PAUL VERNON CHESTER

Manouche Maestro
 

Django in Chicago - Lyric Opera House

Samuel Insull built this palace of a building in 1929 as a throne to himself. When the design began for this building that would contain both an opera house and dozens of offices, Insull allegedly asked the architect to make the building in the shape of a throne that faced west. According to local legend, Insull claimed that upon his death his spirit would sit in his "throne" where he could watch out over the growth of the city, much of which he spawned before dying virtually penniless and forgotten years later. Inside, the theatre is a traditional European-style opera house, filled with stacked balcony and side boxes.

The Civic Opera House in itself is a work of art, something that symbolizes strength, culture, and class in the city of Chicago. A building that is as sophisticated as the great opera houses in London, Paris, and Rome. Every time you step though those doors, your eyes fill with a magical almost overwhelming flood of excitement and wonder. The detail in the design shows the love, passion, the craftsmanship of the artists who built it.  Since its opening in 1929, the Civic Opera House was home to the Chicago Civic Opera, Chicago Grand Opera Company, Chicago City Opera Company and Chicago Opera Company.

Django Reinhardt
with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra
Shelton Hemphill, Harold Baker, Taft Jordan, Ray Nance, Cat Anderson (tp); Lawrence Brown, Wilbur de Paris, Claude Jones (tb); Russell Procope, Johnny Hodges (as); Jimmy Hamilton, Al Sears (ts); Harry Carney (bs); Duke Ellington (p); Django Reinhardt (g solo); Oscar Pettiford (b); Sonny Greer (dm)

Django Reinhardt - Guitar (CD 1 - tracks 15, Ride Red Ride (Tiger Rag) 16. A Blues Riff 17. Improvisation No2 and 18, Honeysuckle Rose
Chicago, The Civic Opera, January and November 1946

The Great Chicago Concerts. MusicMasters 65110-2. - Joseph Scott: "Vol. 20 by Django Reinhardt on Fremeaux reportedly has a more complete recording of Ride Red Ride: 2:47 instead of the edited 2:17."

Reinhardt only visited the United States once, in 1946, as a guest of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. A recording made during that tour, “A Blues Riff,” presents the listener with a complex negotiation of contrasting musical and cultural values. What we hear in this performance is not just a debate over what notes to play when, but over what philosopher Henri Lefebvre calls “representational spaces,” or the imaginative, symbolic transformations of lived spatial experience. This essay argues that the task of locating Reinhardt in jazz history requires a new theoretical appreciation for the material importance of space and place in the shaping of musical performance.

but the real treat is four tunes featuring jazz guitar pioneer Django Reinhardt. He's better heard than usual - thanks to shockingly good sound quality and frequent pauses by the orchestra - and he's incredible, now exploring complex harmonies, now tearing off rapid-fire blues riffs, never sounding tentative or hackneyed, he's the beginning and the end of jazz guitar ("Improvisation #2")

Ellington and his band were on tour throughout 1946 and this double set showcases two concerts given in Chicago at the beginning and the end of the year. The November set also saw the appearance of Django Reinhardt on a borrowed electric guitar and his presence on four tracks - essentially solo, with sketchy arrangements - is a must for those yet to have heard it.

Both CDs were recorded at Chicago's Civic Opera: the first on 10 November 1946; the second on 20 January 1946. They contain many familiar Ducal compositions but they also include several rarities: like the Deep South Suite on the first CD. This CD is also notable for the presence of guitarist Django Reinhardt. The Duke had met Django in Paris in 1939 and was very impressed with his musicianship. In his book Music is my Mistress, Ellington called him "A very great friend of mine, and one whom I regard as among the four great inimitables of our music".

Reinhardt certainly displays his greatness in four tracks, where he plays an electric guitar, on which he sounds like a cross between Charlie Christian and Les Paul. It makes a change from the chugging acoustic guitar we usually hear him playing. He shows his astonishing technique in Ride, Red, Ride (a variation of Tiger Rag), a long outing on the blues, and a ruminative unaccompanied Improvisation No. 2. The band joins in for Honeysuckle Rose, punching riffs behind Django's soloing.

November 10, 1946 ~ Civic Opera House, Chicago
Django Reinhardt with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra
Shelton Hemphill, Harold Baker, Taft Jordan, Ray Nance, Cat Anderson (tp); Lawrence Brown, Wilbur de Paris, Claude Jones (tb); Russell Procope, Johnny Hodges (as); Jimmy Hamilton, Al Sears (ts); Harry Carney (bs); Duke Ellington (p); Django Reinhardt (g solo); Oscar Pettiford (b); Sonny Greer (dm)
Blues Riff, Honeysuckle Rose, Improvisation #2, Ride,Red, Ride

Lincoln show - Lincoln had six big ballrooms and one was operated by Will Wittig: the "PLA-MOR" (the last one that is still on today). After Duke Ellington passage, Wittig declared that he will no more book big names for concerts as he only grossed $3.700 when Duke played there.

Another operator of the same area that booked Duke for the Kansas City concerts said that Duke played twice grossing $3.800 for a concert (with Django) but he added that he grossed $5.600 the following day for dance with the same orchestra (probably without Django).

The lack of radio promotion was one of the reasons why the concerts were not crowded, in the same area (Des Moines) the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra netted $9.500 with a good pre-advertising through radio and newspapers.

Jean Cocteau sums up the Reinhardt mystique:

“His soul was ambulant and saintly; and his rhythms were his own as the tiger his stripes, as his phosphorescence and his moustache. He lived within his skin. He rendered it royal and invisible to the hunter.”

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Last modified: 29/07/2010