The Hot Club of Jupiter
The Hot Club of Jupiter formed to provide the music for the 2013 Renault Clio online ad campaign, which was promptly judged too lewd for public consumption and withdrawn. The band however, lives on drawn together by a shared love of the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli.
With the addition of Jon Shenoy on clarinet (Ronnie Scott’s Big Band, Draw By Four) the band have broadened their influences to include straight ahead jazz, New Orleans grooves and French Surrealism.
In April 2021, The Hot Club of Jupiter proudly launched their 2nd album, 'Vs London', a collection of standards and originals written about their home city with a live streamed gig from The London Transport Museum. The band realised much of their repertoire, drawn from both the American songbook and music hall tunes favoured by Stephane and Django, had a direct connection to the city where they perform. In this new album they set out to explore the rich history of London as a home and inspiration for musicians.
The album features famous standards and compositions from well-known jazz composers. The George Gershwin standard “A Foggy Day” is given a New Orleans feel, Billy Strayhorn’s “Chelsea Bridge” is reimagined as a French musette waltz, “A Nightingale Sung in Berkley Square” features violin birdsong and sonorous bass clarinet and the old music hall song “Limehouse Blues” is given a psychedelic makeover, a reference to the opium dens of the old party district of London.