Bayou Manouche is a New Orleans gypsy jazz band playing a range of up-tempo hot jazz, bal-musettes — originally a stylized French waltz — and lively swing instrumental and vocal standards. The band draws on the music of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, who created a new and distinctive sound in Europe in the 1930s.
The core lineup includes Adolph Lopez (guitar), Jesse Lamarca (guitar), Clare McKinley (violin), and Victoria Budlong (bass), with occasional guest performers. Their set list runs from "Nuages" and "Djangology" to American songbook standards the manouche tradition adopted along the way — "Blue Skies," "Lady Be Good," "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen."
Bayou Manouche is an active French Quarter working band, holding regular spots around the city — WWOZ listings show them at May Baily's Place, Seawitch Restaurant & Oyster Bar, and d.b.a. on Frenchmen Street — and they can play acoustically or with a small PA. (No commercial recordings have surfaced as of 2026; this is a live gigging band.)
