Posted: 1/16/2007 1:02:36 AM EDT
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Anyone else like his music? An interesting guy, born of gypsy parents, and achieved success as a jazz guitarist in Europe in the 1930's. There isn't too much of him on film, but quite a bit of his music can be found if you dig around. Here is a You Tube clip for those that are interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKtQ-7Du9bA At a young age he was burned badly, and lost all but the use of two fingers and the thumb on his left hand (his fretting hand). If you look closely in the clip, you can see this. |
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Django is one of the greatest figures in the history of guitarists and jazz. He was a great player and an innovator, advancing the guitar to new levels. His old band mate, Stephane Grappelli, did a bunch of great recordings in the 70s performing a lot of the songs that he played with Django and the Hot Club band. He recorded with Barney Kessel, Gary Burton, Dave Grisman and a lot of other great players. So.... Yeah, I like Django's music. 
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It really doesn't matter if he's good or not. What matters is that you name drop him like Coltraine or Ellington. When someone asks me, "swingset, as a stunningly great musician, who are your main influences?" What am I gonna say? Poison and Ratt? Well, that's who I was jamming to when I picked up the guitar, but fuck that noise! I'd get laughed at. So, I drop cooler dudes to up my 6-string cred. I say "Well, I was heavily influenced by Django and all of the offshoots of his style and theory on guitar, from Zappa down through McLaughlin. And, I take my song stylings from John Cage and the New York Underground." See how it works? I sound waaay more serious with the Django rather than Ted Nugent. That's how I'm so cool, you see. |
What I see is the pot calling the kettle black! I count you dropping 7 names, (not including Poison and Ratt), and then a weak attempt to skew my OP into something that can further inflate your ego. I respect and admire people that can overcome adversity, like Mr Reinhardt, and still excel in life. I happen to like Django Reinhardt's music, and simply wondered how many others here might also. Nothing more, nothing less! Just a way to share a bond with like minded individuals here. Now if I had wanted to follow your style of posting I would have included other musicians that faced adversity too, like Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Joe Cocker, Bobby Darin, Hank Williams, George Jones and Janis Joplin in my original post, dropping 7 names. (again not counting Poison & Ratt) I find Mr. Reinhardt's music and life interesting, and worthy of discussion. Shame on you for ruining that! |
Do you know if he and Duke Ellington ever performed together? Or did he maybe just happen to catch one of his JR's shows? |
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Back in the mid-1970s, when I was still working retail, one of my customers was a guy who played guitar and taught me a few things that helped my playing. He mentioned that I should check out Django, so I went out and bought an album. Totally different from anything I'd heard before, but some really neat playing. Crazy stuff. It was called "Hot Jazz" back in the 20s and 30s, and played in smokey little clubs. Well worth checking out, IMHO. This is a real good boxed set for under $30.00 that I got recently. Django Boxed Set Yes, I have run into players who try to impress you with name dropping. I just ignore idiots like that. Django's playing was completely out of control when he got going. I love it. I don't try to play like him or anything, but I do like what he does. Another to check out if you like Django is Oscar Aleman. |