Gypsy Cats
They have a look about them- what with their rakish chapeaus and gypsy grins- that says they escaped
from last night’s gig, bar tab unpaid, just one step ahead of a passel of jealous husbands. They have a
sound that makes you want to smoke and drink too much- if only you could get off the dance floor. They
have precisely trimmed antique mustaches that set you to wondering how far you can trust people so
obviously skilled with tiny sharp implements.
They are Le Chat Lunatique: Muni Kulasinghe on violin (inspired by Stephane Grappelli and a
“legless Polish gypsy”), John Sandlin on guitar (the classicist who fell under the sway of Django
Reinhardt), Jared Putnam on bass (the sinisterly innocent one with a Western swing background, and
Fernando Garavito on drums (the mysterious Colombian).
The quartet takes its cue from the gypsy swing of Reinhardt and Grappelli, but you’ll hear a wide
variety of genres informing the performance of any tune in their eclectic repertoire. “It’s what we call ‘Le-
Chat-ifiying’ a song” says Sandlin, “throwing in all these things from our collective musical subconscious.”
(Take, for example, his inspired gypsy jazz arrangement of Eric Satie’s Gnossienne No. 1- over a reggae
rhythm.)
Together for just over a year, they’ve written a number of intoxicating originals that can easily hold
their own on the bandstand with the standards and which their CD, scheduled for release in early 2007,
will feature. Stay up-to-date at myspace.com/lechatlunatiquetheband.
By Mel Minter, used with permission from Albuquerque the Magazine, November 2006
