The Livery welcomes Christine Tassan et les Imposteures

With an infectious blend of swing music and jazz created by guitar innovator Django Reinhardt, Christine Tassan et les Imposteures formed in Montreal in 2003. It was a time when Reinhardt’s style of jazz had few adherents in the French-Canadian city. That none were Manouche like Reinhardt helped explain the band’s name.

There were other reasons for the moniker. Mainly, that Tassan is a woman in a male-dominated genre, and the original Imposteures were all female. “So we felt a little bit like impostors in that very man thing,” she said in a recent Zoom interview. “Also, we come from different backgrounds.”

That final one’s the rub. Tassan and her band draw from the Django canon but add elements all their own.

“We like to incorporate folk songs,” she said. “Martine, my violinist, comes from a classical background and a lot of traditional Quebecois music. So there’s that influence coming in our compositions and shows. Kind of an impostor, you know?”

Such a melting pot is reflected in the title track from their latest album, Sur la route, which translates to On the Road.

“It has the accents of Jack Kerouac, the chords of Willie Nelson and the fingers of Django Reinhardt,” Tassan told the crowd at last year’s International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven.

The through line is music that, as Steve Martin once said of the banjo, easily inspires a smile, with Tassan’s playful stage presence taking it home.

“We bring a lot of humor in it,” Tassan said. “When we talk to people in between songs, there’s some kind of participation.”

That an all-acoustic genre also inspires infectious toe-tapping can be traced back to Reinhardt, she continued. “Django heard swing music coming from the States, and Louis Armstrong; they were his main influences … for sure, that’s something that is really lively.”

French-born, Tassan came to Canada not for music, but as an electrical engineering exchange student in the final year of her studies. “A friend of mine was coming to Montreal, so I followed her,” she said. “I stayed one year and really enjoyed the city, and the country. I decided to migrate.”

Music came next. Tassan dabbled in a variety of idioms, beginning with classical.

“Then I did a lot of … more like folk songs, writing and singing my own compositions,” she recalled. In 1998 she discovered some of Django’s CDs and the die was cast. “I was totally blown away.”

Tassan began to transcribe and practice Reinhardt’s solos with a small group of fellow acolytes, later launching her own band.

“From then I saw that there was really something happening with that music, we were really having some success,” she said. “So it started from there and never stopped.”

The Imposteurs lineup has changed over the years, but the one constant is violinist Martine Gaumond. “She’s been with me nearly since the beginning,” Tassan said. “We do a lot of arrangements together, and we are the heart, I would say, of the band. She plays the violin beautifully, and she writes all the little vocal harmonies we sing.”

The current lineup is rounded out by upright bass player Mathieu Gagné and his longtime compatriot, guitar player Francis Tetu, who brings a unique approach to their music. “Not exactly a traditional way … but he is a very, very virtuoso guitarist,” Tassan said.” Both joined in early January.

After playing at Wolfeboro’s Friends of Music to start February, Tassan and her band will perform at Sunapee’s Livery to follow a sit-down Valentine’s Day dinner. It’s Tassan’s first show at the historic venue. After, they’ll head home.

“We’ve been playing several times in New Hampshire, it’s fun,” she said. “It’s a beautiful place.”

Christine Tassan et les Imposteures – Dinner & Show
When: Saturday, Feb. 14, at 5:30 p.m.
Where: The Livery, 58 Main St., Sunapee Harbor
Tickets: $50 at thelivery.org

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.