Jazz Articles about Harri Stojka

Harri Stojka: A Tribute to Swing

by Robert R. Calder
May 13, 2005

A Viennese gypsy jazz guitarist on the fiery side of numerous Europeans, Harri Stojka's musical great-grandfather was Django Reinhardt. He attacks tunes the way young lions did in the late 1940s, sounding a bit like the young Les Paul did when he still had a Django accent. On Charlie Shavers' “Undecided" (miscredited here to Waller) the original intricate line is preferred to the usual riffing paraphrase, and it becomes wonderfully jagged classic bop. The opening track explodes off ...