Bireli Lagrene
b. 4 September 1966. Saverne, Alsace, France. The son of Fiso Lagrene, a popular guitarist in pre-war France, Lagrene displayed a prodigious talent as a very young child. Born into a gypsy community, his origins and his fleet, inventive playing style inevitably generated comparisons with Django Reinhardt. In 1978, he won a prize at a festival at Strasbourg and subsequently made a big impact during a televised gypsy festival. In his early teenage years Lagrene toured extensively playing concerts and festivals across Europe, often accompanied by distinguished jazz artists such as Benny Carter, Benny Goodman, Stéphane Grappelli and Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen. He also made his first record ROUTES TO DJANGO, which helped to prove that early estimates of his capabilities were not excessive. An outstanding technician, Lagrene has revealed influences other than Reinhardt, happily incorporating bebop phraseology, rock rhythms and Brazilian music into his work. By the late '80s he had moved substantially from his early Reinhardt-style to fully embrace jazz-rock and other electronically-aided fusions, a shift which, while extending his popularity to a wider audience, tended to lower his standing among jazz purists. In mid-summer 1991, he was one of several leading guitarists featured at the International Guitar Festival in Seville, Spain.