Django Reinhardt

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go round to reading the sleeve notes to derek bailey's 'Ballads' rec today (they are mercifully brief). In it marc ribot talks abt Django.

What do you know abt him? what can you recommend?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 24 November 2002 21:12 (twenty-three years ago)

absolute genius. it boggles me he lost two fingers but could still play like that. the hot club stuff with grapelli is great but really as long as you can find anything with a copy of "minor swing" on it you'll be smitten. the opening of louis malle's "lacombe lucien" uses this and to me is near enough the perfect combination of music and images in film history

― chris browning (commonswings), Sunday, 24 November 2002 21:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Frank Whaley to thread!

― Andy K (Andy K), Sunday, 24 November 2002 21:21 (twenty-three years ago)

on the subway in nyc theres 2 blokes who do the reinhardt and grapelli thing down on the platforms, they're quie good. anyone seen these fellas?

― gareth (gareth), Sunday, 24 November 2002 21:29 (twenty-three years ago)

The first "electric guitar hero"? A swing-era guitar virtuoso. Of French origin. Lovely tone, phrasing, remarkably restrained. I have a compilation album as well as a 2-record comp of his contemporary Charlie Christian, which is great too.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 24 November 2002 22:06 (twenty-three years ago)

The answer is get anything at all by him, you can't go wrong with Django. A good one is Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club Quintet vol. 2, Jazz World Records #77020. There's another amazing batch of recordings packaged as "Django Reinhardt in Brussels" which is otherworldly. The sound quality is shit but that's because it was recorded in secret while the Nazis occupied Brussels. If that's not mad cred I don't know what is. Musically the earlier records with European bands are quite interesting because in them swing is almost an idealized form, and the players fill the gaps in their knowledge very creatively with their excellent command of European folk music . . . apart from Grapelli, how many jazz violinists could you name? Much of Django's style is explained by the fact that he was a violinist as well until he lost several fingers (in a Gypsy caravan fire, of all things).

― John Barlow (John Barlow), Monday, 25 November 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Re: Django - watch Allen's film. Buy the records. Be amazed. 'Souvenirs' is a good start and search out anything with Grappelli on board. Basically, the guy is a six string loon without being all 'look at me', even though the whole while he's pulling off super-rude licks and tricks, switching it around and swinging it like a hotel convention of wife-swappers.

― Roger Fascist (Roger Fascist), Monday, 25 November 2002 10:05 (twenty-three years ago)

thanks to all!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 25 November 2002 10:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Ahem, a certain central London record chain is currently selling an JSP 4 CD Django box set for £15 or so. I haven't heard it, but my flatmate has the JSP Armstrong Hot Fives and Sevens box, and the sound quality on that is really gd.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Monday, 25 November 2002 10:30 (twenty-three years ago)

oh really! well I might just turn up to that store sometime this week and get this and take it away with me to Goa on saturday. good tip off sez I!!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 25 November 2002 10:43 (twenty-three years ago)

His idiosyncratic gypsy and flamenco influences mean he stands outside the main jazz traditions. He was the major pre bop jazz guitarist, but his style didn't lend itself to being adapted for be-bop so the stylistically very different Charlie Christian became the main influence on bop and post-bop guitarists. For that reason (and because he played guitar rather than horn or piano) he has tended to be remembered mainly as a guitarist's guitarist rather than a great jazzer.

This is a shame, because quite apart from his phenomenal technique his facility for improvising beautiful and memorable melodic lines was as impressive as just about any musician in jazz history, on any instrument. It should be easy to find a cheap compilation that will at least let you know whether you want to explore further. It's interesting to compare him on his sessions with Stephane Grappelli. In some ways Grapelli is Django's counterpart on violin, staggering technique and consummate taste and musicianship, lionised even by classical violinists like Menuhin and Nigel Kennedy. But Grapelli's hit rate in terms of once-heard-never-forgotten melodic phrases doesn't come close to Django's.

― ArfArf, Monday, 25 November 2002 11:24 (twenty-three years ago)

an absolute genius...sadly grapelli never sounded as good on his own.

― mike (ro)bott, Tuesday, 26 November 2002 02:44 (twenty-three years ago)

By the way, did you know that Django only hand use of the first 2 fingers (pointer and the bird) of his fretting hand. His hand was severely burned or something. Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath was going to quit playing just as Sabbath was forming because his two middle fingers (the bird and ring finger) on the fretting hand got shortened by a few centimeters in a steel-press plant mishap, but then one of his friends made hime listen to Django and told him about Django only using 2 fingers, it blew Tony's mind, and thus we have "Iron Man" et. all.

I just made a Gypsy Jazz-70s Metal connection. Can you tell that my dad has kept every Guitar Player and Guitar World magazine to come out since like 78?

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 03:57 (twenty-three years ago)

that's a good connection helltime.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 10:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Also Lindsay Buckingham cites Django as a huge influence.

― gazza, Tuesday, 26 November 2002 10:11 (twenty-three years ago)

not electric guitar, i'm 99% certain

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 11:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark he played both. Exclusively acoustic pre 1946, tended to prefer electric thereafter. First played electric with Duke Ellington 1946.

― ArfArf, Tuesday, 26 November 2002 12:02 (twenty-three years ago)

thanx arfarf: seeing as i had in my head that he died in 1933, i think my djangology cd do with a bit of ruthless revision!!

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 12:16 (twenty-three years ago)

yr mixing him up with eddie lang, who did die in '33 of post-tonsillectomy complications.

― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 26 November 2002 12:24 (twenty-three years ago)

I think what Marc Ribot is referring to in the liners of the Bailey CD is a series of unaccompanied guitar improvisations that Django did. I have a couple of mp3s of solo Django (Improvision, Improvision 2 Pt. 1+2, Parfum and Echoes of Spain) and they're all excellent. I burned them off of an old cd from the library but I think the disc's out of print. I don't know if he recorded any more solo stuff or if they're compiled anywhere else. Definately seek out the first Improvisation, though. Try doing that with two fingers.

― James Annett, Tuesday, 26 November 2002 22:29 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

I bought that cheap 4cd box a while back but finally started giving it a good long listen recently. It's fucking great - especially disc 3. Goddamnit he just makes me bang my head against a wall and swear I'll never touch a guitar again. What a bastard.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 04:00 (twenty years ago)

I only recently discovered he was born in Belgium.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 04:06 (twenty years ago)

but he's a Rom/Gypsy ... so he isn't really "Belgian".

and if yer just going to start off by DL'ing a few songs go with 'Tears' and 'Nuages'. : )

― sonore (sonore), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 04:44 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

I have a couple albums, the one I listen to the most is that verve jazz masters one, and I listen to that one a lot. What else should I get?

― uh oh I'm having a fantasy, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 18:09 (seventeen years ago)

I'm seriously getting posting remorse from not bumping the judge reinhold vs. django reinhardt thread instead

― uh oh I'm having a fantasy, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 18:10 (seventeen years ago)

there is a box set called "classic early reocrdings" on JSP which is all anyone needs, I think.

― akm, Tuesday, 22 July 2008 19:49 (seventeen years ago)

Another vote for the JSP box set. Cheap, hot, and sweet.

― Brad C., Tuesday, 22 July 2008 20:48 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

I. CAN'T. STOP. LISTENING. TO. HIM!

― If I'm posting, I'm drunk. (PappaWheelie V), Saturday, 19 September 2009 19:59 (sixteen years ago)

if there was a cure, would you want it?

― hope this helps (Granny Dainger), Saturday, 19 September 2009 20:01 (sixteen years ago)

Like heroin, I can only request more at this stage.

Considering getting the latter Stephan catalog, but I know it'll be 'More American Graffiti' instead of more of what I want.

― If I'm posting, I'm drunk. (PappaWheelie V), Saturday, 19 September 2009 20:02 (sixteen years ago)

http://www.think-wize.com/twmedia/images/djangorelease/djangologie_wall.jpg

― ian, Saturday, 19 September 2009 20:30 (sixteen years ago)

four years pass...

Very curious to find out where a proper starting point would be! I've heard "Coucou" and adore it, "Djangology" sounds great too (is that him and a collaborator?).

― Gibbering Hard Gibberish Soft (Leee), Wednesday, 12 March 2014 05:02 (twelve years ago)

He was insane from day 1 and stayed that way till he croaked. All killer, no filler afaic.

― Yarli Simon (rattled), Wednesday, 12 March 2014 05:13 (twelve years ago)

one year passes...

It seems he survived his time in occupied France as a Roma because a lot of Nazis from the bottom to the top of the Wehrmacht were secret jazz lovers despite Goebbels denouncing jazz as "cultural bolshevism" amongst other racial epithets. Even when he got caught by occupation forces trying to sneak over the Swiss border, it turned out the commander was a fan and sent him back to Paris rather than the standard deportation to a death facility.

Sometimes I find a bit of D R can be a real tonic, he sounds so out of his era and so brilliant, a true original.

― xelab, Friday, 30 October 2015 22:40 (ten years ago)

Love his instrumental improvisations where you can hear all his gorgeously idiomatic phrasing and flourishes

― ogmor, Friday, 30 October 2015 23:10 (ten years ago)

he's so great

― mattresslessness, Friday, 30 October 2015 23:15 (ten years ago)

two months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh3_GKA6cVM
This is so beautiful

― calzino, Thursday, 31 December 2015 21:57 (ten years ago)

three years pass...

hey this guy is pretty good

― Οὖτις, Monday, 28 October 2019 19:45 (six years ago)

could play a bit could this lad

― calzino, Monday, 28 October 2019 21:15 (six years ago)

I think he's got big things ahead of him

― Οὖτις, Monday, 28 October 2019 21:16 (six years ago)

I wished he'd lived a bit longer, even just to the early 60's - a bit more into the album era.

― calzino, Monday, 28 October 2019 21:18 (six years ago)

the other day in the middle of some playlist I heard a track with Django on electric guitar and did a double take -- it was unmistakably him but the sound was startlingly modern

― Brad C., Monday, 28 October 2019 22:39 (six years ago)

Back many years ago I used to have this mixtape with some super amped-up Django track where he was just going nuts on an electric doing these crazy high speed solos, then it stopped on a dime and cut to “Love Comes In Spurts” by Richard Hell & the Voidoids and it was such a perfect transition.

― “Hakuna Matata,” a nihilist philosophy (One Eye Open), Monday, 28 October 2019 23:39 (six years ago)

three months pass...

i recommend this musical artist

― treeship., Tuesday, 28 January 2020 01:29 (six years ago)

― With considerable charm, you still have made a choice (Sund4r), Tuesday, 28 January 2020 01:46 (six years ago)

he was a miracle of the kind that might only happen once or twice a century.

― calzino, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 09:41 (six years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CDoJFmdFgA

― calzino, Tuesday, 28 January 2020 10:26 (six years ago)

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