Music & More Winter Concert Series: 440 Gypsy Jazz

Sunday, February 26, 2023, 3:30pm - 4:30pm.

Member $18 / Non-Member $24

Season Pass: Member $160 / Non-Member $195

440 Gypsy Jazz presents a rich harmonic blend of violin and clarinet which expands the gypsy jazz tradition of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. At a time of year when there is a chill in the air outside, 440’s music provides the much-needed treat of warmth and beauty through a jazz everyone likes—featuring a compilation of danceable swing standards and captivating originals by the band influenced by gypsy jazz and Eastern European music. 

Tomoko Iwamoto, violin. With a strong background as a classical violinist, Tomoko expanded her repertoire in jazz while studying Jazz Composition and Arranging at Berklee College of Music as a scholarship student. She has played with Hypnotick Clambake, A La Modal, and has been the first violinist and composer & arranger for J-Way. She provided arrangements and performed as a soloist with Mood Swings Orchestra (jazz big band), and wrote many grade school level arrangements for Newton All-City Orchestra. Tomoko currently a member of String Swing performing various senior housing venues in Boston Metro area.

Mark Chenevert, clarinet. Mark has been playing clarinet and tenor sax in the Boston area for some forty years now, working with various projects including Limbo Race (1982 WBCN Rumble winners), Willie Alexander, and Hypnotic Clambake. Currently, besides 440, he works with the Hot Tamale Brass Band, David Champagne, Bertrand Laurence, and others. 

Jack Soref, guitar. Jack, graduate of Berklee College of Music, has performed all over the USA as well as France, Canada, and Scotland. He became captivated by the music of Django Reinhardt after attending the International Django Reinhardt festival in Samois-sur-Seine France in 2002. Jack spent half a year living in Paris France in 2011, where he jammed with the legendary guitarist Boulou Ferré and violinist Florin Niculescu. Jack can be seen regularly

in the greater Boston area playing Django's music, with a myriad of local musicians. Out in the wider world, he has performed as an accompanist for Jazz Manouche luminaries like Joscho Stephan, Tim Kliphius, Gonzalo Bergara, Jason Anick, Olli Soikkeli, Adrien Moignard, Ben Powell, Aurélien Bouly, and Titi Bamberger.

Jim Guttmann, bass. For over 30 years Jim Guttmann has performed in a wide range of venues from smokey dives to Carnegie Hall. He is a bassist of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and has performed and recorded with Itzhak Perlman and Joel Grey. In addition to working with KCB he is currently performing klezmer music with Andy Statman, Alicia Svigals’ Klezmer Fiddle Express and Art Bailey’s Orkestra Popilar. He is a founding member of the Really Eclectic String Quartet and has worked with nationally renowned entertainers and musicians, including Eartha Kitt, Mark Murphy, Johnny Shines, James Cotton, Matt Glaser, Russ Barenberg and the Artie Shaw Band. For many years he performed with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra; in 1999, he premiered Gunther Schuller’s duet for trumpet & contrabass “Fantastical Colloquy.” He also served as the musical director and bassist for the Tufts University Jazz Festival’s Soul to Soul: A Tribute to Aretha Franklin.

Learn more about 440 Gypsy Jazz here and here. 

The Music & More Winter 2023 concert series is sponsored by the Cape Cod 5 Foundation.

Cancellation policy: CCMoA must be notified 1 week prior for refund.