BIO
The music of Jazz Manouche experienced a resurgence around 2003, the 50th anniversary of the death of Django Reinhardt. Previous to 2003, at the 25th anniversary of his death, also being an important date, there were some rumblings of gypsy jazz here in Portland, when the band Everythings Jake released their first album on vinyl in 1978. Things didn’t take off in Portland with this style of music until two things happened: 1) Pearl Django released their first album in 1995, and 2) Robin Nolan released his first standards fake book in mid-2001.
Jon Austen is joined by Jon Prettyman, and others, to form the basis of a new group we call “Django’s Book Club”.
MEMBERS
| Jon Prettyman | Guitar | Since 2018, Jon has been part of “Django’s Book Club”, a group of players who get together once a week in a “book club” format. Jon hosts our weekly book club practice session. |
| Jon Thor Austen | Guitar | Jon’s first band was “Gypsy Jazz Trio”. He then went on to play rhythm for the band “The Djangophiles” from 2005 until 2018. Since 2018, Jon has been part of “Django’s Book Club”. |
| Jesse Richter | Guitar | * need a bio * |
| Tyson Bittrich | Violin | Tyson is the leader of the band Lone Fir Hotclub, here in Portland, Oregon. |
| Jun Suzuki | Guitar | * need a bio * |
| Marc Damon | Guitar | Marc is a long time jazz musician. He has played in many bands, for decades, and is a master of this style. He has written a few books on Gypsy Jazz. |
| Caleb Milestone | Guitar | * need a bio * |
| Patrick Harry | Bass | * need a bio * |
| Bernardo Gomez | Bass | Bernardo is the go-to bass player for our style of music, in the Portland area. |