Gypsy Fingers Is a Group of Kansas City Area Musicians Focused Primarily on the Music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli
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Gypsy Fingers is a group of Kansas City area musicians focused primarily on the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. Founder and lead guitarist Al Fuller moved to KC from the San Francisco Bay area in 1990. He began playing professionally in 1967 as the 'white Jimi Hendrix of Ft. Lauderdale' at age 17. He has played guitar professionally and otherwise for 50 years, with many musicians, in many settings around the country. He has a music degree from University of California, Sacramento. He is well versed in blues, jazz, R&B, and country music. He became interested in Gypsy Jazz several years ago, and has made it a goal to learn every tune ever performed by Django. His day job is financial systems consulting. Co-founder and lead guitarist Rick Mareske is a Kansas City native. Rick began playing folk music and rock in 1968 as a singer songwriter. He became interested in jazz in college and has continued studying and playing. Recently, his love for standards has won out. He loves everything from gypsy jazz to Miles. In the band , "Last Free Exit", Rick plays guitar, steel drums, sings and is joined by a bassist and mandolinist who loves Jethro Burns and Django. Rick also plays in the Cynthia Van Roden Trio. Cynthia is a top notch vocalist who likes to add the verses to some of the old tunes. Rick also loves to play with some of our city's best bassists. Co-founder Mike Hawkins and rhythm guitarist moved to KC from Springfield, MO, several years ago. He has played bass and guitar for 50 years. Al and Mike are neighbors, and about a year ago, Al convinced Mike to take up Manouche rhythm guitar. Both attended Frank Vignola's Gypsy Jazz guitar camp in Colorado in August, 2016. They were the oldest guys there, but by no means, the slowest. They are going back again in July 2017. Co-founder Darrel Williams is a jazz guitarist and self-taught jazz violinist from Tonganoxie, KS. In late 2015, Darrel placed an ad on Craiglist ‘looking for Django Reinhardt’, and Al answered it. They started woodshedding Django tunes on a weekly basis (Al didn’t really know any then). Over time, as they learned more tunes, and invited more folks to the woodshed, Gypsy Fingers was born. Darrel is headed to Frank Vignola’s Colorado muse camp in July with Al and Mike, for even more woodshedding. Our 2017 goal is to finish learning all 200+ tunes in the Django 2008 Fakebook. If we don’t get too distracted by gigs. Co-founder Johnny Hamil is a professional bassist and teacher in the Kansas City area. He is also the founder of the Kansas City Bass Workshop and KC Bass Fest . He is a ‘bass evangelist’, operates the Johhny Hamil Bass Studio, is a master of both the George Vance and Francois Rabbath teaching methods for the contrabass, leader of the GaV7d project (all the music was written by Johhny, and many Kansas City area musicians have performed on the more than 6 albums). He is a first call bassist in KC, and has performed with many professionals. Our line-up varies from time to time depending on the gig. Other musicians that have performed with Gypsy Fingers include John Miles on bass, Lady KT on violin, Susan Fuller on violin, Flip Hayes on lead guitar. .