AND AFTER DJANGO, FREDDY

As requested in a Comment recently, here's the entry on Freddy Koella from The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia. I see that I mentioned Django Reinhardt here too:

Koella, Freddy [1958 - ]
Frederic Koella was born on October 16, 1958 in Mulhouse, France, where he grew up. He first started listening to Bob Dylan when in his twenties. He was a crucial guitarist on three albums by the cajun singer-songwriter Zachary Richard - Snake Bite Love (1992), Cap Enragé (1996) and Couer Fidèle (1999), the first of these recorded in New Orleans and the others in Paris. In 1996 he had two tracks (‘Back to New Orleans’ and ‘A Man’s Gotta Do’) on the Various Artists album Everybody Slides, Vol. 2.

Playing both guitar and violin, he has also toured with Doctor John and Willy DeVille, in whose band he played from 1990 to 2002; he has played on numerous albums (including DeVille’s 1996 album Loup Garou) and produced the Richard Gilly album Le Nouveau Monde (2000), the eponymously-titled Kenny Edwards (2002), and Miracle Mule by the Subdudes (2004). Koella also plays featured guitar on Bjorn Schaller’s ‘Mandarin’ on the soundtrack of Eric Byler’s 2002 movie Charlotte Sometimes. In 2005 he rejoined Willy DeVille but also produced his own début album, the instrumental Minimal, which, suprisingly, is all acoustic guitar. But more important than any of that, he was, from 2003-4, a member of Bob Dylan’s Never-Ending Tour Band.

And how. Freddy (as he prefers to spell it) was Dylan’s best-ever lead electric guitarist (and just might be the best electric guitarist altogether since the heyday of Hubert Sumlin). ROBBIE ROBERTSON was near sublime - the next best, a very close second - but Freddy was better. And in THE BAND all the other musicians were crucial too, whereas in Dylan’s band Freddy had to carry the whole front line.

Of course you could say MIKE BLOOMFIELD was right up there, but he was, though a virtuoso, essentially more limited (Dylan had to tell him, for ‘Like A Rolling Stone’, to play ‘none of that B.B. King shit’); and G.E. SMITH was terrific, but safe. You never wondered excitedly what he might do next. Whereas Freddy played by living on the edge, like Bob, fusing Django Reinhardt and CARL PERKINS and playing as if it were 1957 now. He was the electric lead guitarist Dylan himself would have been, had Dylan ever bothered to master the instrument.

Tragically, Koella’s stint with the Never-Ending Tour Band was all too brief. In February 2003, the band was rehearsing in Los Angeles and looking for a guitarist to replace CHARLIE SEXTON. Koella says he ‘was lucky enough to get invited to one of the rehearsals, and that’s how it started.’ He first played with them in Dallas, Texas on April 18, 2003 - it was the opening night of the first US leg of that year’s touring - and his last performance was just under a year later, on April 14, 2004 in Atlanta, Georgia. He played a total of 121 Dylan concerts and - like bass-player KENNY AARONSON before him - was forced out through illness. He has recovered fully now.

If you can, listen to ‘Watching The River Flow’ and ‘Memphis Blues Again’ from the concert in Graz, Austria, on October 26, 2003. There is Freddy Koella’s genius.

[Freddy Koella: Minimal, nia, Minimal, US, 2005. Zachary Richard: Snake Bite Love, New Orleans, 1992, A&M 75021 5387 2, 1992; Cap Enragé, Paris, 1995, Initial ADCD 10093, 1996; Couer Fidèle, Paris, 1999, nia, 1999. Willy DeVille: Loup Garou, Discovery 77040, US (East-West 24562, Germany), 1996. Various Artists: Everybody Slides, Vol. 2, Rykodisc, 1996.]