Figure 1.--Birely Lagrene is seen here with guitar at age 13.
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Figure 1.--Birely Lagrene is seen here with guitar at age 13. |
A HBC reader suggests that Birely Lagrene be added to the musical prodigy list. Birely was born in French Province of Alsace near the German border in 1966. He is a brilliant and largely self taught guitarist. When he began playing he was only slightly larger than his guitaar. He made his first LP recording, "Routes to Django" in 1980 when he was 13 years old. A second, "Routes to Django' 2" was recorded the next year. It proved to be very popular with the public. He has a particularly strong following among German jazz fands. His nick name was Gypsy. A German reviewer wrote, "It was hard to believe when I heard the delicate rythem patterns and fast turns being played in this brilliant and fast way." [Dr. Ulrich Oesteusen, Frankfurter Algemine Zeitung] German reviewers elected him the most promising young jazz musician of the year. He was proclimed a child prodigy. Before all that publicity, he had quietly built up a reputation among German jazz fans as a gifted performer. He began by touring jazz and folk clubs and made television appearances, primarily in Germany. He was invited to the German Jazz Festival and created a sensation at yhe newcomer concert. He received nation-wide attention in Germany when he appeared on "Bos Bahnhof" and was also featured in te German weekly Starr. Interestingly, a generation earlier German boys were sent to conentration camps by the NAZIs for their devotion to jazz music. This story was told in the movie, The Swing Kids. Young Gypsy is now a very great jazzman. Interestingly, Lagrene has proven to be more popular in German in France. Alsace is a province that has been disputed between Germany and France. Perhaps he grew up in a German-speaking family--but HBC at this time has no information on his family and childhood. We have limited information on the clothing worn by Birley as a boy, but available images sugges that he peformed in solid colored shirts and sweaters, denim and leaher jackets, and jeans. Hopefully HBC readers will provide us more information on this brilliant guitarist.
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