Dec. 2015

Andrew Gilbert - noted jazz and world music reviewer for the San Jose Times, Contra Costa Times, KQED says:

 

"What would have happened if legendary Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt wandered into Minton’s Playhouse during his only tour of the US in 1946 and jammed with pianist/composer Thelonious Monk at the Harlem nightspot that served as an essential forum for the birth of modern jazz? The resulting encounter might have sounded something like what jazz violinist Kit Eakle delivers on DjangoSphere, a rhythmically dexterous rollercoaster ride that artfully melds the sounds of two irreducibly brilliant artists."

 

Victoria Times Colonist - June 2013:

Thelonious Monk never recorded a Django Reinhardt song, nor did Django apparently ever play any Monk tunes. The two highly individual jazz giants also never met. However veteran violinist Kit Eakle found common ground in their music and styles with DjangoSphere being the result.

 

His sound sometimes hints a little at Ray Nance while his swinging style is his own. On DjangoSphere, he teams up with the great guitarist Howard Alden... to play an intriguing blend of music that one could imagine... being how Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli might have sounded if they had recorded the tunes in 1949.

 

Scott Yanow - L.A. Jazz Scene

"Point Richmond violinist Kit Eakle has spent the past few years developing a captivating group sound by melding the music of two of jazz’s most insistently unmistakable innovators, Gypsy swing guitarist Django Reinhardt and pianist/composer Thelonious Sphere Monk.

 

While both musicians exerted a profound and pervasive influence that’s unabated, they shared few acolytes. In forging the singular DjangoSphere synthesis, Eakle found an ideal partner in New York guitarist Howard Alden, a master versed in small group swing and modern jazz harmonies who recorded more than a dozen albums for Concord Jazz during the label’s heyday in the 1980s and ’90s."

 

Andrew Gilbert - Mercury NEWS - Jan. 2018

 

contact info: kit@musickit.com

phone 415-419-7090