Happy Birthday - Django Reinhardt

[Scott Tichenor]

Born today, January 23, 1910.

[MikeEdgerton]

There's a song or a movie or something in that subject line.

[RichM]

Django has been a musical hero of mine for years. He defined a genre of music, despite living only a short time and a suffering a debilitating injury to his left hand that would have ended most musician's careers. It's a shame there is so little surviving video of him; the one Scott has linked above is virtually the only video that has synchronized sound. I played a little gypsy jazz guitar before becoming so thoroughly enamored with the mandolin, and always found that Django's percussive style translated very well to the mando.

[Dave Greenspoon]

I've been listening to the 5 CD bpx set of The Early Recordings. He and Grapelli are not yet 30 when they were first recording together. Simply amazing music, and incredible musicianship. I could swear that I have heard some of their riffs in some Western Swing; their Hot Club sound is an influence simply beyond appreciation.

[woodwizard]

He can play pretty good for just using 2 fretting fingers... Just think if could have been able to use all 4 fingers. Wow! Django's the man!

[Ted Eschliman]

Highly recommended book; a terrific read with insights into what shaped the man and his music: Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend by Michael Dregni

[Ken Olmstead]

Nothing beats an original! I love the guy! Happy b-day Django!

[John McGann]

For the completist, there are 20 2-CD boxed set from an outfit called Audio Archive in France that has reissued everything Django played on- prolific! Some of my favorite stuff is from 1947, when he returned to France, disillusioned from a short stay in the USA (toured w/ Ellington and had a steady gig in NYC for a few months)...as well as dozens of tracks for various labels, there were live in the studio recordings for the "Surprise Party" radio show in Paris, which I think are the equivalent of the Bob Wills Tiffany Transcriptions- freewheelin' improvisations that are SO logically constructed as to be miniature compositions in themselves- devastating beauty IMHO. The Wills and other Western Swing crews were very aware of Django, Charlie Christian and all the modern jazz players of the day- even Chubby Wise on the first Bluegrass Boys recordings sounds Stephane influenced.

Djangobooks.com has them and is a great site for all things Django.

If your Django experience is totally Hot Club centric (which is fantastic too!), check out some mid and later period Django- he was an open minded, progressive player with profound musicality (and pretty good chops for a guy with 2 usable fingers for melody playing!)

[John McGann]

He can play pretty good for just using 2 fretting fingers... Just think if could have been able to use all 4 fingers. Wow! Django's the man!

The cool thing is he didn't need four fingers! He invented a way of playing that allowed him to unlock what he had inside and get it on the instrument- as far as I know, he never complained or wished he had more fingers to use; in fact, it seems he was quite proud of himself. I don't get the impression that he felt limited in any way (once he recovered from the fire and started playing with Grappelli, anyway).

If you work out any of his solos and try to suss out how he had to finger them (yes, I use the slow downer!!!) you see that he had incredible command of a vertical (along the length of the string vs. the usual horizontal, across the strings position playing that is standard guitar technique) approach and a deep understanding of melodic harmony.

Some of the lines are easier to play with two fingers, which is why you'll see some latter day Gypsies switch in and out of 2, 3 and 4 finger playing depending on the phrases.

[AlanN]

Was watching the old ACL show with Grisman band and Tiny and Jethro. They do Swing 39 and Tiny says something about everybody loves Django, or something like that. There's the story of when Dave Appolon heard Jethro play, he remarked that he (J) was influenced by Django, as were many cats. Dave Peters comes to mind.

[John McGann]

The great jazz guitarist Jimmy Raney (once a roommate of Tal Farlow) once said of Django "That's not guitar, that's mandolin"...like the ultimate insult from someone who thought he was more 'modern' than Django!

Jimmy was a bit fond of the gargle, though, so maybe he was just cranky that day...

[Larry S Sherman]

Happy Birthday Django! Thanks for the inspiration.

I love Django's musical legacy and the amazing array of gypsy jazz music that has flowed from it. The music really came alive for me after attending Django in June, which featured John McGann as mando instructor for the last two years. (This year the mando track will be handled by Jaime Masefield).

There's something magical about hearing gypsy jazz being played live that transcends the scratchy 78 transfers and makes the whole genre more real. I'm glad it is still vital after all of these years.

Larry

[Miko]

I've always thought the best comment on Django came from Barro Ferret, one of Django's chief rivals as a guitarist in Paris in the 30s. (Along with Oscar Aleman (sp?) Barro finally gave up the guitar to become a professional criminal, (Gypsies had a limited number of career paths), because he felt he just couldn't compete with the master. "Django doesn't scare me technically", Barro has been quoted as saying, (If you've heard Barro play you realize that's probably true.), "but he has ideas that I will never have."

[AlanN]

The great jazz guitarist Jimmy Raney (once a roommate of Tal Farlow) once said of Django "That's not guitar, that's mandolin"...like the ultimate insult from someone who thought he was more 'modern' than Django!

Jimmy was a bit fond of the gargle, though, so maybe he was just cranky that day...

That's funny. And Tal actually started on mandolin ('though tuned it like a uke).

The Greats vs. The Greats. Didn't Charlie Parker have a cymbal thrown at him, and Satchmo - of all people - call Bebop Chinese music? Seems sometimes like a p*$$-ing contest.

[Ted Eschliman]

When Gypsy Jazz legend and jazz innovator Django Rheinhardt made his American tour in 1946, his stops in the mid-western towns of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska have been documented. What has never been recorded or publicized, a subsequent side-trip to Lawrence, Kansas, where negotiations for a future "Blue Ridge Mountain Gypsy Boys" tour east with Bluegrass innovator, Bill Monroe broke down. Reinhardt quipped, "Oui, la musique de Bluegrass peut etre confortable, mais je ne pourrais pas traiter les combinaisons de bavoir... Meme un bohemien a des normes." (Yes, Bluegrass music may be comfortable, but I could not deal with the bib overalls... Even a Gypsy has standards.)

Tristement, sa perte...


Pictured: Bill Monroe, Ninine Tichenor (Grandfather of mandolin web author pioneer and celebrity), and Django Rheinhardt.

Tout que vous lisez sur l'Internet est vrai!
(Everything you read on the internet is true.)

[Ken Olmstead]

Ted, that's just wrong! I dare ya to move it to the bluegrass forum!


John, thanks for your input. Insightful as always!

[John McGann]

anyone got tabs for ""Blue Ridge Mountain Gypsy Boys" ?

[woodwizard]

Who said two finger chords are for beginers

[John McGann]

Who said two finger chords are for beginers

Believe it or not, Django used his thumb and the 'claw' (two fingers together and not independent, but could be clamped down on the fingerboard) to play voicings like this for a G6:

355455

thumb/middle barring 2 strings/1st/3rd/4th

Michael Horowitz' "Gypsy Rhythm" book/CD set has some excellent info on this aspect of Django and his heirs.

[mandopete]

Sorta proves the old notion of it not what you've got, it's what you can do with what you're given.

BTW - who is the fiddler?

[AlanN]

In the referenced video? A young and hip Stephane Grappelli. Oh, you must mean in the photo...I say Roy Acuff.

[Scott Tichenor]

... and passed away on this date in 1953. Thought some of you might enjoy some of the posts above, and I'll second Ted's recommendation on that book. It's a great one.

[journeybear]

Thanks for the bump! You can never have enough Django. And thank goodness and everyone else involved that so many recordings were made of him. Unlike many musical geniuses from earlier days, before the technology existed, whose musical prowess could only be talked or written about but is otherwise lost to the ages, his music can be heard and appreciated and cause thrills and amazement forever.

His name came up just this past Monday night when Wilie Nelson was on the Jimmy Fallon show. During the interview segment a couple minutes were devoted to talking about his guitar, Trigger, with a lot of close-up views, and Willie said he was attracted to it because it was very similar to what Django used, and he loved his tone - and its tone, too. Somehow, in all the decades of listening to his playing, I hadn't made that connection. Now I've got it. What a wide-ranging influence and appeal!

I hope this is the same clip that has been removed. If not, it'll do. It sure will!

[Eliot Greenspan]

I've always thought the best comment on Django came from Barro Ferret, one of Django's chief rivals as a guitarist in Paris in the 30s. (Along with Oscar Aleman (sp?) Barro finally gave up the guitar to become a professional criminal, (Gypsies had a limited number of career paths), because he felt he just couldn't compete with the master. "Django doesn't scare me technically", Barro has been quoted as saying, (If you've heard Barro play you realize that's probably true.), "but he has ideas that I will never have."

I'm late to this thread, and happy RIP Django day to all. The above reminds me of the very fun Woody Allen movie w/ Sean Penn as a 1940s jazz guitarist repeatedly trying to pick up chicks with the line "I'm the greatest guitar player in the world... well, there's this gypsy in France."

[Scott Tichenor]

http://www.hotclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6113