Matelo Ferret

From The Gypsy Jazz Encyclopedia

MATELO FERRET

Before the recordings by Matelo Ferret were issued on CD in 1988, one knew little about the gypsy guitarists from the 1925-1930 Parisian cabarets, caf’conc’, and dance halls, apart from those who played jazz. Some people were of course aware that the young Django Reinhardt – a six-string banjo virtuoso – played Monti’s Czardas brilliantly as well as the legendary gypsy Gusti Malha’s elaborated waltzes, such as La Valse des Niglos. Nevertheless, as few people in those days ventured into the Parisian zone, no one knew that in his youth Django had composed tunes that had made him famous in the popular world of the French capitol. No doubt this was the reason why these deeply inventive but forgotten waltzes – Chez Jacquet, Montagne Ste. Geneviève, and others – didn’t come to light until a small record with Matelo was issued in 1960, now representing the first four tracks on this CD. In the original liner notes Charles Delaunay remarked: “Listening to these little masterpieces is enlightening about how much gracefulness, and what treasures, Django brought first to the musette orchestras, and later to jazz.” Furthermore, it is obvious that Django and his predecessor Gusti Malha’s approach to the instrument, their way of improvising accompaniment lines for accordionists, and of playing odd chromatic low notes, were a decisive factor in the elaboration of the famous Valses Gitanes.

Jean Pierre “Matelo” Ferret was born in Rouen, France, on the first of December 1918, the youngest child of a Gitan gypsy family. Following in his brothers Baro and Sarane’s footsteps, he started playing the violin and banjo as a child in a dance hall. As musette was coming into fashion and Matelo’s fame as a talented musician grew in the Parisian musical world, he was soon asked to replace Gusti Malha at the side of the famous accordionist Émile Vacher at the Pigalle Abbaye de Thèléme. At the same time, he was working for Vétese Guérino’s orchestra at La Boîte à Matelots.

A short while later he turned to the guitar, and at the age of thirteen joined the well-known Rumanian gypsy violinist Ionel Bajac’s orchestra at the Casanova. There, thanks to the prodigious cymbalom player Nitza Codolban, Matelo came to understand the richness of the central European traditional forms of music were. The following year Matelo met Django and shortly after started integrating elements from Django’s complex style into his own. From that time on, Matelo was by the sides of the most outstanding gypsy violinists of the time: the “tsar’s violinist” Jean Gulesco, concert-performers like Valadarski and Zarate, later Pali-Gesztross, Gyula Kokas, Sava Neagu, Tata Mirando, and of course Yoska Nemeth. In little time Matelo became sought after because of his musical ability and his perfect knowledge of the repertoire. He would go from one Parisian spot to the other, always on the move like the true gypsy he was, from one Russian cabaret to another, playing at the Shéhérazade, the Tokay, the Monseigneur, the Dinarzade, the Tsarevitch, the Etoile de Moscou… all the historical places.

It is precisely that carefree, bygone tzigane atmosphere that this album by Matelo Ferret recalls: the sleepless nights in the dance halls, Russian spots, night clubs like the Montmartre Harlem or Jimmy’s Bar where crazy after-hours jam sessions took place. Here we find again the sound of Matelo’s guitar, which could play all musical styles and was at the sides of the best jazz musicians of that time – Michel Warlop, Eddie South, Benny Carter, André Ekyan, Alix Combelle, Hubert Rostaing, Gus Viseur, Tony Murena, and of course Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. Here we can hear it playing with longing those tzigane melodies, Slavonic songs, and Viennese waltzes tinged with Czardas that the bohemian orchestras at the Café de Paris, Chez Mazim’s, and the Pavillon d’Armenonville performed so delightfully for their wealthy patrons. This “light music” takes another dimension under Matelo’s fingers, as it used to under the great Boldi and George Boulanger’s bows. Full of languor and zest, these deceptively simply melodies require an exacting technique and deep sensitivity from the soloist. Matelo doesn’t lack any of these qualities, and listening for instance to “Tziganskaïa” in which he displays a brilliant and colorful mastership of his instrument, we are reminded that he was one of the few gypsy guitar players to develop his own personal style in the days Django was at his best.

Alain Antonietto

These liner notes were written for the first edition of the CD “Tziganskaïa”, released in December 1988 by Jon Larsen/Hot Club Records.

Matelo Ferret died of cancer 24 January 1989, and is buried at the cimetière de Bagneux (Hauts de Seine), France. His sons Boulou and Elios Ferré are two of the greatest guitar players of today.

Discography

• Musique pour deux n°14. 1955
• Manouche Partie. 1960
• Matelot Ferret joue les inédits de Django Reinhardt 1960
• Tziganskaïa and other rare recordings. 1960.
• Marta. EP 1965
• Tribute to Django - Sarane and Matelo Ferret. 1967
• Tziganskaïa and other rare recordings. Reissued by Hotclub Records 1988