Free jazz night on Abbot-Kinney channels Django Reinhardt

Gonzalo Bergara Quartet (EPK)

If your summer weekends have been one long parade of volleyball tournaments and aimless bar crawls, class up your act with live Gypsy Jazz this Friday at Abbot-Kinney's G2 Gallery.  With a week to go before the West side's boozing riff-raff swarm First Fridays (Dear boozing riff-raff: see you next weekend) G2 has commissioned the Gonzalo Bergara Quartet to perform a contemporary take on the Parisian sound of gypsy jazz.  Popularized by Django Reinhardt in the 1930's, the musical sub-genre is rarely learned via notated music; instead, musicians learn from their predecessors and build upon historical technique.  Bergara, an Argentinean guitar virtuoso, will perform with his band at 7pm following a reception at 6pm.  The event is free, open to the public, and allows a peek at G2's current exhibit, H2O, a stunning collection of water-based nature photography.  Pre-game at the gallery, then hit the Other Room or wander down to Santa Monica's Main Street for a night that starts out respectable, yet soon degenerates into the same old jazz.  G2 is located at 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd. in Venice.