MR. KOJO NNAMDIHow do you capture the spirit of a place in a song, all with just a few guitar strings at your disposal, especially when the place in question is Paris, a city whose history and personality seem to pulsate out of every alley and every cafe? Stephane Wrembel learned to play the guitar in the style of his hero and fellow Frenchman, D'jango Reinhardt. It's a style that he compares to the great impressionist painters of yesteryear and it's the musical approach that he recently deployed to capture the spirit of a "Midnight in Paris."

MR. KOJO NNAMDIAnd I'm right back in the movie and I'm right back in Paris because you just heard the song "Bistro Fada," a song that Stephane Wrembel recorded for the recent Woody Allen film "Midnight in Paris." He joins us in studio along with Roy Williams on guitar, Dave Sprenranza on acoustic bass and David Langlois on percussion. Stephane Wrembel, thank you so much for joining us.

MR. STEPHANE WREMBELHi, thank you.

NNAMDIWhen you were approached with the opportunity to write a piece for this film, a song that would capture the mood and spirit of such a story place, how and where did you even begin?

WREMBELIt's a very interesting story because the script was, like, top secret so I had to get, like, only a few elements. Like, they asked me basically to write instinctively something about Paris which is my birthplace. So with a gypsy touch and, like, the traditional Parisian waltz and, like, certain type of colors, you know, that I'm very familiar with because it's my origin. So they asked me to compose something that could fit in the movie about Paris and with some mysterious aspects to it.

WREMBELAnd so I just came with whatever went in my mind, you know, about Paris. I tried to imagine the situations. And this is how I came up with this piece. It was actually pretty fast. I wrote the chord progression, recorded the chord progression and then for some reason the middle of the -- kind of came up like almost right away. And I just like started recording and that's how it was done. You know, it was a very instinctive and very like immediate process.

NNAMDII'm glad you mentioned mysterious because not knowing what the script was, that was the first mystery that you had to figure out exactly what I'm doing here. But it was not a mystery for the producers of this movie because this is not the first time your music has been featured in a Woody Allen film.

WREMBELNo, they also asked me to -- like, I try to -- they used one of my songs for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

NNAMDIBack in 2008.

WREMBELYes. For the second half of the movie. It was the theme of the second half so...

NNAMDIYou mentioned that you born in Paris, but you grew up and learned music in Fontainebleau, in France.

WREMBELThat's true.

NNAMDIWhat kind of place did Fontainebleau make for a musical education?

WREMBELFontainebleau is a very interesting place. It's, like, about 30 minute south of Paris. And I moved there when I was one year old. There's a huge history in Fontainebleau. The first thing is Francois (word?) is the king who brought Renaissance to France. And he build a castle that was home of the kings there. So that's the first thing like that extreme cultural (word?) from like all the kings and the court and stuff like that. Impressionism was born there, D'jango Reinhardt also living there, the last, maybe, 10 years of his life or something like that.

WREMBELHe really -- once he find it, he never left.

NNAMDIYou say that your life changed when you were a teenager, when you discovered the music of D'jango Reinhardt.

WREMBELExactly, yeah.

NNAMDIWhat was it about D'jango that struck such a chord with you?

WREMBELIt's actually because of this whole area has, like, such -- there is a certain color to it, a certain impression. And D'jango Reinhardt fits exactly in that impression. So suddenly through my whole childhood, everything was innate and I was also obsessed with rock, like '70s rock and there is also, like, that energy in this music. So I don't know. It's like that whole thing, you know. And there's also a very important component of it, is the first time I witnessed the gypsies play. They sit down, they take a guitar, one guy start to strum a few chords, the other guy take another guitar.

WREMBELThey start soloing and then suddenly there's a song. Another guys comes, sits down and suddenly you have incredible music and they play song after song. There is no preparation or attitude. It's, like, purely, you sit down and you play and I really was impressed by that.

NNAMDIWhen did you first pick up a guitar and how did you learn?

WREMBELI started the guitar at the age of 15 and my first influence was my uncle who was, like, a blues guitar player and that's how I started.

NNAMDIBut you were classically trained beginning at the age of 4, but there was something about the gypsies and D'jango Reinhardt that taught you about improvisation that you couldn't possibly learn in any kind of formal training.

WREMBELIt's true. There is -- the gypsies, they go directly to the heart of improvisation and the heart of the guitar. They don't know anything about theory, about reading notes or anything like that. It's just, they know how to play. And improvisation is a state of mind. So you can master, like -- you can be classically trained and master, like, all the elements of music, like, arpeggio's, scales, whatever, harmony. You can be, like, so good at that, but not be able to improvise because it's just a state of mind. And the gypsies have perfect control of that state of mind.

NNAMDIAnd, of course, they were a great influence on D'jango Reinhardt. He's associated with gypsy culture also. Can you play us something that's, say, in the spirit of D'jango Reinhardt?

NNAMDISure. I will play you one of my new compositions. It's going to be on my new album. It's not released yet. And it's called "Tree of Life."

NNAMDILadies and Gentlemen, Stephane Wrembel.

NNAMDILadies and Gentlemen, Stephane Wrembel. He joins us in studio. If you'd like to join the conversation, you can call us at 800-433-8850 or go to our website, kojoshow.org, join the conversation there. You can even send us a tweet @kojoshow. Stephane, you learned a lot about the gypsy musical style, the old fashioned way, by living in gypsy camps, playing alongside of gypsy musicians. What did you learn about gypsy culture from all the time you spent in those camps?

WREMBELThe first thing you learn is, if you're not a gypsy, you will never know what it is to be a gypsy, kind of. The keep, like, their lifestyle very secret. And they can tell you something, you never know if it's true or not true. You never know, like, if they tell you something and they do the contrary or not. So every time it's, like, it's very blurry. You never know what's going on. But as my experience on a (word?), on a (word?), is they are very welcoming.

WREMBELWhen -- once you're invited, they are very welcoming, very charming, nice, great hospitality, everyone is so great. And they absolutely love music. Like, it's crazy. We would spend, like, days, like, 10, 12 hours in a row playing outside and everyone was, like, around us listening to the music. Like, drinking and, like, really passionate about music, living the music.

NNAMDIWhat did that time do -- with gypsy musicians, what did that time do for your own improvisational techniques?

WREMBELWell, I spent like many years -- actually, I was -- spent many years, like, going to the gypsy camps north of Paris, and I was also learning with some of the masters like, Serge Krief, Angelo Debarre, Moreno. And on the other -- on the other side, I was also like learning formal jazz training improvisation. And so it was funny because I evolved with these two things in parallel, and they are completely different, like really different.

NNAMDIShow us how. Can you play something with a distinctively gypsy style?

WREMBELYou want us to play a song?

NNAMDIYeah.

WREMBELOkay. Let's play (unintelligible). Okay.

NNAMDIThe sounds of Stephane Wrembel. And accompanying him is David Langlois on percussion, David Spreranza on bass, and Roy Williams on guitar. We're going to take a short break, but before that, you should know that Stephane and his band are playing live tonight at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. That's 1333 H Street Northeast. Fewer than 10 tickets are left, for what will surely be a sold-out show. For more information, you can go to AtlasArts A-T-L-A-S-A-R-T-S dot org. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.

NNAMDIWelcome back. We're talking with Stephane Wrembel. He's a guitarist from Fontainebleau, France. His credits include the musical theme from the recent Woody Allen film, "Midnight in Paris." Stephane, you describe your music as impressionist, that your third album, "Terre Des Hommes," is an impressionist work. A lot of people automatically think of visual art when they hear the phrase impressionist. They think of Monet. They think of Renoir, Monet. What does impressionism mean to you in musical terms?

WREMBELSo the inventor of impressionism in music is Claude Debussy. He's really, like, the one that started, like, bringing new colors and he kind of invented film scoring right there. Like, if you listen to "La Mer," for example, "The Sea," his three-part piece, you can totally like imagine the sea, like the movement of the sea. It's very -- like you -- you could make a movie out of the music, you know. It's the same thing. It's like the ideas you have to have a theme in head and the music should go along with the theme or something like that.

NNAMDICan you give us a sense? Can you play for us? Can you give a sense for what musical impressionism actually sounds like?

WREMBELSo for example, these are things I will develop by (unintelligible) on the guitar. You have -- you use, like, elements that -- it's called, like, whole tone and (unintelligible) that were used by -- by Claude Debussy, you know. So you have effects like (SOUND BITE of music) . Like mysterious colors like that. We could play, I guess -- for example, I have a song called "Nanoc," which has also some almost Middle Eastern influences and stuff.

WREMBELAnd it's something -- it tries to be -- I try to keep it like as spiritual as possible, you know, as close to the impressionist color. So it's supposed to inspire the mind to travel a little bit instead of just notes.

NNAMDIAre you down with that, Dave, Roy, David?

UNKNOWN MALEYeah.

NNAMDIOkay. Let's do it.

MALELet's do it.

NNAMDIStephane Wrembel on guitar, Roy Williams on guitar, David Langlois on percussion, and Dave Spreranza on bass. Gentlemen, you are all just excellent. Stephane, we should notice that today is, in fact, July 14. It's Bastille Day, la fete nationale. So in the spirit of celebrating the birth of modern France, what can you tell us what comes to mind for you when you think of French music?

WREMBELFrench music?

NNAMDIYes.

WREMBELThe first name that comes to me, of course, is Debussy in terms of history, and also D'jango. These are the two guys. And also some other worlds are like, of course, impressionism, but also romanticism and -- I don't know. There are the words that come to mind right away.

NNAMDIIt's my understanding that you don't like it when people call your music gypsy jazz. What is it about that phrase, gypsy jazz, that rubs you the wrong way?

WREMBELOoh, okay.

NNAMDIWhere can I start, huh?

WREMBELYes. Okay. So what disturbs me a lot in this is the word jazz. Because this music has no style, per se. The difference on jazz is because jazz is a certain form of improvisation. So you can learn from jazz. Anyone can learn from jazz -- can learn to improvise from these techniques. That doesn't mean that the music is jazz. D'jango is more like an ethnic type of music.

WREMBELIt's more like -- it would fall into world music or something like that. It's like -- to me, it's very universal, which means there is a pop aspect to it with, like, a street-like rhythm guitar going on. And the rhythm is very clear, and there's something very pop about that. And also, of course, the jazz influences and the complexity of the improvisation, but it is also that strong ethnic gypsy background that we found, those colors, you know, that are, like, so important.

WREMBELIt goes down to -- it comes back all the way from India a thousand years ago where the gypsies came from. The techniques that I use on the guitar nowadays, they still come from like India, from Middle East, from the (word?) technique. There's a mix of so many things, of so many styles, and there is something else. When someone says jazz, okay, it's like jazz is jazz. We know it's Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, like two of the big names -- or Herbie Hancock. This is jazz. This is a world. D'jango is D'jango. Like, I don't know...

NNAMDIHe's a genre unto himself, yes.

WREMBELExactly. He created his -- it's like Debussy created impressionism, you know. D'jango created that whole -- that style. So I call it D'jango's music or D'jango-style (word?) . But I never call it gypsy jazz. I think it's like a word that, you know, I remember this experience. I said to my neighbor a few years ago in Brooklyn, she said, what music do you play?

WREMBELI just met her. I say, gypsy jazz. She's like, oh, I don't like jazz. I was just like...

NNAMDIAh.

WREMBEL...ah, okay. That's it. But then after you have to explain, but it's not - it's not jazz. It's not at all. It's like acoustic guitar. She's like -- it took her more than a year to come to a gig. And then she comes and she's like -- she comes to me and she's like, Stephane, do me a favor, never this music jazz anymore, because this is not jazz. And so -- and I remember that I was like really impressed. And then she kept on coming. Every week, she brought people.

WREMBELShe got excited, and I realized that in the mind of people, jazz is Miles Davis (unintelligible) . But what we do is not jazz.

NNAMDII think we get it. It's gotten hard to untangle the guitar, however, from its place in rock and roll. I hear that you're a particular fan of the band Pink Floyd. What is it about Pink Floyd that appeals to you, and how has Pink Floyd influenced you as a guitar player?

WREMBELI started the guitar actually because I wanted to play Pink Floyd songs. It's still my favorite band ever. I just went to see Roger Waters 12 times performing "The Wall." I went (unintelligible) place. I just -- I don't know. For some reason, it's a -- there is that perfection in the sound, in the compositions, and the songwriting is so incredible from Roger Waters. I don't know. It's just everything in this band I think is, like, so incredible, so amazing.

NNAMDIYou've got a record label called Water is Life, and you've chosen water as an object of philanthropy in your life, Stephane. Why water?

WREMBELWell, I don't really know why. I'm a Pisces so I guess, like, I have a little thing, like a psychological thing with water. I don't know.

NNAMDIWell...

WREMBELYou just have to choose one cause. You cannot run after all the causes in the world. You cannot, like, save the Amazon forest, and help hunger, and water, and air, and everything. You have to choose one, you know, so...

NNAMDIThe motto of our water utility, DC Water is Water is Life. So that's good enough. We're running out of time, but I've been told that you guys came ready to play a piece that you would categorize as hot swing.

WREMBELOkay.

NNAMDICan you close us out with that?

WREMBELSure.

NNAMDIDavid looks puzzled, but he'll fall -- he'll fall in.