This week’s hot new local single features music from the Ryan Picone Quartet. Picone is a Minneapolis-based guitarist who lives, eats, and breathes jazz manouche, i.e., music inspired by French/Romani guitar legend Django Reinhardt. Picone grew up in Phoenix and came to the Twin Cities to pursue his doctorate in music from the University of Minnesota. He liked the scene so much that he adopted Minneapolis as home base. Picone has studied under a jazz manouche stars Stephane Wrembel and Howard Alden. In addition to the Ryan Picone Quartet, he also teaches guitar and leads another ensemble called the Red Hot Django Peppers.
If you attended the Taste of Minnesota, you may have caught the Ryan Picone Quartet on the Jazz88 Jazzclectic Stage. The group consists of Picone on guitar, Tess Nichols Meade on violin, Ian Stenland on rhythm guitar, and Matt Blake on bass. The featured single “Gismo” and it comes from their 2023 release I Awake. According to Picone, the title of the album is the English translation of Django’s name.
If you want to learn more about Ryan and his music, check out his recent interview on the morning show, which you can find here.
Ryan has organized a festival of Twin-Cities jazz manouche ensembles called the Twin Cities Django Fest at the Hook and Ladder Theater on July 25th, featuring the Twin Cities Hot Club, the Parisota Hot Club, the Mill City Hot Club, Hot Club Mania, the Mississippi Hot Club, the Red Hot Django Peppers, the Ryan Picone Quartet, and the Gentemen’s Anti-Temperance League. Go here for more details.
