If Django Reinhardt had made his way to the Balkans and formed the Hot Club of Bucharest, the resulting music might have sounded a little like Devil’s Tale. Canadian Adrian Raso plays in Reinhardt’s Gypsy-jazz guitar vein, while Romania’s Fanfare Ciocărlia carry on the region’s madcap brass band style. The collaboration works as well as it does because Raso and Ciocărlia represent different nodes of Eastern European traditions. Devil’s Tale swings, twangs and almost rocks with Raso’s fluid lines in the lead and Ciocărlia providing colorful melodic accompaniment.
