STEPHANE WREMBEL

TRIPTYCH PHASE 1

Water is Life Records

Stephane Wrembel, guitar/composer; Jean-Michel Pilc, piano/composer; Nick Driscoll, saxophone/clarinet; Thor Jensen, guitar; Ari Folman-Cohen, bass; Nick Anderson, drums. SPECIAL GUESTS: Eduardo Belo, bass; Josh Kaye, guitar.

This Triptych release features three albums by guitarist Stephane Wrembel that showcase the three stages of life.  The single he released this month is the first song of the first album triptych.  It’s titled “Ecce Home” and that profoundly translates from Latin to English, ‘here is the man.’

Stephane Wrembel is one of the world’s great, contemporary, guitar players. He is a musician, composer, educator and musical director who has released an abundance of music since 2002. Born in Paris, but raised in Fontainebleau, France (coincidentally the home of gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt).

Wrembel first studied classical piano, starting at age four. In teenage years, he discovered the guitar and was a big fan of the Pink Floyd rock group.  Consequently, his style is a mixture of classical music, rock, gypsy Romani music and impressionistic jazz. He is a master of the Sinti-style guitar, learning from mentors Angelo Debarre and Serge Krief.  This is music specific to a culture.  The Sinti of Central Europe are closely related to the East Indian heritage, mixed with German heritage, Italian heritage, and a group known as Manouche in France. I can clearly hear this East Indian influence in the opening Wrembel original song on Triptych Phase 1, “Ecce Home.”

Wrembel graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2002.  Shortly after, he released his debut album.  In 2003, the guitarist relocated to New York City and released several more albums.

In November of 2021, Wrembel debuted his specialty group Django New Orleans, a 9-piece NYC-based band, with 8 sold-out shows at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club.  The following year his specialty program Shades of Django sold out two nights at The Rose Theater, also located within Jazz at Lincoln Center.  Following the success of these shows, Wrembel released Django New Orleans in May of 2023 in conjunction with the Django á Gogo festival.

“I just play my own music,” he says. “I like to believe that it is beyond any one genre and that there is something in it for everyone. It’s not only for Django lovers or jazz lovers.  It’s for the music lover,” Stephane Wrembel states in his online biography.

This recent trilogy of three albums features the brilliance of Jean-Michel Pilc on piano, supporting and embellishing the exceptional mastery of Wrembel’s guitar.  Pilc has also contributed an original composition on Album #1 titled “Triptych Improvisation 1.”  It begins with an introduction that reminds me of church bells, beautifully played by Pilc on solo piano. This tune features Jean-Michel Pilc in a solo piano performance.

I enjoyed “Peche a la Mouche,” a high energy gypsy music full of joy and jubilance.  Composed by the great Django Reinhardt, it allows Stephane Wrembel to spotlight his love of Reinhardt and Romani music. I enjoy the fluid and innovative improvisation of Pilc on piano, showing his bold versatility. Rick Driscoll takes a short but creative solo on clarinet before Wrembel enters the scene on his magnificent guitar. Speaking of Wrembel’s mastery of his instrument, the guitarist’s sexy, sensual interpretation of “Anouman” (another Reinhardt composition) is pure artistry.  Right away, it’s another favorite of mine, along with Wrembel’s original composition, “Le Mythe de Sisyphe” that shuffles and dances across my listening room with wild abandon.

This is an album for all seasons, a guitarist for all the world to enjoy, and a band made up of excellence, mastery and sensitivity.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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