Jimmy Hall

For the Leader

A string of appearances have been slated from December to February for a unique blend of “gypsy jazz.”

Bainbridge Island-based Ranger and the Re-Arrangers are not newcomers to the Olympic Peninsula. Its leader and namesake, Ranger Sciacca, said the band has performed in the region about once a month. In November, they were at the Sequim Elks Lodge for a swing dance, which they will reprise at Port Townsend’s lodge in January.

“Port Townsend is just a great town for music,” Sciacca said. “There are always enthusiastic crowds when we come to Port Townsend. People just seem relaxed and happy and get into the music.”

Sciacca called the Olympics his second home because hiking is his No. 1 hobby when he isn’t booking shows for the fluctuating lineup, which includes his father, Mike Sciacca, who plays rhythm guitar. The other “Re-Arrangers” are Dave Stewart on mandolin, Mick Nicholson on bass, Jeffrey Moose on percussion and Eric Vanderbilt-Mathews on clarinet and piano.

“We didn’t start out to start a band and perform all the time,” said Sciacca, who realized after he graduated from high school in 2005 that he and his father wouldn’t have as much of a chance to perform as a group in the future. 

The pair hired two musicians to record a CD. Sciacca wanted to put their sound on disc, thinking it would be the best they would sound.

But after a release party of their first CD, “Gypsy Moon,” and selling it whenever they could that summer, Sciacca received an increasing number of calls for gigs around the region. 

The sounds of “Gypsy Moon” were inspired by Django Reinhardt. The Sciaccas went to the Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival in Samois Sur Seine, France, to jam, and they were inspired to focus on Reinhart’s style.

When Ranger and Mike Sciacca returned, the rest of the band was summoned, and they eventually landed on their current lineup. Moose and Stewart met through the local scene and performed at coffee houses. That caught Sciacca’s attention, and he sat in with them at gigs they had lined up. Nicholson took over bass when the original player died.

Norm Johnson, Coyle resident and organizer for Concert in the Woods, has known the Sciaccas since Ranger was about 7. That’s when he was a budding fiddle student on Bainbridge Island. Their friendship endured when Ranger and the Re-Arrangers were looking to record their first EP. 

Johnson was the president of the Island Music Guild about the time the band was ready to put their songs on track at Rolling Bay.

“For me, it was the first time that I heard that type of ‘gypsy jazz,’ ” Johnson said. “At that time, it was a unique genre, mixing lively gypsy music with live improvisation. It’s always a bit different because each player adds their own talents to it. Depending on who’s there and their mood that day, you get this improvisation in this lively, gypsy-style music.”

Sciacca takes on the band as a full-time job, while the other members have jobs that range from a graphic designer to running an art gallery.

“We also joked that it plays into the ‘Ranger and the Re-Arrangers’ name,” said Sciacca, who added there have been regular sit-in musicians who perform when they visit those places for a show.

Sciacca began to play violin when he was 5, not due to an innate interest, but because his best friend was learning it, and it piqued his curiosity.

“My parents didn’t push me to play,” he said. “The only pushing they did was that they said, ‘If you want to keep playing, you have to keep playing between lessons.’ That was enough to keep me motivated.”

Mike Sciacca wasn’t fully invested in the band’s brand of gypsy jazz. Instead, Ranger Sciacca pushed him toward the genre.

“I kind of dragged my dad along with gypsy jazz,” Sciacca said with a laugh.

Along with the sounds of Reinhart, Ranger Sciacca also was influenced by fiddle tunes and Old Time Fiddlers Association’s Stuart Williams while he studied classical techniques and the Suzuki method. He also received a “Violin Jazz” CD as a gift, giving him a sample of all the great violin players, including Reinhardt. 

That inspired Sciacca to consider having the entire band play around the violin.

“That helped steer me with violin jazz,” Sciacca said, noting he enjoyed the ragtime tunes while the classical side was more centered around improv. “I think it has amazing energy. To me, it sounds positive and happy. Even the songs that are ballads, they don’t just sound sad. They have originality and improvisational and unexpected things.”

Ranger and the Re-Arrangers will perform from 8 to 11 p.m. Nov. 16 at the Cellar Door, 940 Water St. They will return for a show from 5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 1 at Finnriver Farm and Cidery, 124 Center Road in Chimacum. 

The swing dance will take place from 8-10:30 p.m. Jan. 18 at the Port Townsend Elks Lodge, 555 Otto St., followed by an appearance at Coyle’s Concert in the Woods at 3 p.m. Jan. 13 at the Laurel B. Johnson Community Center, 923 Hazel Point Road, Coyle. 

The band also will have a show from 8 to 11 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Pourhouse, 2231 Washington St.