Tchavolo Schmitt

Charles Tchavolo Schmitt (born 1954 in Paris) is a guitarist of the Swing Manouche. In the film Swing ( 2002) by Tony Gatlif it can also be experienced as an actor.

Life and work

Schmitt comes from a musical family; his father played the violin, his mother taught him at the age of six years, the guitar playing at. In 1966, he performed with other Sinti at the Porte de Montreuil on the Paris banlieue in Saint- Ouen. Spectacular concerts at the Music Festival of Gypsies in Darmstadt in 1979 meant that Wedeli Köhler in his group Hot Club Da Sinti brought him, with which he also recorded in 1981. In the next few years, he moved away from the music scene and lived in Strasbourg, where he occasionally gave private concerts. In 1992 he returned to the scene and became a member of the formation Gypsy Reunion ( to which his cousin Dorado Schmitt, Patrick Saussois and Gino Reinhardt included ). Only in 2000 he released a first album under his own name, which was followed by several albums.

Disco Graphical Notes

• Hot Club da Sinti, Wonderful ( links Händle Records, 1981)
• Gypsy Reunion, Swing 93 ( DJAZ Records, 1993)
• ? Alors ... Voilà! (Iris Music, 2000)
• Miri Familia ( DJAZ Records, 2001)
• Mémoires, with Angelo Debarre (Le Chant du Monde, 2004)
• Seven Gypsy Nights (2007)

Filmography

• Latcho Drom (directed by Tony Gatlif, 1992)
• Swing (directed by Tony Gatlif, 2002)