If you’re wondering how to say it, Zzymzzy rhymes with “whimsy”. Taking its name from the last word in the dictionary, San Diego’s Zzymzzy Quartet can be considered the last word in Gypsy Jazz, played like it used to be: unamplified, melodic, swinging, dreamy, and full of sly surprise. Think of the glory days of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington recaptured humbly and with humor, because “it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing”! The Gypsy sound is heard in much of the guitar work, heavily influenced by the stylings of French Gypsy jazz legend Django Reinhardt, but the group also pays tribute to the Swing Era with classic standards and idiomatic originals.