For the Django fanatics, theres not a finer gypsy jazz band than One Leg Up. (Hunter Pope Mountain Xpress, Jun 7, 2006) One Leg Up released their first album Gypsy Blue in 2004. About their first record, Vintage Guitar Magazine wrote One Leg Up plays Gypsy jazz with conviction... the solos come fast and furious from their two solo guitarists, mandolinist, and clarinetist. That same year they accompanied Spanish gypsy jazz guitarist Pere Soto while he toured the U.S. May, 2005, they did a concert/book show with Michael Dregni author of the new acclaimed biography Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend. Also, in that year, their live version of Tico Tico was put on WNCW-FMs Crowd Around the Mic Volume 9, a compilation of the best music recorded live on WNCW that year. Their second record, Pere Lachaise, released on Bastille Day of 2006 found One Leg Up playing in an energetic yet new direction. Though the album contains elements from their first, such as a few Django Reinhardt compositions and some jazz tunes for the Tin Pan Alley days, this new album welcomes the addition of Cary Fridley on bass and vocals, some electric guitar and mandolin work, and newly fashioned, fresh arrangements of lesser known standards. One Leg Up works within the gypsy jazz instrumentation and framework while bringing different styles of jazz, Latin, and original music into their identity. They perform and teach workshops throughout the Southeast U.S. at festivals, concerts, clubs, dance events, and any place where the music lovers appreciate the sensual energy of a tight jazz ensemble.

This Asheville, North Carolina, sextet is one of the strongest of the current crop of Django-philes. Its sound is crisp, tight, and peppy, with solid musicianship all around.

Dirty Linen April/May 2007 #129

One Leg Ups originality also stems from the group being collective stars. Like an astute big band, One Leg Ups musicians are equally luminescent. At any moment, a violin, mandolin, or clarinet would take center stage, creating a stir usually reserved for a newly arrived brew. Also, the twin guitars of John Stineman and Jim Tanner revamped those bygone Django chords first strummed in pre-WWII Parisian clubs. And they can sing. Bassist Cary Fridleys voice crisply cut through the mental fog created by the fresh beer, and guitarist Stineman delicately rendered the ode of patient love in Exactly Like You. My only complaint was having to leave.

Hunter Pope, Mountain Xpress: Review of One Leg Up at the French Broad Brewery Tasting Room,

March 8, 2006

One Leg Up is a ticket back in time to 1930s Paris and the glory years of Django Reinhardt. Listening to their music, you can taste the red wine, relish the glamour of the City of Lights, and feel the deep vibe of Gypsy jazz. Vas-y! Vas-y!

Michael Dregni author of Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend

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