Exploring the 2026 Blissfest Lineup, Part VII
Swing & Jazz Highlights
As I’m researching and writing this week’s lineup discovery message with Dave Sharp Worlds Quartet’s music in the background, I hear the violin playing that to my rudimentary ear sounds like it’s from Eastern Europe and immediately think of Meredith from Adrian & Meredith. Of course it would! The song is called “Ukrainian Kolomeyka” and I know that Meredith draws heavily from her Eastern European heritage and is well versed in a good polka!
When it comes to finding connections between musical styles, I always trust my ear first. For instance one day I was listening to a cover of Shawn Colvin’s “Diamond in the Rough” and thought, “Oh, that sounds like Chris Thile’s mandolin” Me: quickly searches in the liner notes to see who played the mandolin on track #8 and to my delight found that I was, indeed, correct. This is a true story! Of course, our ears can deceive us.
Once you really begin to pull back the curtain, you realize yet again how interwoven all of this is, and how much history would need to be unfolded to trace any true origin story in full. As I find myself following fiddle sounds that feel rooted in Eastern Europe, I land in Bohemia and begin to think about the broader musical melting pot that eventually gives rise to jazz manouche, often known as “gypsy* jazz.”
*Please note that our usage of the term “gypsy” is only for musical and historical purposes for context.
This style emerges as a European reinterpretation of American jazz, filtered through French culture and Romani musical traditions. In a sense, we find ourselves circling back through Eastern Europe again. And yet that is not where the Romani story begins. Their ancestry is now thought to trace back to India, weaving a long migratory and musical path through regions such as Persia, Armenia, the Balkans, and North Africa. 
Now I think I’m understanding Dave Sharp World's Quartet, whose music is this amalgam of klezmer, jazz manouche, classical Indian, Persian, North African, and of course American jazz. At first it may sound like a fusion of sounds drawn from across the world, but what emerges is a true musical thread. If you listen, you will hear it.
As you map out your Blissfest plans, hopefully a few of these acts whose stories and sounds have piqued your interest have made it onto your list!
If you’re interested in Jazz Manouche, we’re lucky to have a few more acts to showcase the sheer speed and rhythm of the style. Michigan musician Andrew Brown spearheads Djangophonique, named in honor of Django Reinhardt the grandfather of this unique style. Reinhardt, a Romani living in France, became fascinated with American jazz, but struggled to play it just so as he only had partial use of his fingers. So, he reimagined it all using just his index and middle fingers to produce the fast melodies we know today.
While Andrew has all of his fingers, he manages to emulate this style better than most.
We’re gonna give one band the chance to give Andrew a run for his money and that’s Banshee Tree. When we first heard Banshee Tree perform at Folk Alliance International Conference, I thought “I can’t wait to get these guys to Blissfest AND he has to meet and jam with Andrew Brown.” If Django Reinhardt went to a rave and wanted to sing songs, that would be Banshee Tree. We’ll just leave it at that!
Lastly, we’re going to wrap up with something beautiful.Dee Sutton of West Michigan is back on the scene with a new album and a band. Sweet Dee & The Wild Honeys gives a feminine touch to the precursor to Django’s style with American swing and early country music. Dee says it herself: “I would say I kind of put myself in country swing, but then I get some gypsy jazz ideas around in there that you haven’t heard yet. More like Americana country swing. I like the bounce of traditional country.” Let’s welcome Dee for the first time to Blissfest!
We can’t wait to showcase these artists for you this July. Speaking of, do you have your wristbands yet? Tier 2 pricing is available, but not for long!