Stellar chops and arrangements whose execution is nothing short of genius.
- Trevor McLaren, The Coast

Halifax-based Gypsophilia is a group of seven young performers whose music straddles the jazz and indie worlds. The band started in 2004 as a Django Reinhardt-inspired project, but soon found itself mixing gypsy jazz with klezmer, funk, classical music, indie rock, and bebop, writing its own tunes and playing to sold out crowds.

Gypsophilia’s 2007 debut record Minor Hope struck a chord with music fans across Canada, selling out of its first pressing in a matter of months and helping to support successful tours of Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.  The album of all original compositions was nominated for two Nova Scotia Music Awards and an ECMA, and has received extensive national airplay on CBC.  
    
The latest record, Sa-Ba-Da-OW! (June 2009), offers up even more varied sounds, self-produced and recorded in Halifax's Echo Chamber studio, engineered under the legendary hand of Charles Austin (Joel Plaskett, Buck 65, Al Tuck, Matt Mays, Super Friendz, Garrett Mason). The band’s typical lineup of three guitars, violin, double bass, trumpet and piano is bolstered on the album with synthesizer, backbeat handclaps, impromptu gang vocals, percussion, and slide whistle. And next to some classic swing grooves, be prepared to find klezmer, funk, reggae, tango and game show music.

On the heels of the album’s June 19th release date, Gypsophilia embarked on a coast-to-coast national tour of major Canadian festivals, from Victoria to St. John’s, including a stop at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Sa-ba-da-OW! has sold quickly since its release, and has also charted well, finishing 2009 in the number 1 slot overall atop the national campus radio jazz/blues charts.  The album was nominated for 3 NS Music awards, winning for Best Jazz Recording, and the band has earned two 2010 ECMA nominations, for Jazz Recording of the Year and Entertainer of the Year.

Gypsophilia is currently at work on new material for a third album, to be recorded in late 2010, a music video to be released this spring, and is planning another national tour of jazz and folk festivals in the summer of 2010.

The seven-piece Gypsophilia features Alec Frith, Nick Wilkinson and Ross Burns on guitars; Sageev Oore on piano and keyboards; Matt Myer on trumpet; Adam Fine on double bass and Gina Burgess on violin. Frith, Myer and Burns all play with the roots-Reggae band Verbal Warnin'; Myer is an ECMA and Juno winner with the Johnny Favorite Swing Orchestra; Fine plays regularly with Bend the River and improvising guitarist Jeff Torbert. Oore has been a featured soloist with Symphony Nova Scotia and a member of the Woodchoppers Association, while Burgess has also played with Symphony Nova Scotia and with the Maria Osende Flamenco Company.

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