Reinhardt & Grappelli CD: I Got Rhythm. European Gypsy Jazz Guitar & Violin. Restored From The Original Recordings
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Reinhardt & Grappelli CD: I Got Rhythm. European Gypsy Jazz Guitar & Violin. Restored From The Original Recordings
Django Reinhardt ranks even yet as amongst the most creative of European jazz musicians.
Reinhardt was born into a wandering gypsy family on the Belgian frontier. Music, particularly guitar music, was part of everyday life and at twelve Django, self-taught, mastered the banjo-guitar in an amazingly short time. He was hooked.
The creation of The Quintet Of The Hot Club Of France happened almost by accident in the dressing room of the Hotel Claridge in Paris on the Champs-Elysees. Django and Stephane Grappelli were working in the same band there and one evening before a performance Django was plucking at his guitar when Stephane joined in on violin.
By 1939 the QHCF was going from strength to strength; both Django and Stephane had become more daring and adventurous and the rhythm section's backing was more subtle. The outbreak of war on 3 September found the unit in London. Stephane remained for the duration; Django risked taking a boat back to France. The great days of The Quintet Of The Hot Club Of France were over.
From 1946, firstly in London and later in Paris there were reunions between Django and Stephane but, with a few exceptions, these had lost their pre-war edge. Django died, aged only 43, in 1953 but his rich legacy of recordings proves time and time again that he was not only a virtuoso but a genius.