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In today’s VINYL VIBRATIONS podcast, I tour some early vinyl records that showcase GYPSY GUITARIST GREAT DJANGO REINHARDT. Many of these will be original compositions by Django Reinhardt . These recordings of Django are found on Vinyl LP Record compilations of his recordings between 1937 and 1949. Today I will divide the show into three segments, DJANGO Songs Pre-WW2, Songs During WW2 and Songs after WW2. In all, I will SHOWCASE ten of the great works of GYPSY GUITARIST DJANGO REINHARDT.
- When Day is Done (R. Katscher-B. de Sylva), rec 4/22/1937, ____, 3:10 [Capitol-Bluenote Compilation 1996]
- Minor Swing (S.Grappelli-D.Reinhardt) , rec 9/9/1937, _____, 3:14 [Capitol-Bluenote Compilation 1996]
- Naguine (D. Reinhardt), rec 6/30/1939, Paris, 2:25 [Capitol-Bluenote Compilation 1996]
- Djangology (D. Reinhardt), rec 5/8/1942, Brussels, 3:04 [VERVE Jazz Masters Compilation 1994]
- Blues Clair (D. Reinhardt), rec 2/26/1943, _______, 3:01 [Capitol-Bluenote Compilation 1996]
- Belleville (D. Reinhardt), rec 2/1/1946, London, 3:15 [VERVE Jazz Masters Compilation 1994]
- Nuages (D. Reinhardt-J. Larue), rec 2/1/1946, London, 3:15 [VERVE Jazz Masters Compilation 1994]
- Swing 48 (D. Reinhardt), rec 7/6/1947, Paris, 2:45 [VERVE Jazz Masters Compilation 1994]
- Brick Top (D. Reinhardt-S. Grappelli), rec Feb 1949, Rome, 3:42 [Djangology remaster 1961]
- Night and Day (C. Porter), rec 3/10/1953, Paris, 2:51 [VERVE Jazz Masters Compilation 1994]
Django Reinhardt, Jean Vaissade – La Caravane – Paris, 20.06.1928
L’Accordéoniste Jean Vaissade –
Jean Vaissade (acc); Django Reinhardt (bj); unknown (slide whistle) –
1928 June 20 – Paris
DJANGO REINHARDT is so well known in Jazz and Guitar circles that perhaps he needs no introduction…. yet there is much cultural and personal background about this fascinating guitarist and his place in music history in the context of world events of the 1940s !!!
Jean Reinhardt, nicknamed “DJANGO, a gipsy word for “I AWAKE”, was born 1/23/1910, in a caravan, in Liberchies, Pont-à-Celles, Belgium, about 60km south of Brussels, into a family of Manouche gypsies. This was just 4 years before the German invasion of Belgium in 1914 and Germany’s declaration of war on France, in WW1.
Starting at age 8, Reinhardt spent most of his youth in Romani, or Gypsy encampments close to Paris, playing banjo, guitar and violin. His brother Joseph Reinhardt, two years younger, was an accomplished guitarist. Django Reinhardt played the violin at first, then at the age of 12, he learned to play a “banjo-guitar”. A banjo-guitar looks like a banjo, and sounds like a banjo, but is tuned like a guitar and can be played by guitarists. By the age of 13, Reinhardt was able to make a living playing music. His first known recording (in June 20, 1928, AGE 18) is of him playing the banjo –guitar with accordianist Jean Vaissade
Not long after this first recording, also when he was 18, Reinhardt was severely injured in a caravan fire. (For those non-europeans, the term “caravan” refers to a small trailer in which one can live while traveling. In the context of 1928 Belgium, these were horse-drawn caravans.)
In this fire, Django received first- and second-degree burns over half his body. His right leg was paralysed and the third and fourth fingers of his left hand were badly burned. He was able to walk within a year with the aid of a cane. And he relearned his guitar-playing skill … even though his third and fourth fingers remained partially paralysed. He played all of his guitar solos with only two fingers, and used the two injured digits for playing chords. This is an amazing fact, when you hear the speed, clarity and musicality of his guitar solos
Between 1929 and 1933 Django abandoned the banjo-guitar for the classical guitar….. Django somehow was able to acquire an extraordinary guitar, a Selmer Maccaferri. This is a large body steel-string, arched-top guitar with a “D”-shaped soundhole and a wide neck, like a classical guitar. The body had an internal resonator, invented circa 1931 by guitarist and luthier [loo-ti’-er] Mario Maccaferri, the resonator wwas designed to increase the volume of the guitar.
In 1934, Reinhardt and Parisian violinist Grappelli were invited to form the “Quintette du Hot Club de France” with Reinhardt’s younger brother Joseph and Roger Chaput on guitar, and Louis Vola on bass. The guitars also served as percussion instruments—-they had no true drums or percussion section. The Quintette du Hot Club de France (or QHCF) jazz ensemble was composed only of STRING instruments.
Today I will divide the show into three segments, DJANGO Songs Pre-WW2, Songs During WW2 and Songs after WW2. In all, I will SHOWCASE ten of the great works of DJANGO REINHARDT,
In our first segment, we look at three of DJANGO REINHARDT’s SONGS PRE-WW2, defined as the time leading up to September 1939, the invasion of Germany into Poland
M1 When Day is Done (R. Katscher-B. de Sylva), rec 4/22/1937, ____, 3:10 [Capitol-Bluenote Compilation 1996]
When Day is Done performed by Quintette du Hot Club de France recorded in April 1937 with a beautiful octave stle lead-in by Django and a lovely solo intro, followed by a tempo change for stephane grapelli’s violin solo.
Recorded in: 4/22/1937
Personnel of the Quintette du Hot Club de France included
- Stephanie Grappelli VN
- Django Reinhardt G
- Marcel Bianchi RG
- Pierre Ferret RG
- Louis Vola B
M2 Minor Swing (S.Grappelli-D.Reinhardt) , rec 9/9/1937, _____, 3:14 [Capitol-Bluenote Compilation 1996]
In Minor Swing we hear the great expression in Django’s lead including fantastic runs up and down the neck.
“Ahhhh Yeah!” THAT WAS Minor Swing (S.Grappelli-D.Reinhardt) ,
Recorded in: rec 9/9/1937
Personnel of the Quintette du Hot Club de France included
- Stephanie Grappelli VN
- Django Reinhardt G
- Joseph Reinhardt RG
- Eugene Vees RG
- Pierre Ferret RG
- Louis Vola B
M3 Naguine (D. Reinhardt), rec 6/30/1939, Paris, 2:25 [Capitol-Bluenote Compilation 1996]
This is a very easy-going solo demonstration of chorded guitar melody, a studio recording from June of 1939. The name of the song, Naguine, is also his second wife’s middle name, Sophie “Naguine” Ziegler, whom he married fours years later, in central France, and with whom he had a son, Babik Reinhardt, who became a respected guitarist in his own right.
- Personnel Django solo performance
SONGS DURING WAR (1939-1945)
When WWII broke out, (or September 1939) the original quintet was on tour in the United Kingdom. Reinhardt returned to Paris and Grappelli remained in the United Kingdom for the duration of the war (six years, or May 1945). Reinhardt reformed the quintet in Paris, with Hubert Rostaing on clarinet replacing Grappelli’s violin.
Just a few months after returning to Paris, in May of 1940, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands fell to the Nazis. Reinhardt’s problems were compounded by the fact that the Nazis officially disapproved of jazz. Jazz was prohibited by the Nazis at the beginning of the war. The Nazi regime even passed edicts banning jazz records and muted trumpets calling them…. degenerate art!! He made several attempts, unsuccessful, to escape occupied France.
Reinhardt survived the war unscathed, unlike many Gypsies who perished in the Romani holocaust. Nazi Germany, the Independent State of Croatia, the Kindom of Hungary and their allies, attempted to exterminate the Romani people of Europe during World War II…..both Roma and Jews were defined as “enemies of the race-based state” by the Nuremberg laws; ….and the Nazi regime systematically murdered several hundred thousand European Gypsies.
There may be two reasons why Django succeeded in surviving persecution, after all he was living in France and a key musician of “Quintette du Hot Club de France” now for six years. One reason is that Eastern European Romani communities were less organised than Jewish communities, and therefore not well documented. The other reason is that supposedly, Django enjoyed the protection of one jazz-loving Nazi, Luftwaffe officer Dietrich Schulz-Köhn, nicknamed “Doktor Jazz.
Our first wartime song is DJANGOLOGY, recorded in Brussels, May 8, 1942. At this time, Belgium had fallen to the Nazis along with France and the Netherlands, two years earlier. The Battle of Britain had also passed, and Belgium is occupied at this time.
Djangology leads the piece with a brief solo, then the Stan Brenders and Son Grand Orchestra performers are added in, and Django is prominently mixed to be in the front of the orchestra. Note the lack of violinist Stephan Grappelli. He remains in London during the WW2. Here is an early example of jazz guitar with a LEAD role within a large orchestra. The very young jazz guitarist Charlie Christian has died two months earlier in New York.
Without further adieu, Djangology (composed by D. Reinhardt), recorded in 1942
Djangology (D. Reinhardt), from the VERVE Jazz Masters Compilation 1994
Recorded in: Brussels May 8, 1942
- Personnel Included members of the Stan Brenders and Son Grand Orchestra
M5 Blues Clair (D. Reinhardt), rec 2/26/1943, _______, 3:01 [Capitol-Bluenote Compilation 1996]
Blues Clair is a 12-bar blues format but in a happy major scale and without the commonly used Pentatonic scale of American Blues. Django demonstrates a number of bizaar techniques here, including some fabulous fast-strumming chords , the use of ringing harmonics, and picking strings beyond the guitar bridge. Listen to these strange techniques, all played together, mid song…
We also hear Django’s high paced single-note guitar lead delivery. There is a drum part in this song, not commonly done, in earlier recordings of Quintette du Hot Club de France, the guitar strumming and bass provided all of the percussion.
Recorded in: 1943
Personnel Included
- Django Reinhardt G
- Eugene Vees RG
- Gaston Leonard D
- Jean Storne B
Now we switch gears and go to SONGS POST WW2. It is now early 1946, eight months after the capture of Berlin by Polish and Soviet forces.
M6 Belleville (D. Reinhardt), rec 2/1/1946, London, 3:15 [VERVE Jazz Masters Compilation 1994]
We start with Belleville, a Django composition. We are back with the Quintette du Hot Club de France and Stephane Grappelli again, recording in LONDON. There are two rhythm guitarists and a bass.
Belleville (D. Reinhardt composition),
Recorded in: London, 1946
Personnel of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with
- Stephanie Grappelli VN
- Django Reinhardt G
- Jack Llewellyn G
- Alan Hodgkiss G
- Coleridge Goode B
M7 Nuages (D. Reinhardt-J. Larue), rec 2/1/1946, London, 3:15 [VERVE Jazz Masters Compilation 1994]
Nuages, French for Clouds. Nuages is another jazz standard, it is frequently played and has been reincarnated or emulated in two other songs, for example,
Melancholy Serenade, the theme song of the Jackie Gleason Show, and
Sand, the Hawaiian sounding steel guitar instrumental by Jerry Byrd.
And now the original classic, NUAGES, with a unique guitar introduction, recorded in 1946 in London
Recorded in: 1946 in London
Personnel Included
- Personnel of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with
- Stephanie Grappelli VN
- Django Reinhardt G
- Jack Llewellyn G
- Alan Hodgkiss G
- Coleridge Goode B
M8 Swing 48 (D. Reinhardt), rec 7/6/1947, Paris, 2:45 [VERVE Jazz Masters Compilation 1994]
Next up is SWING 48. Another Django original composition. We are back in Paris now. The personnel have changed. We have Hubert Rostaing on CLARINET, instead of Grappelli on violin. Now DJANGO is performing on ELECTRIC GUITAR. This I different kind of sound all together. Recorded in 1947, Django is BLAZING on guitar. His younger brother Joseph is on rhythm guitar. And we have the jazz drummer Andre Jourdan … Swing 48, composed by Django, performed on an electric / acoustic guitar.
Recorded in: Paris, 1947
- Personnel of the Quintette du Hot Club de France with
- Hubert Rostaing CL
- Django Reinhardt G
- Joseph Reinhardt G
- Ladislas Czabanyck B
- Andre Jourdan D
M9 Brick Top (D. Reinhardt-S. Grappelli), rec Feb 1949, Rome, 3:42 [Djangology remaster 1961]
M10 Night and Day (C. Porter), rec 3/10/1953, Paris, 2:51 [VERVE Jazz Masters Compilation 1994]
Next up is Night and Day (C. Porter), rec 3/10/1953, Paris. In the Django Reinhardt et Ses Rythmes we hear PIANO, DRUM, BASS and GUITAR. In the electric guitar work, we hear a prediction of the sounds of SUSTAIN and DISTORTION effects. For DJANGO, this is both a demonstration of his TECHNICAL PROWESS and wonderful MUSICAL CONTENT. Just two months after this recording, while walking from the Fontainebleau-Avon railway station after playing in a Paris club, he collapsed outside his house from a brain hemorrhage. Reinhardt was declared dead on arrival at the hospital in Fontainebleau at age 43.
Recorded in:Paris, 1953, just two months before Dango’s untimely death in France.
- Personnel of the Django Reinhardt et Ses Rythmes
- Django Reinhardt G
- Maurice Vander P
- Pierre Michelot B
- Jean Louis Viale D