French gypsy jazz virtuosos La Mauvaise Reputation square off against the Turkish gypsy rhythms of Sultan in Australia’s first East-meets-West Gypsy Showdown.

Featuring the high-speed gypsy shredding of internationally-acclaimed manouche guitarist Jon Delaney, La Mauvaise Réputation perform up-tempo French gypsy swing from the classic Django Reinhardt repertoire with accordion and double-bass. All songs are sung exclusively in French and chosen from the very best of such greats as Edith Piaf and Serge Gainsbourg.

Sultan is a hand-picked quartet made up of members of Middle Eastern music specialists Unified Gecko. The band uses traditional instruments such as the baglama, bouzouki, bendir, darbuka, davul and req to explore the ancient sounds of Turkey, Anatolia and The Old World – the roots of gypsy. Their performance is truly a journey from the shores of the Black Sea to the Arabic peninsula and North Africa.