French Gypsy Jazz guitar legend Django Reinhardt made more music with two fingers than most mortals could with twenty.
Django Reinhardt, originally named Jean Reinhardt, was born on January 10, 1910 in Liberchies, Belgium and died May 16, 1953 in Fontainebleau, France. He was of Roma (Gypsy) parentage. He lived his young life on the outskirts of Paris in a disreputable area called la Zone where the gypsies, in medieval tradition, gathered their caravans.
He traveled through France and Belgium as a boy and young man learning to play violin, guitar and banjo. Although he was self-taught, he was amazingly skillful and soon was performing on street corners and in cafes. WWI had brought jazz to Paris and Django was entranced by this new music, soon mastering the art of improvisation.
On October 26, 1928, Django was severely burned, his left hand maimed, in a caravan fire. During many months of recuperation he taught himself to play again using primarily the index and third fingers of his left hand.
In 1934 the guitarist met violinist Stephane Grappelli who was to become his musical partner for some 15 years in Le Quintette du Hot Club de France. The Quintette toured Europe and recorded with great success until the beginning of WWII. Reinhardt returned to France where he became further immersed in jazz. During his career he played with many famous American musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, and Louis Armstrong.
In 1946 Duke Ellington invited Django to join his band in the U.S. where he was introduced to the electric guitar which he quickly mastered. Ellington’s drummer Sonny Greer was awed by Django: “…That cat could take a guitar and make it talk. Nobody played like him….” Upon returning to Paris, Django organized his Nouveau Quintette (occasionally joined by Grappelli), and began touring again. But as a biographer said, “He came to America playing swing. He returned to Paris playing modern jazz.”
The pressures of the music eventually led Django to hang up his guitar, during which time he devoted himself to painting. He emerged in 1951, revered by American jazz musicians who flocked to play with him. But he left Paris in his caravan and took his family to Samois-sur-Seine. In 1953 American impresario Norman Granz lured him out of seclusion for Jazz at the Philharmonic. Before he could join the tour, Django suffered a stroke and died on May 16, 1953, just 43 years old. – Sandra Burlingame, Earshot Jazz
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