Oncle Archibald gypsy jazz » Django Reinhardt

Django Reinhardt 5: the left hand

admin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 07:46:00 +0000

Django was taken to Lariboisière, the hospital for the poor.
His health condition was critical: he had his left hand badly burned and reported extensive burning from the right flank to the knee, and risked the amputation of the right leg to prevent gangrene.
He was later brought at Saint Louis hospital, where on January 23, 1929, he underwent surgery that could save the endangered limb.
The left hand, unfortunately, remained impaired, with the ring and little fingers permanently paralyzed.
As suggested by the doctors, his brother Joseph gave him a guitar and from that moment on he began to re-train his hand. After six months he regained his technique, using only two fingers!
His treatment lasted for eighteen months and during april 1930 he finally came out of the hospital.

Oncle Archibald

Django Reinhardt – 4

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:09:32 +0000

Django Reinhardt and his folks lived in a vacant lot on the outskirts of Paris called the “zone”. Until then he had lived with his mother, but when Bella, his first wife, became pregnant, he went to live with her in a trailer donated to them by their stepfather.

At the end of 1928 Django often worked at the La Java dance hall with Alexander’s orchestra. It was there that on November 1 at midnight appeared Jack Hylton, director of a famous jazz orchestra in England, searching for a musician who could play both the banjo and the guitar. Attracted by his fame, he wanted to go and meet Django to make him sign a contract and bring him to London, giving him the chance to make his debut on the international music scene.

The signing of the contract was set for the following day.

After the dance hall closed for the night, Django took a taxi to return home and -eager to report to his wife the great news- forgot his banjo on the car seat.
When he arrived at the trailer, he found Bella already asleep and, to avoid disturbing her, he moved in the dark in search of the bed. He accidentally knocked down a vase of plastic flowers and Bella, who got up because of noise, lit a candle to help him out.

Unfortunately she dropped it from the nightstand. The fake flowers caught fire immediately and soon did the trailer.

Oncle Archibald

Django Reinhardt – 3

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:52:04 +0000

All the musicians were vying for Django Reinhardt, the manouche. The famous accordionist Maurice Alexander got him signed him several times as a substitute for his own banjoist. What’s left of their collaboration is the recording of the one-step “Parisette“, made in the spring of 1928.

Jean Vaissade, violinist and accordion ace, signed him in 1927 for one season in a dance hall in Stella Plage. He admired Django’s talent so much that when he suddenly disappeared without a trace, she went looking for him, searching all around Paris.

In the spring of 1928 Vaissade offered Django the first recording contracts. It was for six tracks under the Idéal label -which sold records in department stores- including the waltzes “Amour de Gitane“, “La plus belle“, “Deception d’amour“. The line-up consisted of Vaissade on accordion, Francesco Cariolato on the xylophone and Django on the banjo. Despite his undeniable skills, he often proves to be too wild for the standards of that time.

In the autumn of 1928 Vaissade got Django to record four tracks for Gramophone. It was the waltz “Griserie“, the fox-trot “Ma reguliere” and the one-step “Parisette” and “Caravan“. The line-up was the same as the previous recordings, but with the addition of a slide whistle.

In these recordings the impatience of Django for his role of dance music accompanist is clearly evident. His banjo is increasingly cumbersome and he is already planning to leave it to return to the guitar. That jangling instrument would however fade out after a while.

In the fall of 1928 Django recorded four more tracks with the accordionist Marceau. The line-up consisted of Marceau on accordion, Erardy on whistle and some guy named Jeangot on banjo.

Oncle Archibald

Django Reinhardt – 2

admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:31:03 +0000

The Castro brothers had a considerable influence on the young Django Reinhardt, playing folk music and waltzes at parties and meetings. It was one of them, Poulette Castro – whose waltz “Valse a Poulette” si still played nowadays – who taught Django the proper wrist position of the right hand, that allows to obtain a more incisive plectrum attack. That ‘s a technique which has become typical of the manouche guitar style.

So Django, who was just twelve years old, began to perform in taverns playing the banjo-guitar along with his brother Joseph.

It was during one of these gigs that the famous accordionist Guerino listened to Django, and got so impressed that hired him. Django worked with Guerino in several bal musettes, improvising variations on increasingly difficult music, including the dreaded polka “Perle de cristal”. His specialty were also the fox-trot and the american one-step, including “The Sheik of Araby” and “Dinah.”

It was during this period, while accompanying the accordionist Guerino and, later, Jean Vaissade, that he wrote the waltzes “Chez Jacquet” and “Montagne Sainte Genevieve”.

Oncle Archibald

Django Reinhardt – 1

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:13:39 +0000

Django Reinhardt – Jean-Baptiste Reinhardt, a.k.a. Django – was born in Liverchies, Belgium, on January 23, 1910, from a family of Manouche origin, a branch of european gypsies from Eastern Europe that had spread to Germany, eastern France, Holland and Belgium, at the beginning of the past century.

He belonged to a family of itinerant musicians. His father was a pianist and violinist, and was director of dance orchestra with which he toured in France, Italy, Corsica and Algeria, to finally settle with his trailer on the outskirts of Paris.

His repertoire consisted of folk songs and successful arias, including the waltz, very fashionable in the salons and casinos of the time.

The young Django was consequently raised in the environment of the dance floor and the bal musette, and began playing the banjo-guitar by ear at the age of 12 years. He never went to any school and could neither read nor write (years after, the violinist Stéphane Grappelli taught him to do his signature, at least for contracts and autographs), but nevertheless soon became an early virtuoso of the instrument.

In the dance halls, Django, who worked for many famous musette accordionists, loved to play the highly technical Gusti Malha’s waltzes, a widely known banjoist of the ’20s who accompanied the king of the dance halls and who composed the famous “La valse des Niglos”

Oncle Archibald