Tchavolo Schmitt

Tchavolo Schmitt (2006)

Charles Tchavolo Schmitt (* 1954 in Paris ) is a French swing manouche guitarist . He can also be seen as an actor in Tony Gatlif's film Swing (2002) .

Life

Schmitt comes from a musical family; his father played the violin and his mother taught him to play the guitar at the age of six. From 1966 he performed with other Sinti at the Porte de Montreuil on the Parisian banlieue in Saint-Ouen . Sensational concerts at the Gypsy Music Festival in Darmstadt in 1979 led Wedeli Köhler to bring him to his group Hot Club Da Sinti , with which he also recorded in 1981. In the next few years he moved away from the music scene and lived in Strasbourg , where he occasionally gave private concerts. In 1992 he returned to the scene and became a member of the formation Gypsy Reunion (to which his cousin Dorado Schmitt , Patrick Saussois and Gino Reinhardt belonged). He also belonged to Note Manouche . It was not until 2000 that he released his first album under his own name, which was followed by several albums. In 2002 he and Mandino Reinhardt were responsible for a large part of Tony Gatlif's soundtrack for the film Swing .

Tchavolo Schmitt (left) with Steeve Laffont (2016)

Discographic notes

• Hot Club da Sinti, Wonderful (Linkhandle Records, 1981)
• Gypsy Réunion, Swing 93 (Djaz Records, 1993)
• Alors?… Voilà! (Iris Music, 2000)
• Miri Familia (Djaz Records, 2001)
• Mémoires , with Angelo Debarre ( Le Chant du Monde , 2004)
• Seven Gypsy Nights (2007)

Filmography

• 1992: Latcho Drom (Director: Tony Gatlif)
• 2002: Swing (Director: Tony Gatlif)

literature

• Michael Dregni: Gypsy Jazz: In Search of Django Reinhardt and the Soul of Gypsy Swing . Oxford: Oxford University Press 2008; ISBN 978-0-19-531192-1

Web links

• Portrait & Discography (Djangostation)
• Tchavolo Schmitt in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Tchavolo Schmitt at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence