Tom Conway: Press

Maui Time Weekly article by Anu Yagi!

"Tom Conway's latest batch of acoustic jazz is stylish and inspired, his guitar leading the way with virtuosic swing".

Maui News article: August 5, 2010

"One of the first bands to grab my attention on Maui was the band Gypsy Pacific. I have been a fan of Django Reinhardt since I first heard him & Stephane Grapelli with the Hot Club Band from France. Tom Conway and his band play Django's music right along side the other great Django bands - they can hold their own...and more! I know Django would be proud that his music is so elegantly presented on the island of Maui & now for the rest of the world. Tom Conway's "No Fixed Address" is a great CD."

"Tom Conway’s furious guitar playing is brilliant, and his fellow musicians are as talented and as engaged in the music as Tom is. You don’t have to know anything about Reinhardt, the Hot Club of France or gypsy jazz to be blown away by this album"

(click the link for full review)

Click the link below for the entire review by one of the leading gypsy jazz writers in France. This review is in French!

"On his new CD, Tom Conway once again exhibits a virtuosic command of the Gypsy Jazz medium, while at the same time adding new interest to the genre through his 13 original compositions, thereby expanding the idiom's possibilities. Some great guitar work!"

"This is such an exciting, inspiring collection, you want to hear it again and again. From the amazing rising and falling arpeggios, to the sly wit of the arrangements and compositions Tommy Conway and his band have nailed it again. A must for lovers of the guitar and gypsy music".

"Tom Conway's well crafted guitar work and original compositions in "No Fixed Address" ranks from incredible to outrageous. The band and guitarist's explosive energy will take the imagination through past and present, traveling to mystical forests, through the streets of Dublin, and back around the world to the tropical paradise of Maui. It was a real joy to be part of this unique record, performed by such talented musicians".

"...you are clearly on a path with your music! It is energetic, well played and recorded and original which is difficult in the Gypsy Jazz context. Congratulations to you on a project well done, I wish you all the success in the world for it".

"One of the hottest Hot Club-style bands in the US"

"A homer from left field - a different discovery for the discriminating jazz fan"

"Up onstage, four string players who had clearly paid their dues burned through a Jazz Age swing set worthy of the Hot Club of France. Somewhere, Django's ghost was smiling."

"What strikes right away is the energy and the enthusiasm of the trio"

"What a discovery!"

"No Fixed Address"

The outlook: Conway has the smarts to juxtapose imagery and nuance in his music; anything can be of a particular place if you simply listen and imagine. His guitar solos and the presence of the fiddle yield a unique, percolating sound.

Our take: A CD worth seeking out, for its instrumentation and its quest to be different.

 

Partial review of Gypsy Pacific concert at the historic Hawaii Theatre in Honolulu.

"Gypsy Pacific recreated the guitar and violin sounds of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli, featuring incredible double-time guitar picking by group leader Tom Conway".