Jack you write as though gypsy music were just one homogenous mass. the gypsy influence of which I speak is the most famous - namely flamenco - where guitarists learn to play notes in different rhythms - be they playing a soleares or whatever.

this mixture fluidity and lyricism of solo is very observable - particularly in the stuff Django did on acoustic guitar. So very different in feeling from a jazz player like joe Pass or Tal Farlow - even playing the same Gershwin tunes.

i feel like I've been hearing this stuff years. josh White was no longer a blues singer when he played in New York night clubs.

Why is it so necessary to attack musicians who take the bag of tricks their culture has gifted them with and explore the global village - as no longer being of that or any tradtion.

Its like folk music is the bailliewick run by some bloody tyrant of wicked baron and what he says goes.