Gypsy in My Soul
WithGypsy in My Soul,Connie Evingsongoes from cool Beatles to hot jazz.  As a follow-up to herLet It Be Jazz, Evingson pays tribute to one of the most distinctive and wonderful sounds in jazz history, the French hot clubs of guitaristDjango Reinhardtin the 1930s and '40s.  Assisting her are three different bands, Parisota Hot Club and Clearwater Hot Club from her Minnesota home and Pearl Django from Seattle. All have the guitar-led sound just like Django Reinhardt, while Clearwater and Pearl Django add the violin that also helped make the Django sound distinctive (in his case, most famously by Stephane Grappelli).  (Parisota substitutes a clarinet, which was a lesser-known aspect of the Django sound.)  The groups' sound is also supplemented by accordion (Dan Chouinard and Patrick Harrison), vibes (Susan Pascal), and other instruments.Gypsy in My Soulisn't a note-by-note re-creation: Django didn't use vocals (Evingson provides lyrics to his "Anouman" music for "Django's Premonition" and she sings Susannah McCorkle's lyrics to his "Nuages"), and though he did perform American standards, those wouldn't have included Sting's "Until" or the Nat "King" Cole hit "Nature Boy." But it's a fun listen on its own terms, and might open up a new audience for Django.--David Horiuchi