Daisy Castro on Gypsy Jazz [2:40]

Daisy Castro on Gypsy Jazz   Daisy Castro: When I was six-years-old, my parents and I went to France…. Blues en Mineur under DC: And that was conveniently the same time that I started playing the violin. So I discovered the music of like Stéphane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, the great kings of gypsy jazz. Blues en Mineur hot and then under And I like it. I had been listening to it since I discovered it but I didn’t really start playing it until maybe four years ago. Jo Reed: And what made you begin to play? Daisy Castro: I wanted to be able to sort of recreate and do the kind of stuff that they did in the recordings that I heard. Jo Reed: Now if you had to describe what gypsy jazz was, how would you describe it? Daisy Castro: I think it’s very strange, it’s obscure, and it’s really interesting actually. It has more sort of passion and a lot of emotion; like a very wide range of emotions are displayed by the musicians that are playing it. It’s not like anything else that I’ve ever heard. Blues en Mineur up again, and then fades out It does take influences from a lot of other things, like maybe American jazz and swing. But then there’s this other additional sort of feeling that is very different from other things. Le Musique Bluegrass Dans Les Bois under Jo Reed: There’s something-- you want to say- or I want to say sometimes there’s a melancholy tone sometimes. Daisy Castro: Yes. Jo Reed: And there is; but there’s also, there are songs that are so upbeat and… Daisy Castro: There are songs that can really make you feel just like serious energy; especially being on a stage and playing with the musicians and connecting with them and playing these really fast songs, you can feel like everything is just alive. Le Musique Bluegrass Dans Les Bois hot   MUSIC CREDITS: Excerpt of Blues en Mineur from Déviation and excerpt of Le Musique Bluegrass Dans Les Bois from Gypsy Moth, both used courtesy of Daisy Castro and the Infidel Castros. Blues en Mineur used by permission of Jewel Music Publishing Company (ASCAP) and Blues in the Backwoods, used by permission of BMG Chyrsalis, BMI.