Click here to listen to the intoxicating jazz of Espresso! as you read Toni Tresca’s article.
The Old Gallery in Allenspark will transform into a lively dance hall Saturday, Sept. 27, when Boulder-based band Espresso! takes the stage from 7 to 9 p.m. Known for its explosive blend of American swing and Gypsy jazz, the group promises an evening of toe-tapping rhythms, intricate solos, and vocals sung in both English and French.
The group draws its inspiration from the 1940s, when Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli’s jazz group The Hot Club of Paris electrified Europe with guitar and violin duets that borrowed heavily from American swing.
“It went across the ocean both ways,” said guitarist and vocalist Emily Reynolds. “American swing tunes borrowed from the Gypsy jazz genre, and everybody kind of shared that music. It was immensely popular during that era.”
The result was a cross-pollination of styles that still resonates today. Espresso! carries that tradition forward with arrangements that are upbeat, danceable, and infused with the joy of live improvisation.
“It’s just very attractive to most people,” Reynolds said. “Therefore, it’s fun to play, because people very much enjoy it.”
From jam sessions to Espresso!
The story of the band itself has its roots in spontaneous jams. Reynolds recalled first meeting clarinetist Bill Pontarelli at a festival in Winfield, Kansas.
“All of a sudden, there was this great clarinet player, and I thought, ‘Wow! I wish this guy lived in Colorado,’” Reynolds said. “And so, after we broke up the jam, I walked over to him and said, ‘Man, I sure wish you lived in Colorado,’ and he said, ‘Well, hey, I live in Denver.’ And I said, ‘Well, I live in Boulder. We should get together and play music,’ and that’s how we started playing together.”
Since then, Pontarelli and Reynolds have been performing around Colorado for the past 21 years. Pontarelli, long considered one of Denver’s most versatile clarinetists, came to swing through his father’s record collection.
“He brought me some of the big band stuff, like Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller, and then he brought me a record of Dixieland jazz,” Pontarelli said. “I was starting to work on the clarinet, and that’s how I wound up playing this music.”
Mandolinist Jordan Ramsey, who joined the group in 2010, first connected with Reynolds at a Lyons jam at Oskar Blues Grill & Brew.
“Emily and company used to come out and have a little swing corner,” Ramsey said. “I was more into Bluegrass, so I appreciated you guys. I played a little bit of swing back where I’m from, so I knew a little bit of the material, but it was definitely a big learning experience for me to start jamming with these guys and get into that style.”
A nationally recognized musician and teacher, Ramsey’s resume includes winning the National Mandolin Contest in 2016 and the RockyGrass Mandolin Competition in 2008. “Jordan is a remarkable player,” Reynolds said. “So it really didn’t take him long at all to learn how to play this music.”
Rounding out the quartet is bassist Duane Webster, a veteran of Colorado’s acoustic music scene who has performed with the original Ophelia Swing Band, Sweet Spot Trio, and VooDoo Lily. Webster has been anchoring Espresso!’s saucy swing sound since 2016.
“Duane Webster, our bass player, was in another band with us before this one,” Reynolds said. “I’ve known him for years, and he has played with many bands, and he is a great bass player who we enjoy playing with.”
“Caffeinated swing” for all
Espresso! got its name while playing early gigs at Spruce Confections in Boulder. “We figured caffeinated swing,” Reynolds joked. “But honestly, there was no real particular reason. We were just playing a lot of coffee shop at the start, and it just kind of fit.”
The title stuck, and the band’s reputation grew along the Front Range. While Espresso! frequently plays in Boulder and Denver, appearances in the Estes Valley are rare.
“It’s not too often that we play in the Estes area,” Ramsey noted. “Most of our stuff is in Boulder, so this is the chance for folks in that region to hear us perform live.”
That makes the Sept. 27 Old Gallery concert a special opportunity for mountain audiences. For the Allenspark show, Espresso! will offer a mix of classic swing and Gypsy jazz instrumentals along with vocals in French and English. Audiences can expect familiar standards like “Limehouse Blues,” “Avalon,” “Stompin’ at Decca,” and more.
“All of them are covers, yeah,” Reynolds said. “They’re in the genres that we’re talking about from the 1940s and Gypsy jazz tunes that were written by Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli, and more modern writers as well.”
Reynolds added that the Old Gallery will even be making room for dancers at the show.
“One question that somebody had on Facebook was, ‘Will there be a dance floor?’ And I called them up at the Old Gallery, and the woman indicated that yes, they would allow for a dance floor,” she said. “So that’s pretty cool, because we love playing for dancers, and I hope that we will get some dancers out there.”