Djangofestivalen 2025

Olli Soikkeli Trio feat. Marian Petrescu (FI/RO) + gjest Costel Nitescu (RO) 

Angelo Debarre Quartet (FR) 

Jam-session med Nitcho Reinhardt Trio (FR)

About the Django Festival: Every year since 1980, the gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt has been celebrated with a separate festival in Norway, a tradition that has since been copied in over 50 countries. The speaker is Jon Larsen.

430/380 ,- + fee is the price for daypasses og 950 ,- is the price for festivalpass and includes all three days and the jam-session 24. og 25. jan. Festival passes can be purchased here.

Olli Soikkeli Trio feat. Marian Petrescu (FI/RO) + guest Costel Nitescu (RO)

Line up:
Olli Soikkeli - guitar
Joonas Tuuri – double bass
Marian Petrescu – piano
Costel Nițescu – violin

Olli Soikkeli is a Finnish guitarist based in New York City, who has had string swing as his main genre since he was introduced to the music of Django Reinhardt. “His compositions have a unique tenderness to them, and – like his playing – shine with confidence.” - ECM Reviews.

Soikkeli har spilt på legendariske konsertarenaer som Birdland Jazz Club, Blue Note og Lincoln Center. Olli spilte inn sitt første album "Trois Générations" (2011) med Hot Club de Finlande og Vitali Imereli og spilte inn sitt andre album "Kouvola Junction" (2012) med Paulus Schäfer og Arnoud van den Berg. Rhythm Future Quartet – ledet av Olli sammen med fiolinist Jason Anick – ga ut sitt debutalbum (2014) etterfulgt av 'Travels' (2016), og mottok strålende anmeldelser inkludert Beste album i 2016 av Huffington Post og All About Jazz magazines.

Soikkeli has played at legendary concert venues such as Birdland Jazz Club, Blue Note and Lincoln Center. Olli recorded his first album "Trois Générations" (2011) with Hot Club de Finlande and Vitali Imereli and recorded his second album "Kouvola Junction" (2012) with Paulus Schäfer and Arnoud van den Berg. The Rhythm Future Quartet – led by Olli along with violinist Jason Anick – released their debut album (2014) followed by 'Travels' (2016), receiving rave reviews including Best Album of 2016 by Huffington Post and All About Jazz magazines.

In early 2019, Olli recorded with Grammy Award-winning pianist Marian Petrescu, and at the DjangoFestivalen we will hear the result of this fruitful collaboration!

Petrescu began playing the piano when he was four years old. The family settled in Sweden in the 1980s, where he studied classical and jazz piano. He later settled in Finland, where he attended the Sibelius Academy. Pianist Martial Solal has called him “the Horowitz of jazz piano”. He also won a Grammy Award in 2010 for his performance of Bill Cunliffe’s arrangement of the West Side Story Medley.

Violinist Costel Nitescu, from Romania, is a guest. Nitescu’s playing style is both elegant and sparklingly passionate! At the age of 16, he was appointed first violinist of the National Orchestra in Bucharest. In the early 2000s, he moved to Paris, where his skills as an improviser quickly took him to the upper reaches of the gypsy jazz ladder. In 2008, he released his own tribute to the master, "Forever Swing, Grappelli Forever." It not only demonstrated his skills as a violinist, but also as a composer.
 

Angelo Debarre Quartet (FR)

Line up:
Angelo Debarre – guitar
Marius Apostol – violin
Georges Hassan-Ways – rhythm guitar
William Brunard – double bass

Angelo Debarre is one of the greatest French jazz guitarists, known internationally for his virtuoso string swing playing and a musician who is happy to return to the DjangoFestivalen! Debarre has collaborated with many Norwegian musicians and toured with Hot Club de Norvège a number of times. Debarre is an icon in the jazzmanoush genre and it is fantastic to have him at the festival!

JAM: Nitcho Reinhardt Trio (FR) spiller fredag og lørdag på Belleville! Jam-session starter kl.23:00 begge dager.

Line up:
Niche Reinhardt – guitar
Sébastien Félix – guitar
Estéban Félix – double bass

Nitcho Reinhardt is a French string swing guitarist and composer who returns to the Django Festival to perform, this time with a jam session at Belleville! Reinhardt started playing guitar when he was 15. His view of string swing is that it is a living genre of music, best experienced live – by being listened to and shared with an audience. Reinhardt builds on the legacy of Django Reinhardt, and has released three studio albums: "Latcho Dykk" (2008), "Une Historie" (2011) and "Geronimo" (2018).

Joining Reinhardt on the jam session is guitarist Sébastien Félix with his son Estéban Félix playing double bass. Sébastien Félix has performed at a number of festivals in Europe and the United States, such as "Django à Gogo" in New York and he has been the artistic director of the "Go! Django" festival, in Sergy, France, near Geneva. Sébastien plays his new Favino guitar from 1957 and his talents are displayed in different styles: Gypsy jazz, bossa nova, swing waltz...