"Piccadilly Stomp" is a composition by the legendary French jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli, performed on Nora Germain's 2024 album Postcards from Violin Mountain. The tune's 32-bar AABA form in the key of D is taken at a lively swing tempo of approximately 276 beats per minute, placing it squarely in the tradition of hot jazz violin playing that Grappelli pioneered alongside guitarist Django Reinhardt in the Quintette du Hot Club de France during the 1930s. Germain delivers two exhilarating choruses of violin improvisation that honor this tradition while reflecting her own contemporary sensibility. Her playing combines the rhythmic vitality and melodic charm of the gypsy jazz idiom with a broader jazz vocabulary that draws from the entire history of improvised music. Guitarist Miles Jensen follows with a one-chorus solo that complements the violin-guitar interplay central to this musical tradition. Jensen's playing evokes the spirit of Reinhardt while maintaining a thoroughly modern approach to the instrument. By opening the album with a Grappelli composition, Germain makes a clear statement about the lineage she inhabits as a jazz violinist while establishing that she has the technical facility and creative imagination to carry that tradition forward into the present day.
