Did anyone see the doc on Django?

[mandodebbie]

Maybe the Bravo channel is just in Canada (pity), but I saw and taped a documentry called Djangomania. Apparently, people all over the world are going wild about learning how to play his stuff. That he only fretted with two remaining fingers (his caravan caught on fire in his twenties) was quite inspiring and made me feel better about the limitations of my teeny-tiny hands. And he only lived to 43 year old. Unfortunately, the only evidence of mandos in this show was a cartoon of a cat playing mando on somebody's computer.

[John Rosett]

sadly, the bravo channel in the u.s. doesn't show stuff like that. i guess not too long ago bravo in canada had a documentary on andy statman too. bravo u.s has shows like "celebrity poker deathmatch" or some other awful tripe.
will you make me a copy of the tape? you didn't tape andy also did you?
one of my favorite django style releases lately is "franco-american swing" by john jorgenson. no mandolin content, although he's also a great mandolin player.

[Ted Eschliman]

Yes, he is John. He also has great taste in equipment...

[SternART]

And John ripped a long clarinet solo at a recent gig at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland, where Grisman
shared the bill, and joined his band for a set each night. The fact that he could swing like that on
clarinet was VERY impressive....Jorgenson's band is stellar, but for me it really got interesting when
Grisman was added to the mix! John takes a nice guitar solo on Tone Poets too.......

[Spruce]

And don't forget his work with Elton John....

What ever happened to the movie about Django with John in the lead role?

[Scott Tichenor]

What ever happened to the movie about Django with John in the lead role?

It's called Head In The Clouds and it's a marvelous movie with plenty of good music and cameo appearance by John Jorgenson dressed up as Django along with a quintet playing Django's music note for note (those cuts on Jorgenson's latest CD which is a treasure). For those of you with small children a word of advice--it ain't no kid movie. I'm no prude but this one had my wife and I hopping up saying "OK, Shannon, how we do an art project in the kitchen?"

Head In The Clouds

[Spruce]

Thanks!

Just stuck in on my Netflix cache...

[glauber]

It's probably worth mentioning, the Woody Allen / Sean Penn movie "The Sweet Lowdown" is an oblique tribute to Django, and it has excellent (IMHO) guitar playing in it. I enjoyed it. I forgot who was playing the guitar, but a quick googling says it was Howard Alden. I hadn't heard of him before - he's good.

I also have great taste in equipment.

[Scott Tichenor]

Howard Alden on guitar for Sweet Lowdown. Beautiful soundtrack for that movie as well and a very enjoyable flick. Highly recommended.

[jefflester]

But very poor guitar miming from Sean Penn in Sweet Lowdown.

[jmcgann]

I have a bunch of lessons on Gypsy Jazz Mando

Soloing and rhythm playing concepts, etc.

[mikeomando]

The name of the Woody Allen flick is "Sweet and Lowdown". The soundtrack CD is very nice.

[Ted Eschliman]

Little known Django trivia...

[sunburst]

"Disclaimer: In the 'Information Age' of the 21st Century, any fool with a computer, a modem, and an idea can become a self-professed 'expert." This site does not come equipped with 'discernment.' "

Love that fine print...