Le Chat Lunatique
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States | SELF
Music
Press
http://alibi.com/index.php?scn=feature&story=22798 - Weekly Alibi- V.17 No.14 | April 3 - 9, 2008
http://alibi.com/index.php?scn=feature&story=22798 - Weekly Alibi- V.17 No.14 | April 3 - 9, 2008
Best Local Band
Winner: Le Chat Lunatique
runner up: Felonious Groove Foundation
When we featured this Gypsy-Western Swing foursome in our Valentine’s Day issue to announce their recently released debut studio recording, Demonic Lovely, there was no way to know they’d also land on our “Smart List” and in two categories! It appears these sharply dressed cats will be waxing their mustaches for a long time to come. —BD
Best Jazz Artist/Group
Winner: Le Chat Lunatique
Also chosen as “Best Band” by our judges, Le Chat is undeniably cool. —BD
- The Local iQ 2008 Smart List
Best Local Band
Winner: Le Chat Lunatique
runner up: Felonious Groove Foundation
When we featured this Gypsy-Western Swing foursome in our Valentine’s Day issue to announce their recently released debut studio recording, Demonic Lovely, there was no way to know they’d also land on our “Smart List” and in two categories! It appears these sharply dressed cats will be waxing their mustaches for a long time to come. —BD
Best Jazz Artist/Group
Winner: Le Chat Lunatique
Also chosen as “Best Band” by our judges, Le Chat is undeniably cool. —BD
- The Local iQ 2008 Smart List
Le Chat Lunatique, Molehill Orkestrah, Pearl Handled Pistol
Club Congress, Friday, March 2
In Woody Allen's tragicomic masterpiece Sweet and Lowdown, Sean Penn's character, Emmet Ray, constantly
compares himself to, but never emerges from the shadow of, Django Reinhardt. It's doubtful that guitarist John
Sandlin, of the Albuquerque combo Le Chat Lunatique, is destined to a similar fate.
Sandlin (with matinee-idol good looks and nylon-string pyrotechnics) is obviously steeped in the gorgeous gypsy-
swing pioneered in the 1930s by the Belgian master Reinhardt, but he also proved himself a versatile player, with a
style all his own, when his band headlined an immensely satisfying concert last Friday night at Club Congress.
Even spiffier than the unsigned quartet's vintage suits, pencil moustaches and fedoras was the music, a combination
that included rowdy jump blues and Western swing, Sephardic marches and Latinized waltzes, Celtic breakdowns
and French romanticism...
...Violinist Muni Kulasinghe played Stéphane Grappelli to Sandlin's Reinhardt, and bassist Jared Putnam wailed a
couple of tunes, including the Bob Wills-style "Millionairess" and a version of Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher"
that didn't sound as if it had just been removed from mothballs. Most charming was Sandlin's arrangement of Erik
Satie's haunting "Gnossienne No. 1," which evolved from its stark, minimalist opening to embrace a reggae-tinged
syncopation. Sly and righteously swinging takes on "The House of the Rising Sun" and Paula Abdul's "Straight Up"
helped provide entry points for the diverse listeners in the house. Content neither to be a novelty act (Squirrel Nut
Zippers, anyone?) nor staid revivalists, Le Chat Lunatique proved they can rock the "hot club" while playing it cool.
- TUCSON WEEKLY, PUBLISHED ON MARCH 8, 2007:
Le Chat Lunatique, Molehill Orkestrah, Pearl Handled Pistol
Club Congress, Friday, March 2
In Woody Allen's tragicomic masterpiece Sweet and Lowdown, Sean Penn's character, Emmet Ray, constantly
compares himself to, but never emerges from the shadow of, Django Reinhardt. It's doubtful that guitarist John
Sandlin, of the Albuquerque combo Le Chat Lunatique, is destined to a similar fate.
Sandlin (with matinee-idol good looks and nylon-string pyrotechnics) is obviously steeped in the gorgeous gypsy-
swing pioneered in the 1930s by the Belgian master Reinhardt, but he also proved himself a versatile player, with a
style all his own, when his band headlined an immensely satisfying concert last Friday night at Club Congress.
Even spiffier than the unsigned quartet's vintage suits, pencil moustaches and fedoras was the music, a combination
that included rowdy jump blues and Western swing, Sephardic marches and Latinized waltzes, Celtic breakdowns
and French romanticism...
...Violinist Muni Kulasinghe played Stéphane Grappelli to Sandlin's Reinhardt, and bassist Jared Putnam wailed a
couple of tunes, including the Bob Wills-style "Millionairess" and a version of Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher"
that didn't sound as if it had just been removed from mothballs. Most charming was Sandlin's arrangement of Erik
Satie's haunting "Gnossienne No. 1," which evolved from its stark, minimalist opening to embrace a reggae-tinged
syncopation. Sly and righteously swinging takes on "The House of the Rising Sun" and Paula Abdul's "Straight Up"
helped provide entry points for the diverse listeners in the house. Content neither to be a novelty act (Squirrel Nut
Zippers, anyone?) nor staid revivalists, Le Chat Lunatique proved they can rock the "hot club" while playing it cool.
- TUCSON WEEKLY, PUBLISHED ON MARCH 8, 2007:
MOON CATS:
The boys of acoustic swingin' jazz outfit
Le Chat Lunatique may occasionally
echo Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
but their swank style (musical and
sartorial) is pure Quintette du Hot Club
de France, the groundbreaking acoustic
jazz quartet formed in 1934. Using
stringed instruments as driving
percussion, the Quintette, by and large,
originated the concept of the guitar solo
since that instrument was until then used
almost exclusively in jazz band rhythm
sections....
Picture a well-heeled gypsy band puffing
Gauloises in some saloon with French
dancehall mam'selles kicking up their
gams and you'll be prepared for this
ensemble's tight and talented act.
- LOCAL IQ, JAN. 25 - FEB. 7, 2007
MOON CATS:
The boys of acoustic swingin' jazz outfit
Le Chat Lunatique may occasionally
echo Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
but their swank style (musical and
sartorial) is pure Quintette du Hot Club
de France, the groundbreaking acoustic
jazz quartet formed in 1934. Using
stringed instruments as driving
percussion, the Quintette, by and large,
originated the concept of the guitar solo
since that instrument was until then used
almost exclusively in jazz band rhythm
sections....
Picture a well-heeled gypsy band puffing
Gauloises in some saloon with French
dancehall mam'selles kicking up their
gams and you'll be prepared for this
ensemble's tight and talented act.
- LOCAL IQ, JAN. 25 - FEB. 7, 2007
Le Chat Lunatique
Some people actually believe jazz is a matrix of theory, technique and musical allusion so dense you need
a masters degree to appreciate it. But those people have never heard Le Chat Lunatique. Sure, their
theory, technique and allusion are legit, but the best thing about this quartet's hot, Parisian-swing-style
jazz is how immensely listenable and, well, fun it is (to say nothing of the waxed, curlicue mustaches its
members sport). Second place goes to Albuquerque's reigning king of crooning, Tommy Gearhart and
Notes from Underground . Honorable mentions all-around to Big City Rain , Bitter Sermon , John Lewis
Quartet, the late Linda Cotton and Richard Elliott. - Weekly Alibi- V.16 #13 | March 29 - April 4, 2007
Le Chat Lunatique
Some people actually believe jazz is a matrix of theory, technique and musical allusion so dense you need
a masters degree to appreciate it. But those people have never heard Le Chat Lunatique. Sure, their
theory, technique and allusion are legit, but the best thing about this quartet's hot, Parisian-swing-style
jazz is how immensely listenable and, well, fun it is (to say nothing of the waxed, curlicue mustaches its
members sport). Second place goes to Albuquerque's reigning king of crooning, Tommy Gearhart and
Notes from Underground . Honorable mentions all-around to Big City Rain , Bitter Sermon , John Lewis
Quartet, the late Linda Cotton and Richard Elliott. - Weekly Alibi- V.16 #13 | March 29 - April 4, 2007
Muni Kulasinghe, John Sandlin, Jared Putnam and Fernando Garavito are worth mentioning by name. Each is expert enough to make your heels shake and your hips quake; together they equal a force nearly unrivaled in our burg. Do yourself a favor and catch them at their next show, and order a Scotch on the side. - Weekly Alibi V.18 No.14 | April 2 - 8, 2009
Muni Kulasinghe, John Sandlin, Jared Putnam and Fernando Garavito are worth mentioning by name. Each is expert enough to make your heels shake and your hips quake; together they equal a force nearly unrivaled in our burg. Do yourself a favor and catch them at their next show, and order a Scotch on the side. - Weekly Alibi V.18 No.14 | April 2 - 8, 2009
They have a look about them- what with their rakish chapeaus and gypsy grins- that says they escaped
from last night’s gig, bar tab unpaid, just one step ahead of a passel of jealous husbands. They have a
sound that makes you want to smoke and drink too much- if only you could get off the dance floor. They
have precisely trimmed antique mustaches that set you to wondering how far you can trust people so
obviously skilled with tiny sharp implements.
They are Le Chat Lunatique: Muni Kulasinghe on violin (inspired by Stephane Grappelli and a “legless
Polish gypsy”), John Sandlin on guitar (the classicist who fell under the sway of Django Reinhardt), Jared
Putnam on bass (the sinisterly innocent one with a Western swing background, and Fernando Garavito on
drums (the mysterious Colombian).
The quartet takes its cue from the gypsy swing of Reinhardt and Grappelli, but you’ll hear a wide
variety of genres informing the performance of any tune in their eclectic repertoire. “It’s what we call ‘Le-
Chat-ifiying’ a song” says Sandlin, “throwing in all these things from our collective musical subconscious.”
(Take, for example, his inspired gypsy jazz arrangement of Eric Satie’s Gnossienne No. 1- over a reggae
rhythm.)
Together for just over a year, they’ve written a number of intoxicating originals that can easily hold
their own on the bandstand with the standards and which their CD, scheduled for release in early 2007,
will feature. Stay up-to-date at myspace.com/lechatlunatiquetheband.
By Mel Minter, used with permission from Albuquerque the Magazine, November 2006 - Albuquerque the Magazine, November 2006
They have a look about them- what with their rakish chapeaus and gypsy grins- that says they escaped
from last night’s gig, bar tab unpaid, just one step ahead of a passel of jealous husbands. They have a
sound that makes you want to smoke and drink too much- if only you could get off the dance floor. They
have precisely trimmed antique mustaches that set you to wondering how far you can trust people so
obviously skilled with tiny sharp implements.
They are Le Chat Lunatique: Muni Kulasinghe on violin (inspired by Stephane Grappelli and a “legless
Polish gypsy”), John Sandlin on guitar (the classicist who fell under the sway of Django Reinhardt), Jared
Putnam on bass (the sinisterly innocent one with a Western swing background, and Fernando Garavito on
drums (the mysterious Colombian).
The quartet takes its cue from the gypsy swing of Reinhardt and Grappelli, but you’ll hear a wide
variety of genres informing the performance of any tune in their eclectic repertoire. “It’s what we call ‘Le-
Chat-ifiying’ a song” says Sandlin, “throwing in all these things from our collective musical subconscious.”
(Take, for example, his inspired gypsy jazz arrangement of Eric Satie’s Gnossienne No. 1- over a reggae
rhythm.)
Together for just over a year, they’ve written a number of intoxicating originals that can easily hold
their own on the bandstand with the standards and which their CD, scheduled for release in early 2007,
will feature. Stay up-to-date at myspace.com/lechatlunatiquetheband.
By Mel Minter, used with permission from Albuquerque the Magazine, November 2006 - Albuquerque the Magazine, November 2006
If the genre isn’t immediately familiar to you, maybe you
haven’t caught its Albuquerque ambassadors Le Chat
Lunatique. You should.
We’ll spell it out for you. Le (luh) Chat (shot) Lunatique
(loo-nah-TEEK). Sorta Francaise for “crazy cat.” That part
was inspired by a Beware Of Attack Cat sign spotted on a
French garden gate by LCL guitarist/vocalist John
Sandlin. Of course the name also evokes ghosts of Django
Reinhardt, Stephane Grapelli and that whole magical hot
jazz scene of Paree. The quartet’s sound does it far, far
FAR better!
Besides John Sandlin, Muni Kulasinghe (fiddle/vocals),
Jared Putnam (bass/vocals) and Fernando Garavito
(drums) call Le Chat home, and what they call “filthy,
mangy jazz” manages to draw, from the haunted corners of
New Mexico, quite the Bohemian crowd. Well, their New
Mexico counterparts...Nob o’Hillians! Actually that’s a
humor point worthy of Jared, the band’s e-press agent. He
issues “le schedule of le band” written with le Chat-load of
puns. He is almost surely responsible for naming Le Chat’s
new supposedly surreptitious live recording “Puss In
Bootleg!”
Beyond Jared’s “influences” on the band, some mighty
interesting musicians and styles enter into play. Everything
from Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Cage and the Hot Club
Of Paris in Muni’s case to Frank Zappa, High Noon (?),
Stuff Smith and Hank Williamses One & Three but
definitely not Two in Jared’s. You will hear far more in Le
Chat than that, and they’re beginning to be heard
everywhere that’s hip...or maybe the hip starts showing
when they get there. On the night we’re watching (and
watching is nearly as good as listening), Jared is fretting
during the break over the chance the crowd may be
hearing muddy sound due to poor room acoustics, as
opposed to “filthy mangy” but pristine jazz. The
crowd...every Retro, Goth, Jazzbo and Belly Dancer (yes,
you read right) of ‘em...seems perfectly happy.
To see if anyone is paying attention, the guys begin the
second set by (sort of) playing each other’s instruments.
Truly mangy. It gets applause anyway. They switch around
and pull the switch, getting down to the serious business of
wonderfully dangerous playing. The gentlemen of Le Chat
Lunatique are in an instinctive sync that some in the crowd
may never get, but everybody gets close enough to make it
happen in the room. There even comes a frantic
Klezmer/Jazz piece, and you’d have to see the mutant
jitterbug they do to this one to believe it! More delightful
shockers roll out including a “House Of The Rising Sun”
that hangs the moon with deep Blues and high Reggae!
But these are jazzmonauts who are used to spacewalking
and still being in Mission Control.
Check out Le Chat Lunatique’s website, schedule and
samples on MySpace.com. Since they’re now streaming
some of their music, as Jared might say “it’s Le Chat heard
‘round the world!” Glad we didn’t say that... - OPENMIC NEW MEXICO V.1, #1 SEPTEMBER 2006
If the genre isn’t immediately familiar to you, maybe you
haven’t caught its Albuquerque ambassadors Le Chat
Lunatique. You should.
We’ll spell it out for you. Le (luh) Chat (shot) Lunatique
(loo-nah-TEEK). Sorta Francaise for “crazy cat.” That part
was inspired by a Beware Of Attack Cat sign spotted on a
French garden gate by LCL guitarist/vocalist John
Sandlin. Of course the name also evokes ghosts of Django
Reinhardt, Stephane Grapelli and that whole magical hot
jazz scene of Paree. The quartet’s sound does it far, far
FAR better!
Besides John Sandlin, Muni Kulasinghe (fiddle/vocals),
Jared Putnam (bass/vocals) and Fernando Garavito
(drums) call Le Chat home, and what they call “filthy,
mangy jazz” manages to draw, from the haunted corners of
New Mexico, quite the Bohemian crowd. Well, their New
Mexico counterparts...Nob o’Hillians! Actually that’s a
humor point worthy of Jared, the band’s e-press agent. He
issues “le schedule of le band” written with le Chat-load of
puns. He is almost surely responsible for naming Le Chat’s
new supposedly surreptitious live recording “Puss In
Bootleg!”
Beyond Jared’s “influences” on the band, some mighty
interesting musicians and styles enter into play. Everything
from Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Cage and the Hot Club
Of Paris in Muni’s case to Frank Zappa, High Noon (?),
Stuff Smith and Hank Williamses One & Three but
definitely not Two in Jared’s. You will hear far more in Le
Chat than that, and they’re beginning to be heard
everywhere that’s hip...or maybe the hip starts showing
when they get there. On the night we’re watching (and
watching is nearly as good as listening), Jared is fretting
during the break over the chance the crowd may be
hearing muddy sound due to poor room acoustics, as
opposed to “filthy mangy” but pristine jazz. The
crowd...every Retro, Goth, Jazzbo and Belly Dancer (yes,
you read right) of ‘em...seems perfectly happy.
To see if anyone is paying attention, the guys begin the
second set by (sort of) playing each other’s instruments.
Truly mangy. It gets applause anyway. They switch around
and pull the switch, getting down to the serious business of
wonderfully dangerous playing. The gentlemen of Le Chat
Lunatique are in an instinctive sync that some in the crowd
may never get, but everybody gets close enough to make it
happen in the room. There even comes a frantic
Klezmer/Jazz piece, and you’d have to see the mutant
jitterbug they do to this one to believe it! More delightful
shockers roll out including a “House Of The Rising Sun”
that hangs the moon with deep Blues and high Reggae!
But these are jazzmonauts who are used to spacewalking
and still being in Mission Control.
Check out Le Chat Lunatique’s website, schedule and
samples on MySpace.com. Since they’re now streaming
some of their music, as Jared might say “it’s Le Chat heard
‘round the world!” Glad we didn’t say that... - OPENMIC NEW MEXICO V.1, #1 SEPTEMBER 2006
Discography
Their newest release is an EP of 6 cover tunes called "Under the Covers Vol. 1" and was released on Dec. 5th, 2009.
They will finally have a new album out by December 2013, and boy howdy, have they grown!
Sonic Reducer
Le Chat Lunatique Under the Covers, Vol. 1 (Salad Bean Records)
Muni Kulasinghe’s howling vocals, his violin skittering across the music like beads of water on a hot skillet. John Sandlin’s ax felling bar after bar of music with ferocious dexterity. Jared Putnam’s slaphappy bass and slyly sweet vocals. Drummer Fernando Garavito’s irresistibly low-down grooves. It’s all here on six covers the group has perfected over the last few years on the bandstand. The many high points include the churchy baroque intro to “House of the Rising Sun,” which then descends into fevered desperation, Sandlin’s solo on “Belleville Rendez-Vous” drunkenly dancing across a fence top, and the deliriously locked-in groove between Putnam and Garavito on “Minnie the Moocher.” “Frère Jacques,” “Straight Up” and “La Mer” round out the collection, each with its own ear-opening moments of inspired lunacy. While paying close attention to every tiny detail—the dabs of echo on “Jacques,” the perfectly timed cat’s yowl on “Belleville”—Le Chat plays with a demonic abandon that makes you suspect they’re having even more fun that we are. (Mel Minter- Weekly Alibi, V.18 No.49 | December 3 - 9, 2009)
Le Chat Lunatique’s 1st CD “Demonic Lovely”, released in February 2008, was nominated for SEVEN New Mexico Music Awards and won ONE for Best Jazz Song- miss lady.
Le Chat Lunatique’s Demonic Lovely Gives Dancers and Listeners Cause for Celebration
CD captures the verve, swing and musicality of this “filthy, mangy jazz” quartet
By Mel Minter
The appeal of Le Chat Lunatique’s live performances owes as much to its bandmates patter and seriocomic stage presence as it does to their music—and the music is damn good. They’ve managed to translate that appeal to their new studio CD, Demonic Lovely, without visual or verbal aids. The music and the commitment with which it is played, it turns out, are really what it’s all about, whether you’re on the dance floor or sinking
into a sofa.
Featuring 16 original tracks that clock in at just under 74 minutes, Demonic Lovely offers a generous helping of the band’s determined commingling, which blends gypsy jazz (the group’s original inspiration was Le Hot Club de France), musette, Western swing, Italian traditional, klezmer, country, doo-wop, reggae and “anything else we damn well please,” as guitarist John Sandlin once said.
It’s a lot of music—from corybantic ecstasies to deep-souled lamentations—with few weak spots and a lot of surprises from four accomplished players: Sandlin, Muni Kulasinghe (violin), Jared Putnam (bass) and Fernando Garavito (drums), with help from accordionist Debo Orlofsky on one track. Seamless segues, smart track sequencing and judicious use of studio techniques add to the listenability.
One advantage of the studio is being able to double Sandlin on lead and rhythm. In either role, his downright nasty rhythmic sensibility can make your heart skip a beat. Kulasinghe’s double-stopped fire, lascivious melancholy and theatrical vocals are LCL hallmarks. The energetic Putnam, a sly vocalist himself, slaps the bottom in place, but he can bow, too (his bowed solo on “Tarantella a la Schwinkter” is delightfully ponderous, a bear
dancing). Then there’s the crisp, steady groove supplied by Garavito, the group’s Ringo. Together they create an inimitable sound.
Most of the tunes—five each from Kulasinghe and Sandlin, six from Putnam—are well-constructed little gems that propagate earworms for ongoing pleasure. When there are lyrics, as surprising as some of the musical twists, they add a devilishly clever and literate dimension. Much of their material can hold its own against the standards the band plays live.
High points include “Devil’s Lucre” (JS), sort of a “Three Blind Mice” on absinthe; “miss lady” (MK), an arch delectation of helpless heartbreak; and the noir humor of “Millionairess” (JP).
The boys took a lot of care with this recording. The trick of it is, they make it all seem effortlessly fun—and it is, for listener and dancer alike.
The Weekly Alibi V.17 No.7 | February 14 - 20
Photos
Bio
As unpredictable, fearless, and entertaining as their namesake, Le Chat Lunatique purveys an addictive genre they call filthy, mangy jazz, a signature sound that makes you want to smoke and drink too muchif only you could get off the dance floor. Le jazz hot of Django Reinhardt and Stphane Grappelli is their north star, but they use that beacon to navigate through a wide range of genres, blending Western swing, classical, reggae, doowop, and anything else we damn well please into strikingly original compositions and audaciously reworked standards alike.
Le Chat Lunatique is Muni Kulasinghes theatrical vocals, his violin skittering across the music like beads of water on a hot skilletinspired as much by a legless Polish gypsy he
encountered on his vagabond travels as by the great Grappelli. Its the axe of guitarist John Sandlin, the classicist who fell under the sway of Reinhardt, felling bar after bar of music with ferocious dexterity. Its the slap-happy bass and slyly sweet vocals of Jared Putnam, the sinisterly innocent one whose dark past embraces both death metal and Western swing. Its
the irresistibly deep-pocketed grooves of drummer Fernando Garavito, the mysterious and gracious Colombian who appeared by magic in New Mexico.
The group began prowling the nightspots of Albuquerquethat secret haven of hot jazz back in 2006, spontaneously impregnating the ears of unsuspecting audience members, who
found themselves unable to stop listening or dancing or making merry. From their earliest gigs, Le Chat Lunatique has offered swinging originals with ear-snagging hooks and stories to tellwell-constructed little gems that propagate earworms for ongoing pleasure. Devilishly clever lyrics offer insight into lamour (falling in love is like eating tacos), a louche paean to a doting milllionairess (Buy me a Cadillac, buy me a yacht / Buy me
everything that I havent got), minatory observations on fate (the bus of God will run you over), and the inevitable bitterness of a broken heart (Miss Lady . . . please do me the
courtesy of drinking in some other gin joint). The bands repertoire also features original arrangements of tunes that stretch from kindergarten favorites (Frre Jacques) to pop hits (Straight Up) to swing anthems (Minnie the Moocher) to Reinhardt classics (Blue Drag). Every single tune is more than
coveredits completely Le-Chat-ified. First, its dunked in the groups collective musical subconscious, and then they play the hell out of it. Take, for example, Sandlins inspired gypsy jazz arrangement of Eric Saties Gnossienne No. 1over a reggae rhythm (say what?). Then, theres the medieval liturgical intro to House of the Rising Sun, which ultimately descends into transcendent desperation.
Riding the popularity of their acclaimed first CD, Demonic Lovely, which featured all original tunes, and their follow-up collection of covers, Under the Covers (Vol.1), Le Chat Lunatique
has been inducing musical mania in an ever-widening circlefrom the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, to the clubs of England, to the boards of the national theater in
Novi Sad, Serbia, where they performed their commissioned score for Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinentals groundbreaking theatrical production Flamingo/Winnebago. A performance at the 2011 Internacional Festival de Jazz in Bogota, Colombia, helped them continue to expand and to top it off (for now) in November 2013, they are playing in Almaty, Kazakhstan. In their home state of New Mexico, theyve won award after award annually for best band, best jazz act, and best song. Their irreverent humor, their intensity, and their expert musicianship will soon win them your acclamation as the best time youve ever had in public with your clothes
on.
Band Members
Links
