Django Reinhardt

Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani nickname Django ( or ), was a Belgian jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.

With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Reinhardt formed the Paris-based Quintette du Hot Club de France in 1934. The group was among the first to play jazz that featured the guitar as a lead instrument. Reinhardt recorded in France with many visiting American musicians, including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and briefly toured the United States with Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1946. He died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage in 1953 at the age of 43.

Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become standards within gypsy jazz, including "Minor Swing", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages". The jazz guitarist Frank Vignola said that nearly every major popular music guitarist in the world has been influenced by Reinhardt. Over the last few decades, annual Django festivals have been held throughout Europe and the U.S., and a biography has been written about his life. into a French family His mother, Laurence Reinhardt, was a dancer.

A number of authors have repeated the suggestion that Reinhardt's nickname, Django, is Romani for "I awake"; Reinhardt spent most of his youth in Romani encampments close to Paris, where he started playing the violin, banjo and guitar. He became adept at stealing chickens. His father reportedly played music in a family band comprising himself and seven brothers; a surviving photograph shows this band including his father on piano.

Reinhardt was attracted to music at an early age, first playing the violin. At the age of 12, he received a banjo-guitar as a gift. He quickly taught himself to play, mimicking the fingerings of musicians he watched, who would have included local virtuoso players of the day such as Jean "Poulette" Castro and Auguste "Gusti" Malha, as well as from his uncle Guiligou, who played violin, banjo and guitar.

Reinhardt received little formal education and acquired the rudiments of literacy only in adult life. On these recordings, made in 1928, Reinhardt plays the "banjo" (actually the banjo-guitar) accompanying the accordionists Maurice Alexander, Jean Vaissade and Victor Marceau, and the singer Maurice Chaumel. His name was now drawing international attention, such as from British bandleader Jack Hylton, who came to France just to hear him play. During his 18-month hospitalization, doctors recommended amputation of his badly damaged right leg. Reinhardt refused the surgery and was eventually able to walk with the aid of a cane. During many months of recuperation, Reinhardt retaught himself to play using primarily the index and middle fingers of his left hand, using the two injured fingers only for chord work.

Discovery of jazz After parting from his wife and son, Reinhardt traveled throughout France, getting occasional jobs playing music at small clubs. He had no specific goals, living a hand-to-mouth existence, spending his earnings as quickly as he made them. In the summer of 1934 they met again while both were engaged as members of a band led by bassist Louis Vola playing at the Hôtel Claridge on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, and began a musical partnership. Pierre Nourry, the secretary of the Hot Club de France, invited Reinhardt and Grappelli to form the Quintette du Hot Club de France, with Louis Vola on bass and Joseph Reinhardt and Roger Chaput on guitar.

Reinhardt's brother Joseph and Roger Chaput also played on guitar, and Louis Vola was on bass. The Quintette was one of the few well-known jazz ensembles composed only of stringed instruments. but the all-string instrumentation is the one most often adopted by emulators of the Hot Club sound.

Decca Records in the United States released three records of Quintette tunes with Reinhardt on guitar, and one other, credited to "Stephane Grappelli & His Hot 4 with Django Reinhardt", in 1935.

Reinhardt also played and recorded with many American jazz musicians, such as Adelaide Hall, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, and Rex Stewart (who later stayed in Paris). He participated in a jam session and radio performance with Louis Armstrong. Later in his career, Reinhardt played with Dizzy Gillespie in France. Also in the neighborhood was the artistic salon R-26, at which Reinhardt and Grappelli performed regularly as they developed their unique musical style.

In 1938, Reinhardt's quintet played to thousands at an all-star show held in London's Kilburn State auditorium. During the war, Romani were systematically killed in concentration camps. Nonetheless, Goebbels stopped short of a complete ban on jazz, which now had many fans in Germany and elsewhere.

At that time the tide of war turned against the Germans, with a considerable darkening of the situation in Paris. Severe rationing was in place, and members of Reinhardt's circle were being captured by the Nazis or joining the resistance.

Reinhardt's first attempt at escape from Occupied France led to capture. Fortunately for him, a jazz-loving German, Luftwaffe officer , allowed him to return to Paris. Reinhardt made a second attempt a few days later, but was stopped in the middle of the night by Swiss border guards, who forced him to return to Paris again.

One of his tunes, 1940's "Nuages", became an unofficial anthem in Paris to signify hope for liberation. as a special guest soloist with Duke Ellington and His Orchestra. He played with many musicians and composers, such as Maury Deutsch. At the end of the tour, Reinhardt played two nights at Carnegie Hall in New York City; he received a great ovation and took six curtain calls on the first night.

Despite his pride in touring with Ellington (one of two letters to Grappelli relates his excitement), he was not fully integrated into the band. He played a few tunes at the end of the show, backed by Ellington, with no special arrangements written for him. After the tour, Reinhardt secured an engagement at Café Society Uptown, where he played four solos a day, backed by the resident band. These performances drew large audiences.

In Rome in 1949, Reinhardt recruited three Italian jazz players (on bass, piano, and snare drum) and recorded over 60 tunes in an Italian studio. He united with Grappelli, and used his acoustic Selmer-Maccaferri. The recording was issued for the first time in the late 1950s.

Back in Paris, in June 1950, Reinhardt was invited to join an entourage to welcome the return of Benny Goodman. He also attended a reception for Goodman, who, after the war ended, had asked Reinhardt to join him in the US. Goodman repeated his invitation and, out of politeness, Reinhardt accepted. Reinhardt later had second thoughts about what role he could play alongside Goodman, who was the "King of Swing", and remained in France.

On 16 May 1953, while walking home from Fontainebleau–Avon station after playing in a Paris club, he collapsed outside his house from a brain hemorrhage.

Because of his damaged left hand (his ring and little fingers helped little in his playing) Reinhardt had to modify both his chordal and melodic approach extensively. For chords he developed a novel system based largely around 3-note chords, each of which could serve as the equivalent of several conventional chords in different inversions; for the treble notes he could employ his ring and little fingers to fret the relevant high strings even though he could not articulate these fingers independently, while in some chords he also employed his left hand thumb on the lowest string. Within his rapid melodic runs he frequently incorporated arpeggios, which could be played using two notes per string (played with his two "good" fingers, being his index and middle fingers) while shifting up or down the fingerboard, as opposed to the more conventional "box" approach of moving across strings within a single fretboard position (location). He also produced some of his characteristic "effects" by moving a fixed shape (such as a diminished chord) rapidly up and down the fretboard, resulting in what one writer has called "intervallic cycling of melodic motifs and chords". For an unsurpassed insight into these techniques in use, interested persons should not miss viewing the only known synchronised (sound and vision) footage of Reinhardt in performance, playing on an instrumental version of the song "J'Attendrai" for the short jazz film Le Jazz Hot in 1938–39 (copies available on YouTube and elsewhere).

Hugues Panassié, in his 1942 book The Real Jazz, wrote:

Writing in 1945, Billy Neil and E. Gates stated that

Django-style enthusiast John Jorgenson has been quoted as saying:

In his later style ( onwards) Reinhardt began to incorporate more bebop influences in his compositions and improvisations, also fitting a Stimer electric pickup to his acoustic guitar. With the addition of amplification, his playing became more linear and "horn like", with the greater facility of the amplified instrument for longer sustain and to be heard in quiet passages, and in general less reliance on his gypsy "bag of tricks" as developed for his acoustic guitar style (also, in some of his late recordings, with a very different supporting group context from his "classic", pre-war Quintette sound). These "electric period" Reinhardt recordings have in general received less popular re-release and critical analysis than his pre-war releases (the latter also extending to the period from 1940 to 1945 when Grappelli was absent, which included some of his most famous compositions such as "Nuages"), but are also a fascinating area of Reinhardt's work to study, and have begun to be revived by players such as the Rosenberg Trio (with their 2010 release "Djangologists") and Biréli Lagrène. Wayne Jefferies, in his article "Django's Forgotten Era", writes:

Jazz guitarists in the U.S., such as Charlie Byrd and Wes Montgomery, were influenced by his style. Byrd, who lived from 1925 to 1999, said that Reinhardt was his primary influence. The rock musician Mike Peters noted that "the word 'genius' is bantered about too much. But in jazz, Louis Armstrong was a genius, Duke Ellington was another one, and Reinhardt was also." and since 2017 in nearby Fontainebleau; the various DjangoFests held throughout Europe and the US; and "Django in June", an annual camp for Gypsy jazz musicians and aficionados held at Smith College in Massachusetts.

Influence

Many guitar players and other musicians have expressed admiration for Reinhardt or have cited him as a major influence. Jeff Beck described Reinhardt as "by far the most astonishing guitar player ever" and "quite superhuman". Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin said, "Django Reinhardt was fantastic. He must have been playing all the time to be that good." Andrew Latimer of the progressive rock band Camel said that he was influenced by Reinhardt. Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch, members of Paul McCartney's band Wings, mentioned him as an inspiration. Asked to name his ten greatest influences, Chet Atkins named Reinhardt as his number one.

Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia and Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, both of whom lost fingers in accidents, were inspired by Reinhardt's example of becoming an accomplished guitar player despite his injuries. Garcia was quoted in June 1985 in Frets Magazine:

Willie Nelson is a lifelong Reinhardt fan, writing in his memoir, "This was a man who changed my musical life by giving me a whole new perspective on the guitar and, on an even more profound level, on my relationship with sound...During my formative years, as I listened to Django's records, especially songs like 'Nuages' that I would play for the rest of my life, I studied his technique. Even more, I studied his gentleness. I love the human sound he gave his acoustic guitar."

Festivals named after Django Reinhardt In Reinhardt's birth village Liberchies, an annual jazz festival is held every May. A large memorial has also been erected there. Jazz festivals under the name Djangofollies have also been organized all over Belgium. In 1984 the Kool Jazz Festival, held in Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, was dedicated entirely to Reinhardt. Performers included Grappelli, Benny Carter, and Mike Peters with his group of seven musicians. The festival was organized by George Wein. Ramelton, Co. Donegal, Ireland, each year hosts a festival in tribute to Django called "Django sur Lennon" or "Django on the Lennon" the Lennon being the name of the local river that runs through the village.

Reinhardt in popular culture Music Numerous musicians have written and recorded tributes to Reinhardt. The jazz standard "Django" (1954) was composed by John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet in honour of Reinhardt. The Allman Brothers Band song "Jessica" was written by Dickey Betts in tribute to Reinhardt. In 1982's "Tanta til Beate" ("Beate's Aunt"), by the Norwegian singer-songwriter and folk musician Lillebjørn Nilsen, Reinhardt is hailed several times. Electro swing band Swingrowers' 2014 track "Django" details a "musical bloodbath" in a rap battle and duel between Django Reinhardt and his fictional brother D'Angelo Reinhardt in which both brothers sever one another's heads.

Novels Reinhardt appears as a character in the fiction novel The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto (2015) by American author Mitch Albom.

Comics Joan Sfar wrote the script for the graphic novel Jeangot (Gallimard, 2012), drawn by Clément Oubrerier, which is a biopic about Django Reinhardt, set in an anthropomorphic animal universe. In coincidence with the 110th anniversary in 2020 of Django's birth, a graphic novel depicting his youth years was published under the title Django Main de Feu, by writer Salva Rubio and artist Efa through Belgian publisher Dupuis. In the CD sleeve of Vinyl Story by Jean-Charles Baty, featuring music by Django Reinhardt (2022), a mini comic strip by Baty about Reinhardt's life can be read.

Films Reinhardt's legacy is referred to in Woody Allen's 1999 Sweet and Lowdown. This fictional biopic features an imaginary American guitarist, Emmet Ray, who is obsessed with Reinhardt. Actor Michael Sprague appears briefly as Reinhardt. The soundtrack features Howard Alden, performing as the fictional Emmet Ray in a style strongly influenced by Reinhardt. The 2003 animated film The Triplets of Belleville begins with a flashback showing The Triplets of Belleville, a trio of singers, performing on stage in the 1920s, dancing alongside other celebrities, including Josephine Baker and Django Reinhardt. The 2004 film Head in the Clouds features guitarist John Jorgenson as Django Reinhardt in a cameo role. The documentary film Djangomania! was released in 2005. The hour-long film was directed and written by Jamie Kastner, who traveled throughout the world to show the influence of Django's music in various countries. Emil Lager portrayed Reinhardt playing guitar in a French cafe in the 2011 film Hugo. The film Django, by the French filmmaker Étienne Comar, depicting Reinhardt's life during wartime was released in February 2017, with the French actor Reda Kateb performing the role of Reinhardt. The Berlin International Film Festival held the world premier of Django. The movie covers Django's escape from Nazi-occupied Paris in 1943 and the fact that even under "constant danger, flight and the atrocities committed against his family", he continued composing and performing. Reinhardt's music was re-recorded for the film by the Dutch jazz band Rosenberg Trio with lead guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg. It opened the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

Video games Reinhardt's music appears in the 2002 video game Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. One of the songs featured in the game, "Belleville", would later appear again in its 2010 sequel Mafia II. Various Reinhardt songs, including his rendition of "La Mer", are included in the 2007 video game BioShock.

Television

The music genre for the Backyardigans episode "Whodunit?" is in the style of Reinhardt's music.

Tributes In 2005, during the election of The Greatest Belgian, Reinhardt was voted 66th place in the Flemish version. In the Walloon version, he was voted to the 76th place. The Belgian government issued a commemorative coin in 92.5% sterling silver in 2010 coinciding with the 100th anniversary of his birth. It is a silver 10-Euro coin with a color image of Reinhardt on the reverse side.

Discography Releases in his lifetime Reinhardt recorded over 900 sides in his recording career, from 1928 to 1953, the majority as sides of the then-prevalent 78-RPM records, with the remainder as acetates, transcription discs, private and off-air recordings (of radio broadcasts), and part of a film soundtrack. Only one session (eight tracks) from March 1953 was ever recorded specifically for album release by Norman Granz in the then-new LP format, but Reinhardt died before the album could be released. In his earliest recordings, Reinhardt played banjo (or, more accurately, banjo-guitar), accompanying accordionists and singers on dances and popular tunes of the day, with no jazz content, whereas in the last recordings before his death he played amplified guitar in the bebop idiom with a pool of younger, more modern French musicians.

A full chronological listing of his lifetime recorded output is available from the source cited here, and an index of individual tunes is available from the source cited here. A few fragments of film performance (without original sound) also survive, as does one complete performance with sound, of the tune "J'Attendrai" performed with the Quintet in 1938 for the short film Le Jazz Hot.

Posthumous compilations Since his death, Reinhardt's music has been released on many compilations. Intégrale Django Reinhardt, volumes 1–20 (40 CDs), released by the French company Frémeaux from 2002 to 2005, tried to include every known track on which he played.

The Great Artistry of Django Reinhardt (Clef, 1954) Parisian Swing (GNP Crescendo, 1965) Quintet of the Hot Club of France (GNP Crescendo, 1965) Paris 1945 with Glenn Miller All-Stars (French Columbia, 1973) Django Reinhardt: The Versatile Giant (Inner City Records, 1978) At Club St. Germain (Honeysuckle, 1983) Swing Guitar (Jass, 1991) Djano Reinhardt in Brussels (Verve, 1992) Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelli (GNP Crescendo, 1990) Peche à La Mouche: The Great Blue Star Sessions 1947–1953 (Verve, 1992) Django's Music (Hep, 1994) Brussels and Paris (DRG, 1996) Quintet of the Hot Club of France (Original Jazz Classics, 1997) Django with His American Friends (DRG, 1998) The Complete Django Reinhardt HMV Sessions (1998) The Classic Early Recordings in Chronological Order (2000) Djangology (Bluebird, 2002) Intégrale Django Reinhardt (Frémeaux, 2002) Jazz in Paris: Nuages (2003) Vol. 2: 1938–1939 (Naxos, 2001) Swing Guitars Vol. 3 1936–1937 (Naxos, 2003) Nuages Vol. 6 1940 (Naxos, 2004) Django on the Radio (2008) Djangology: Solo and Duet Recordings (2019)

Sideman work Coleman Hawkins The Coleman Hawkins Collection 1927-1956 (2014; 1930s recordings) Charles Trenet Intégrale Charles Trénet: 1933-1947 (2004)

Unrecorded compositions A small number of waltzes composed by Reinhardt in his youth were never recorded by the composer, but were retained in the repertoire of his associates and several are still played today. They came to light via recordings by Matelo Ferret in 1960 (the waltzes "Montagne Sainte-Genevieve", "Gagoug", "Chez Jacquet" and "Choti"; Disques Vogue (F)EPL7740) and 1961 ("Djalamichto" and "En Verdine"; Disques Vogue (F)EPL7829). The first four are now available on Matelo's CD Tziganskaïa and Other Rare Recordings, released by Hot Club Records (subsequently reissued as Tziganskaïa: The Django Reinhardt Waltzes); "Chez Jacquet" was also recorded by Baro Ferret in 1966.

The names "Gagoug" and "Choti" were reportedly conferred by Reinhardt's widow Naguine on request from Matelo, who had learned the tunes without names. Reinhardt also worked on composing a Mass for use by the gypsies, which was not completed although an 8-minute extract exists, played by the organist Léo Chauliac for Reinhardt's benefit, via a 1944 radio broadcast; this can be found on the CD release "Gipsy Jazz School" and also on volume 12 of the "Intégrale Django Reinhardt" CD compilation.