For this month’s feature, John Wheatcroft shows us what the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist has to offer the blues player of today - and a lot more besides.
Django Reinhardt was a true guitarist’s guitarist. As George Benson states, “Django stretched the guitar imagination to its limit. He was the fastest, the most creative, he had great rhythm, and he was a good composer too.” BB King had a similar take on the Belgian virtuoso, “Django was one of my idols. His guitar seemed to talk. He played music that was sophisticated, but a layman like myself could still understand it.” The list of devoted Django enthusiasts goes on and on, and for extremely good reason. Simply put, he was a musical genius, and guitarist extraordinaire.
Born in 1910 in Liberchies into a family of Manouche gypsies, Django was prodigiously talented, and by age 13 he was performing with the street entertainers of Paris. In 1928 he survived a fire that left him with a severely disfigured left (fretting) hand, leaving him with only full use of its first and second fingers. But with great determination he overcame this disability by evolving a completely new method for fingering, using just two digits for single notes and making limited use of the third and fourth fingers for playing certain chord shapes.
Inspired by the radical new artform of jazz, and the hot trumpet style of Louis Armstrong in particular, Django was soon performing again. In 1934 he formed the Quintette du Hot Club de France with violinist Stephane Grappelli. This was one of the first all-string jazz groups, featuring an unusual line-up of two rhythm guitars, violin, double bass and with Django on acoustic lead. In 1946 he visited America as the guest of Duke Ellington, and on his return switched to electric guitar and began incorporating the influence of the radical new sound of bebop into his playing and compositions. While many associate Django’s music with the sound of guitar and violin in perfect harmony, he also made literally hundreds of recordings in other musical settings.
