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Django Reinhardt and his music have endured.

The loose-limbed gypsy jazz sound has been in regular revival since its World War II-era heyday, including a Woody Allen-Sean Penn collaboration in the late '90s and the latest swing-dance surge.

And John Sandlin and his mates in Le Chat Lunatique are bringing the Reinhardt sound to Albuquerque this weekend with Djangofest.

Tonight and Saturday, nine bands will make the scene, alternating between the St. Clair Winery and Bistro (from 6:30 to 9:30 each night) and Puccini's Golden West (after 10 each night).

Jazz guitarist Howard Alden is the headliner. He is known for playing the music that Sean Penn pantomimed in the 1999 Woody Allen film "Sweet and Lowdown."

Other bands include: Carute Roma from Durango; Mango Fan Django from Colorado Springs; Albuquerque acts Felix y Los Gatos and Sweet and Lowdown; and Hot Club of Phoenix and Hot Club of Santa Fe. (Reinhardt's famous group was called the Quintet of the Hot Club of France.)

Reinhardt was a Gypsy from Belgium who avoided Nazi capture and lit up Paris during World War II with violinist Stephane Grappelli, crafting an infectious form of jazz swing. Reinhardt led a hard life. He was injured in a fire at age 18, losing the use of two fingers on his left hand (he worked the frets with just his middle and ring fingers). He died at age 43 of a brain hemorrhage.

What explains the ongoing appeal?

"It's just how innovative and how ahead of his time he was," Sandlin said. "You listen to the same era of American singers, and there are great players like Charlie Christian and Freddie Green - jazz was moving and people were still finding their way through it - but Django was settled and perfected."

Reinhardt was notorious for his petulance.

"He was a character - unreliable, childish - he wouldn't show up for his shows," Sandlin said. "If Stephane Grappelli soloed for too long, Django would put down his guitar and leave the bandstand."

And the legend has endured.

"He had amazing popularity and success," Sandlin said, "and it's amazing he wasn't carted off in the first wave by the Nazi regime."

The band members in Le Chat Lunatique have been living Django-style for two years, down to the snappy suits and Sandlin's wispy mustache.

"It's sort of perpetuating an era," Sandlin said. "People are always nostalgic about that time. People dressed in suits and fedoras, and ladies were ladies."

Other band members are Muni Kulasinghe on violin; Jared Putnam on stand-up bass; and Fernando Garavito on drums.

Sandlin said he discovered Reinhardt's music while studying classical and jazz guitar at UNM.

"It's one of those things, you're playing guitar and you're a teenager - you hear his name but you're paying more attention to Jimi Hendrix."

Last year, the first New Mexico Djangofest was held in Santa Fe. This year, Sandlin said, he picked up the ball and worked with his guitar sponsor, Manouche, and its rep, Robert Brochey, to keep the festival alive and bring it to Albuquerque.

In addition to the shows, Alden will conduct a workshop Saturday afternoon Downtown at Hotel Blue. The agenda will be freeform, tailored to the participants, Sandlin says.

"He's an improviser, so he'll improvise the workshop as he goes."

Alden was scheduled to conduct a workshop Thursday for students at the University of New Mexico, where Sandlin earned his degree in classical music in 2003.

"My teachers (at UNM) were instrumental in my musical development, so I wanted to bring that back for them," Sandlin said.

Members of Le Chat Lunatique also have been visiting Albuquerque Public Schools as a run-up to the festival. Sandlin says he and his bandmates want to continue that outreach.

He says even schoolkids can find a connection to Reinhardt when they hear those 70-year-old songs.

When the band starts to Django, Sandlin reports: "They say, 'That sounds like that song from "Ratatouille"!' "