Featured bands

• The Gonzalo Bergara Quartet
• Roma Nota - Alphonso Ponticelli,-guitar, Tony Ballog-violin, Alex Udvary –Cimbalom
• The Jack Soref Quartet Featuring Ben Powell and Henry Delaney-Potthoff
• Caravan Gypsy Swing Ensemble
• Harmonious Wail

The Schedule

Friday Aug 20

7:30pm ~ The Jack Soref Quartet
8:45pm ~ Harmonious Wail
10pm ~The Gonzalo Bergara Quartet

Saturday Aug 21

12:30am – 2:30pm ~ Workshops TBA
3pm ~ Roma Nota
4:15pm ~ Gonzalo Bergara Quartet
6pm ~ Caravan Gypsy Swing Ensemble
7:15pm ~ Harmonious Wail
8:45pm ~ Roma Nota
10pm ~ The Gonzalo Bergara Quartet

Band Bios

Gonzalo Bergara Quartet

After having toured the world with the John Jorgenson Quintet, native Argentinean Gonzalo Bergara is now presenting his new CD Potena Soledad to glowing reviews all over the world.

Gonzalo began playing professionally at age 16 in Buenos Aires. By 17 he was already fronting his own blues trio on national television. He arrived in America in the year 2000 and in the short time since, has performed and recorded with hundreds of artists including Tim Hausser of Manhattan Transfer, Sylvie Varlan, Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, John Jorgenson, Howard Alden and many more.

His new CD Potena Soledad was Editors Pick in Guitar Player Magazine, and Vintage Guitar Magazine called it a masterpiece, and he was picked as the Best Jazz Group in Los Angelas by Los Angelas Magazine in their Best of LA issue. The music is heavily influenced by Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France, traditional Jazz and hints of his native Buenos Aires.

In his review on DjangoBooks.com, Jeff Fiskin writes, “Gonzalo Bergara’s music exists in a way that very little music does. He has lavished such care on every phrase, builteach arrangement with such lapidary precision and pared away any thing extraneous, the music becomes sculpture. It has weight, density, gravity. This is serious. And deeply moving.”

Gonzalo Bergara - Lead Guitar,
Jeffery Radaich - Rhythm Guitar
Rob Harold - Clarinet and Tenor Sax
Brian Nelzley - Upright Bass

Roma Nota

Alex Udvary - cimbalom
Among cimbalom players in America today, Alex Udvary is considered the best. His name is known even in Europe. Frequently, when European artists are on tour here, he is asked to accompany them.

Tony Ballog, Violin
Tony Ballog was born into a legendary family of gypsy violinists. He started playing the violin at age 7. In high school, he received the first award for four consecutive years in regional and national violin competitions. Tony attended the University of Miami and studied with George Zozoffsky and Louis Krasner. Tony's professional career began at age 17. He has performed with the Miami and Las Vegas Symphonies and was featured at the National Folk Festival with his gypsy ensemble. Tony also plays many corporate private functions for the rich and famous, as a guest soloist, and he has performed with many jazz, folklore and classical musicians all across North America and Europe.

Alphonso Ponticelli - Guitar
A gypsy flamenco guitarist as well, Alfonso has been to Cordoba, Spain to study with the great flamenco guitarist Rafael Riqueni. Alfonso is a multi-instrumentalist, having won the 1994 U.S. National Mountain Dulcimer Championship, and playing both banjo and guitar with the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra. He brings a wide and colorful repertoire from his many adventures in Spain, Italy, France, and all over the United States, including the Iridium in New York, where the legendary Les Paul invited Alfonso to play as a special guest with his trio. Alfonso is also a music educator in Chicago and introduced Django's music to the midwest United States nearly a decade ago, when he began teaching a weekly Django Guitar Styles Class at the Old Town School of Folk Music, one of the largest and most renowned folk music centers in the U.S. Alfonso is often invited to teach his popular workshops at festivals around the country.

The Jack Soref Quartet Featuring Ben Powell and Henry Delaney-Pothoff

The Jack Soref Quartet is an exciting new Gypsy Jazz ensemble. Reaching both forward and back in time, it pays homage to the music of Django Reinhardt while simultaneously enriching the tradition, with its own compositions, arrangements and swinging improvisations. Audiences are sure to be swept away by the ensemble’s personal mix of crackling Bebop, romantic Gypsy sonorities, and impressionistic melodies.

For its Midwest Gypsy Swing Festival debut, The Soref Quartet is pleased to be featuring two very special musicians. Introduced to the rhythms of Jazz while still in the womb, Henry Delaney-Potthoff has grown up steeped in the Swing of Django Reinhardt. As the son of accomplished Madison-based musicians Sims and Maggie Delaney-Potthoff, Henry was introduced to a myriad of styles and musicians from a young age. A natural voice on the guitar, Henry has been impressing audiences with his soulful and dramatic solos for years. His travels as a musician have led him to perform in the Midwest, on the West Coast, and in Europe. In the Django-Style, Henry has solid credentials, having jammed and studied with such Gypsy Jazz stars as Robin and Kevin Nolan, Alfonso Ponticelli, and many others. For many years Henry has also been a close friend and collaborator with Jack Soref, who is excited to re-ignite the chemistry of their two contrasting guitar voices.

Born into a musical family, Ben Powell eagerly started the violin at the age of two. By his teens Ben discovered Jazz, which has become his passion. As an utterly unique performer, Ben’s musicianship, technical brilliance, mature, intuitive style, and delivery inevitably bring audiences to their feet. Ben has shared the stage with such greats as Herbie Hancock, Steve Gadd, Gary Burton, Joe Lovano, Gloria Estefan, Paul Simon, Abe Laboriel, Stevie Winwood and Philip Bailey. Ben has just returned from a triumphant sojourn to Paris, where he shared the stage with some of the very best the Gypsy Jazz world has to offer such as Angelo Debarre, Adrien Moignard, and Rocky Gresset. The Soref Quartet is elated to have Ben on board. His impassioned violin playing will no doubt bring a new dimension to the music that is sure to thrill all listeners, both on stage and off.

Jack Soref became captivated by the music of Django Reinhardt after two life-changing visits to the Django Reinhardt festival in Samois-sur-Seine in 2002 and ‘03. As a teenager he managed to pick up tips and tricks from players such as Robin Nolan, Jan Brouwer, Jonny Hepbir, and Alfonso Ponticelli. Subsequently Jack moved to Boston to continue his studies at the Berklee College of Music. or the last 3 years Jack has been a rising star on the Boston Gypsy Jazz scene. Jack has been featured playing and talking about Django Reinhardt on NPR’s ‘Here and Now’ with Robin Young. He has recently performed with two of his personal heroes, Violinist Tim Kliphius and Guitarist Gonzalo Bergara on the main stage of Northampton Gypsy Jazz festival‘Django in June’.

Caravan Gypsy Swing Eensemble

The idea for Caravan G.S.E. started in early 2002 when Chris Ruppenthal, the group's leader and an aspiring jazz guitarist, first heard recordings of Dutch Gypsy Jazz guitarist Jimmy Rosenberg who played in the Reinhardt style. Chris soon turned away from the American Bebop style of jazz guitar to follow in the long shadow of Django and was inspired to seek out fellow Gypsy Swing enthusiasts. Caravan G.S.E. sprang out of that inspiration as a trio of two guitars, and violin. The trio played a barrage of open mikes and busked at local farmers markets to get their repertoire together. After adding a bassist and clarinetist they began playing coffee houses, clubs, and parties. Soon they were recording, and performing consistently throughout the Midwest.

Harmonious Wail

“Harmonious Wail’s emotional reach is wide throughout the disc … The group has long been identified with Gypsy Swing. That description doesn’t capture the breadth of music these musicians have mastered.” - Ithsmus; The Daily Page