Joscho Stephan & Gonzalo Bergara: Contrasting Styles

What’s better than one hot guitarist?

Hows about 2 hot guitarists!

Joscho Stephan who has been featured many times before at Acoustic Guitar Videos is joined here by Gonzalo Bergara (yet another great Django Gypsy Jazz stylist) with the Django Reinhardt song entitled “Djangology.”

What’s interesting in this performance is the contrasting styles and interpretations by both players. Joscho is a flamethrower and can seemingly do anything on the guitar whereas Gonzalo has what I consider a more sensitive take on it all- but equally as hot.

I consider the Django style of Gypsy Jazz Guitar overall one of the most advanced styles for use with a flatpick. You will notice both players not only utilizing the down up down picking technique but, various forms of sweep picking. When combinations of both techniques is used by the soloists with arpeggios and outlines of chords, the result is a very musical experience for the listener.  It’s the rhythm itself (4/4) which I surmise is the part that turns a lot of listeners off. But here’s something to consider… hip hop and modern beats are the equivalent of half time swing…. so go figure.