The Pete Sheppard Gypsy Jazz Ensemble

Pete Sheppard first picked up one of his father's guitars at around 4 years old, but it wasn't until Pete reached the age of 13 that he cut his teeth on gypsy style swing. His musical apprenticeship was playing as a guitar duo with his father, sailing and caravanning all over France busking cafés, bars and restaurants as they went and learning from the gypsies themselves. Pete is also a classical guitar player, and has formed and played with various rock bands ever since his early teens when he also co-authored material for a Jazz-funk band. During this time he has had many a stint with many jazz outfits in Cornwall and other trad jazz bands. He was also a co-founder of gypsy jazz band Manouche. Later, after moving to Hampshire due to work commitments, Pete formed Jazz Gitanes in 1996. A guitar duo in its original form had several successful years playing some prestigious jazz clubs like the Concorde Club in Eastleigh (as support to Georgie Fame, Bucky Pizzarelli, Alan Barnes and Stacey Kent). Jazz Gitanes produced two CDs, one in 1999 and the other in 2001. Pete could be seen playing regularly, since 2003, with other leading exponential musicians at Le Quecumbar, the UK's specialist gypsy swing venue in Battersea: Top performers such as Michael Ward-Bergeman, Mike Piggot, Dan Teper, Andy Aitchison, Nils Solberg, Dave Kelbie, Ducato Pietrowoski, and even Gary Potter. He has also performed with the Le Quecumbar All Stars at the L'Esprit Manouche gypsy jazz festival in Birmingham and on the recent Le Quecumbar All Stars CD that was published in 2007 During 2010 Pete teamed up with local musicians from Southampton to form a gypsy swing collaboration called The Manusa Project. They collaborated and produced a CD called SOS in 2011. His repertoire includes many of the great jazz standards from the '30s, '40s and '50s, bossa novas, and many of the compositions from the legendary jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli.