Christophe Lartilleux-Hart and Latcho Drom

Of Gypsy origin, Latcho Drom’s leader, Christophe Lartilleux, was brought up in a travelling circus (Hart-Goujon), run by gypsy performers. He was taught the guitar by his father, Yvon, himself a guitarist (who played many years with the accordionist Maurice Vittenet, Jo Privat). He received many musical influences, from jazz fusion to bop, including flamenco and hard rock. He has played with some musicians as different as Yoshko Seffer, Alain Caron, Florin Niculescu, Bireli Lagrene, Laurent Korcia . But his first love has always been the gypsy guitar and Latcho Drom (meaning “have a good journey” in gypsy language) is the fulfillment of his dream to create the Hot Club de France sounds of Grappelli and Reinhardt’s famous quintet. With his acoustic band, he revives the sound and the swing of those times, (especially by using the famous Selmer guitars), while developing his own personality and originality. Immediately the group was extremely successful, and has never stopped performing all over the world.