Internationally celebrated gypsy jazz guitarist Olli Soikkeli

CRITIC’S PICK - Gypsy jazz fans will not want to miss this extraordinary opportunity to hear two of the greatest exponents of the music originated by legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt when Paulus Schafer and Olli Soikelli perform at Waller’s Coffee Shop on Thu., Sep. 12. Schäfer, a Dutch Sinti-Romani whose members number around 3,000, is revered among Reinhardt stylists as an imaginative melodist and composer. Soikkeli is a superbly talented interpreter of jazz manouche (Gypsy jazz), which remains a signature feature of the Parisian soundscape more than a century after Reinhardt, violinist Stéphane Grappelli and their Quintette of the Hot Club of France became a sensation and opened up a new avenue for jazz to develop. – Doug DeLoach