Gypsy Jazz

Django's Fret Hand - On November 2nd, 1928 an event took place that would forever change Django's life. At one o'clock in the morning the 18 year old Django returned from a night of playing music at a new club "La Java" to the caravan that was now the home of himself and his new wife. The caravan was filled with celluloid flowers his wife had made to sell at the market on the following day. Django upon hearing what he thought was a mouse among the flowers bent down with a candle to look. The wick from the candle fell into the highly flammable celluloid flowers and the caravan was almost instantly transformed into a raging inferno. Django wrapped himself in a blanket to shield him from the flames. Somehow he and his wife made it across the blazing room to safety outside, but his left hand, and his right side from knee to waist were badly burned.
Initially doctors wanted to amputate his leg but Django refused. He was moved to a nursing home where the care was so good his leg was saved. Django was bedridden for eighteen months. During this time he was given a guitar, and with great determination Django created a whole new fingering system built around the two fingers on his left hand that had full mobility. His fourth and fifth digits of the left hand were permanently curled towards the palm due to the tendons shrinking from the heat of the fire. He could use them on the first two strings of the guitar for chords and octaves but complete extension of these fingers was impossible. His soloing was all done with the index and middle fingers! Film clips of Django show his technique to be graceful and precise, almost defying belief.

Louis Vola, the bass player with the original Quintette Du Hot Club De France, an affable, Maurice Chevalier type of man, he talks glibly of his fifteen-year old granddaughter who plays the piano and can relate many tales about Django. He really knew Django the longest, starting at Toulon, where Vola had a band. He heard the two gypsy brothers, Django and Joseph playing on the beach one night and invited them to jam after hours with some of the members of his band. One member of note was Stephane Grappelli. Vola subsequently moved to the Palm Beach Hotel at Cannes and hired Django alone, as an accompanist for his own accordion. Later, when Vola switched to bass, he hired Eugene 'Nanine' Vees, Joseph Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, in addition to Django - thus the Quintette Du Hot Club De France was born. Shortly after it was started on its recording career by Charles Delaunay and Pierre Nourry.

About Django
Barney Kessel owned one of Django’s Selmer guitars, and he said it was difficult to play chords on and didn’t stay in tune very well. There are definitely some inherent tuning issues with that style of guitar. Sometimes, if you play an octave on the B and the D strings in the middle of the neck, the D string is flat and the B string is sharp. Django definitely developed a style to suit that instrument, although he played other guitars before the Selmer. The Selmer came out in 1932, I think, and he didn’t get his first one until 1934. So his style was already intact at that time. There are stories about when he came to America without a guitar, because he figured the Americans would be lining up to give him guitars to play. Well, they didn’t, so his tour manager bought him a non-cutaway Gibson with a P-90, and he was really bummed out. He wrote back to his manager: “Don’t speak to me about American tin-pot guitars anymore!”

Photos of Samois Festival 2006 with Hank Marvin
reflecting his interest in the background of picture 3
donated by Stu Weetman, Guitarist
Django Samois Festival
21st June - 1st July 07
When Django settled in Samois, he was at a turning point in his life. His trip to the United States had not been as productive as he had hoped. The great guitarist decided he needed time to rest and think about what to do next. He felt at home among the local people, especially Fernand Loisy, innkeeper of “L'Auberge de l'Ile.”
Django spent his time fishing, playing pool, painting landscapes, and playing club gigs in Paris, where he met a new generation of musicians exploring new musical adventures and projects. The village of Samois was a wonderful setting for his rest and recuperation.

Garry Potter Gary's musical experience is extensive and covers jazz, country, classical, pop, funk and blues. He has recently embarked on arranging and composing, and is an accomplished teacher of music, giving workshops worldwide. Gary is critically acclaimed as the most talented guitarist to emerge from the British Isles in recent years. He is regarded by aficionados as one of the greatest jazz and country guitarists in the world, enjoying high acclaim in the United States, Australia and Europe. Gary's path towards jazz started when introduced to the music of Django at the age of 15 and has continued via many festivals worldwide Garry Potter Trio

Gypsy Fire
Stuart Carter Smith - started playing the guitar when he was 18 years old--rather late for a gypsy guitarist considering most of his peers were playing by the age of 7.
Although he played, studied and performed classical guitar at first he quickly fell in love with the music of the guitar genius Django.
Most of all he learned was by listening to the records of his newly found hero, Django. like many of his contemporaries, Stuart loves to improvise, and like many of his predecessors, he is searching for new challenges.
He likes to try new ways of playing, but always with the solid underpinning of his first love: the music of Django Reinhardt.

By Djingo - Aylesbury's Barnaby 'Badger' Brown & Matthew Heath - Guitars, Nick Graham - Bass and Ian Sands - Drums

Lollo Meier
Among the gypsy jazz musicians that play guitar in the style of Django Reinhardt there are few that really stand out like Lollo Meier. His music is refreshing, combining an accomplished technique and unique style of playing with a real flair for composing. Raised on gypsy jazz, Meier, a Dutch gypsy, started playing guitar at the age of 12 with members of his family. After playing in the Belgian band “Swing 42” Meier started Lollo Meier Szigano Swing, a new quartet that gave him the opportunity to express his own style and ideas. For this tour Meier is joined by the celebrated young clarinetist from Antwerp, Andre Donnie, and Europe’s pre-eminent rhythm guitarist and bassist in the style, Dave Kelbie and Andy Crowdy, both members of John Etheridge’s “Sweet Chorus” and The Angelo Debarre Quartet. “...Meier was caressed the strings at the fiercest - Brilliancies came and went so fast that there was hardly time to applaud until the end...” London Evening Standard

David Reinhardt Guitar
Born on December 23, 1986, David does not seem disturbed by the task which falls on to him: to transmit the heritage and to continue the family road! technique very at the point, lyricism and emotion, direction of the swing, here are obvious qualities of this young musician. Already accustomed prestigious scenes (as of the 6 years age it played with Babik Reinhardt, his father) it begins a very promising career today, taken care tenderly by a celestial four-bit byte: Django, Joseph, Lousson and Babik

Babik Reinhardt Guitarist (1944-2001)
Few musicians stuck with as much smoothness to be themselves, while remaining attentive with the last evolutions of the jazz and by preserving something of the major sonority of large Manouche. Many django-fans adulate pale copiers of Django whereas they do not realize that they had there, with Babik “the” guitarist manouche of exception.

Fapy Lafertin

Andreas Oberg

Robin Nolan while being considered one of the world's leading Gypsy
Jazz guitarists in the tradition of Django Reinhardt, has also set
himself apart by creating his own unique style.
From his base in Amsterdam, he has circled the globe with performances
at the Lincoln Centre, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Toronto Jazz
Festival, DjangoFest, Iceland, Japan and numerous other locales.
Joined by his brother Kevin Nolan on rhythm guitar and Gypsy Jazz
veteran Simon Planting on double bass, the Robin Nolan Trio blazes
through a mix of Django, Latin and Swing classics, peppered with
stunning and inventive original compositions.

Tolga Quartet is a collaboration between four young musicians from all over Europe. They play the Django Reinhardt style, or Gypsy Jazz, with a fresh and contemporary approach. The band was founded originally as the Tolga Emilio Trio by Tolga During in Amsterdam in 1998. One year later, they recorded their first album which was internationally much applauded. As a result they received invitations from national and international festivals. Ever since, they have recorded five more albums and a live dvd. They now perform as a Quartet and the band members now all live in Italy but continue to perform all over the world. 'Fascinating repertoire, catchy arrangements, virtuosi and swinging improvisations and an incredible mastery.' Akustik Gitarre, Germany 'Tolga is a musician who combines a unique and arresting style with a masterful technique. His music is striking yet remains pure and uncluttered.' Turkish Daily News
"Melding influences from Britain to the Bosphoros and beyond, this young four man Hot Club give a fresh twist to the gypsy jazz repertoire." - DJ Andy Roberts, BBC Jazz Connection Radio Show, UK

Gypsy Swing
Le QuecumBar
American Jazz captured the imagination of the Europe, particularly France, during the early part of the 20th century. Many famous American Jazz musicians found enthusiastic audiences in Europe while many European musicians incorporated the new sounds of Jazz into their music. Gypsy Swing, sometimes called String Swing, is Swing played with a rhythm section of guitars and bass, rather than the traditional drums and bass of American Jazz. The best known of Gypsy Swing players was Django Reinhardt (1910-1953). Django Reinhardt, a Manouche Gypsy, was a prolific composer and a phenomenal guitarist. His compositions make up the bulk of standards in the Gypsy Swing genre today and his unorthodox technique (due to the fact that he lost the use of two fingers of his left hand in a fire) has
defined the sound of Gypsy Jazz. Nuages, Djangology, Douce Ambiance and Swing 42 are some of the Reinhardt standards that you will
find in the typical Gypsy Jazz repertoire. There are many groups playing this music worldwide and Gypsy Jazz has continued to grow and
change through the influences of musicians, both Gypsy and non-Gypsy, worldwide.

Petites Annonces play a unique mix of gypsy jazz , those bonnes old french chansons, and a genre unknown until now in this country : "Punk Manouche". www.petitesannonces.co.uk

Ritary Ensemble comes from the pure tradition of gipsy swing. Created in 2002. There are three guitar players, who are members of the same Sinti gypsy family, they are accompanied by bass player Vladimir Torres who comes from Franche-Comté in France (east). The group continues to pursue a tradition born from the music of Django Reinhardt.

Ritary has been playing since he was fourteen years old. He first learned from his father but is basically a self-taught musician much influenced by the Dutch gypsy style. After meeting and working with many various musicians, he has now developed a style of his own that’s full of ideas and smoothness whilst continuing the Django style. His virtuoso playing is as sharp and precise as it is melodious and smooth.

The group has earned a reputation that has put them at the top of many festival invitation lists all over Europe, including the famous Django Reinhardt festival at Samois, Angers, the International Gipsy Guitar Festival in England, and the Oslo Django Festival 2004, Django fest NYC, tours in Canada, and jazz festivals in France as well as numerous wide spread independent jazz clubs.

Christian Garrick Angelo Debarre

Christian with Angelo Debarre Video

Florin Niculescu - Video
Excellent Video Performances including Didiere Lockwood, Angelo Debarre, and Christiane Escoude
Florin Niculescu is one of the finest violinists on the international jazz scene today. Through many musical collaborations this captivating musician has developed a distinct sound and language, building on a solid classical education and linking gypsy traditions to diverse forms of jazz. His impeccable technique and outstanding virtuosity – praised by fellow musicians and audiences alike – are not a means to an end but a way of expressing his artistic personality.

Club Django
Inspired by Ian Cruickshank's 'Django Legacy' Film
01628 488941
Club Django meets on the first Tuesday of each month, 7.45pm - £5 for both entry and tuition
Marlow Community Centre,
Liston Hall,
Chapel Street,
Marlow,
Bucks
SL7 1DD
Club Django email
Objectives of Club Django

He is of Italian Gypsy descent, but born in the UK. He learnt his craft by touring the capitals of Europe playing with the Gypsy guitarists at their local haunts and studying their work to obtain that unique sound.

Hi Eddie, I have two tours in the UK this year with Manouche guitarists, first the end of June with Matcho Winterstein, and September with Moreno, I will get back to you with the exact dates!

The Reinhardt Project is made up of brothers Lulo and Mike Reinhardt - great nephews of the famous Django Reinhardt - and cousin Sascha, along with Australian violinist Daniel Weltlinger. The outstanding guitar virtuosos is based in Kobllenz.

Taught to play guitar at the age of five by his father Bawo, Lulo was playing in a sextet by the age of 12. He is described as a spontaneous and spirited musician and his different styles come from a musical voyage to find flamenco roots in Spain, Latin jazz from South America, combined with his own artistic stamp and gypsy influences.

The Allman Brothers Band instrumental Jessica was written by guitarist Dickie Betts in tribute to Reinhardt. He wanted to write a
song that could be played using only two fingers.

Mail jazzmaster@jazzeddie.f2s.com with questions or comments about the format of this web site. Last modified: 25/04/2008

Mail jazzmaster@jazzeddie.f2s.com with questions or comments about the format of this web site.
Last modified: 25/04/2008