Jimmy Grant & Andrew Cohen with special guest James Anderson play the Jazz Station - Eugene
An exploration through the history of the music of Django Reinhardt
- Jimmy Grant guitar
- Andrew Cohen accordion
- Nelsen Huchinson guitar
- Zach Serlét bass
Jimmy Grant grew up in a household full of rich musical influences. While his early influences also included Russian Folk, Balkan, traditional Hungarian, Bluegrass, Celtic and Classical, from a young age he gravitated towards the music of Django Reinhardt. He plays a blend of musics from all over the world and his own compositions. He has studied with acclaimed guitarists Jim Nichols and Howard Alden, and in addition to Django Reinhardt, his other major musical influences are Sandu Ciorba, Bach, Kovacs Andor, Roby Lakatos and Angelo Debarre. He has performed with artists such as David Grisman, Paulus Schaefer ,Tim Kliphuis, Gonzalo Bergara, Ludovic Beier, Velvet Caravan, Rhythm Future Quartet, Hot Club of San Francisco and more, and has played at the Savannah Musci Festival, Los Angeles Django Reinhardt Festival, Nor-Cal Jazz Fest, Djangofest Northwest and The New York Hot Jazz Festival. He has recorded two albums under his own name, and performed on several other albums. Jimmy's original song “Insomnia” was a finalist in the John Lennon songwriting competition(in the jazz category). As Jimmy puts it, “We believe that Jazz, and the music of Django, is a piece of history worth preserving.”
In addition to performing, Jimmy teaches private students and has been on the faculty of the Django in June Festival in Massachusetts, and also is the artistic director of the Django Reinhardt Association. Jimmy also writes for “Gypsy Jazz Secrets Magazine”. He has been featured in Relix magazine and Acoustic Guitar magazine.
Andrew Cohen is on a mission with the accordion. After experiencing an existential crisis common among classically trained musicians, he decided to pick up the instrument and hasn’t looked back since. Andrew performed constantly for years as part of the rich Bay Area Balkan music scene, learning traditional folk music from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, and Turkey. After a time, Muzica Lautareasca (Romanian Gypsy Music) caught his attention. In 2019, after recording his album Californeasca featuring professional Romanian vocalist Ionela Guzic, Andrew was invited to study in Romania with master accordionist Ionica Minune, living for months with him, his wife, and their ten dogs in the village of Stefanestii-de-Jos. To date, Andrew is the first and only American musician to be given the opportunity to study with Ionica who is one of the national figures of Romania, and the experience has inspired him to bring this virtuosic and little-known music to an audience here in the US. Andrew has performed at many venues around California and the western US, and at festivals including Outside Lands and Symbiosis festival.
Andrew has also studied for years with master musician Sergiu Popa, and has degrees in Music Education and Instrumental Performance from the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. He currently runs a music school in San Francisco named Village Music and lives in Bolinas, California.
