you can watch videos of people playing. You can see lessons on YouTube. There are all kinds of new recordings,” Royal said. “The timing for us, talking about coincidences, feels perfect because we have a band, repertoire and sound that we are developing right as this wave is coming out.”