DAISY CASTRO QUARTET / CAPE MAY CONVENTION HALL / SATURDAY, 12:00PM
The Story
Festival favorite Daisy Castro brings her gypsy jazz violin back to Cape May for yet another appearance at Exit Zero Jazz. She began playing violin at age six, studying classical music for six years before discovering jazz. With her parents, Daisy formed a family folk-blues band, Infidel Castros, recording the CD Strange Enchanted at age 11. A year later, she discovered and began playing the music of 1930s gypsy jazz pioneers from the Hot Club of France, led by guitar great Django Reinhardt and his violin-playing partner Stephane Grappelli. “I wanted to do the kind of stuff that they did,” she recalled. “And at first I was terrified about improvisation. Just thinking about playing things without music written down on a page was horrifying to me. So it was very challenging, but it was definitely rewarding to learn how to do it.”
With her roots firmly planted in the jazz manouche tradition, Castro continues to push the envelope with a refreshing mix of music that includes global, alt-rock and other modern influences. Expect a high degree of virtuosity when this outstanding young violinist hits the stage, along with charisma that radiates to the back row.
The Sound
The Daisy Castro Quartet is a perennial favorite at Exit Zero Jazz Festival, playing to packed rooms every year since 2014. The gypsy jazz phenom will put her jaunty spin on tunes by Django Reinhardt (“Minor Swing,” “Swing 42,” ), Duke Ellington (“Caravan”) and Hoagy Carmichael (“Stardust”) as well as jazz standards like “Limehouse Blues,” “After You’ve Gone” and “I’ve Got Rhythm,” while also delivering her Hot Club-inspired originals. And as she said about the music of her biggest influence: “People who know about Django are happy to hear his music played in this day and age. People who don’t know about Django want to know more about him after hearing his music.”
