Honeysuckle rose django reinhardt biography

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Additional problems occurred around the dilemma of Django never having learned to tune his own guitar he had always relied upon his brother Joseph. Allegedly, one night Reinhardt was given, on stage, an untuned guitar to play with and the great musician fumbled for five whole minutes to tune it himself. Another difficulty was that Django, used to playing the Selmer Maccaferri, the guitar that he made famous, was required to play a new amplified model for the American tour.

Honeysuckle rose django reinhardt biography: Jean Reinhardt (23 January – 16

After "going electric," the results were not as well received by fans. Disappointed, Reinhardt returned to France that honeysuckle rose django reinhardt biography year with his dreams of becoming a great American star broken, though this did not keep him from delving deeper into his career and music. One noteworthy gain from the trip to America was that he had left France playing swing, but returned thinking of beebop and modern jazz which would be the new direction he ultimately took.

As Django aged, he would spend the majority of his days re-immersing himself in gypsy life, having found it difficult to adjust to the modern world. He would sometimes show up for concerts without a guitar or amp, or wander off to the park or beach when he was due to perform. On a few occasions he even refused to get out of bed. However, he did continue to compose and entertain audiences, although irregularly, and in recruited a few Italian jazz players on basspianoand snare drum along with compatriot Grappelli on violin to record one of his most acclaimed contributions to the jazz world, "Djangology.

Inhe retired to Samois sur Seine, France, near Fontainebleau. He lived there for two years until May 16,when, while returning from the Avon, Seine-et-Marne train station, he collapsed outside his house from a brain hemorrhage. It took a full day for a doctor to arrive and Django was declared dead on arrival at the hospital in Fontainebleau.

Both in his personal nature and in the nature of his music, Django displayed the character of a dreamer. Despite his exceptional natural talent, during his early career, Reinhardt, unexplicably, could neither read nor write music and was barely literate at all. Moreover, he had general difficulties living amidst the present-day culture. In his apartment, he would sometimes leave water running to mimic the sound of a stream, and he hated electric lights preferring instead lanterns.

Not one to talk much, he was compared to Harpo Marx when on stage, more inclined to speak through his guitar than out his mouth. As well, Reinhardt was known by his band, fans, and managers to be extremely unpredictable. He would often skip sold-out concerts to simply walk to the beach or "smell the dew. Indeed, Reinhardt was a family man, having been raised amongst the gypsy people who are famous for the alliance of their extended tribe.

Django was around his family all the time; when he was not hiding out with them, they would go to where he was. Wherever he stayed, in fact, became an encampment for his extended family. Django's compositions were sometimes jaunty, sometimes sad. One of his most famous pieces is the melancholic "Nuages," meaning "Clouds," which became the ersatz anthem for the French, invoking the sweeter feelings of the days before the war.

His music is a reflection of his serene nature, or at least his nature which compels him to seek serenity, which was most often in the comfort of his past. Django Reinhardt played by and from his heart, driven to excel in his craft out of his love for it more than his duty to it. He only played when the spirit moved him, and perhaps behaved similarly in many other facets of his life, as well.

Due to this nature, Django may have been a bit detached from the world of practicality, more often adrift in the realm of spirit from where his ardent affection for music stemmed from. Many musicians have expressed admiration for Reinhardt, including guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, classical guitarist Julian Bream; country artist Chet Atkinswho placed Reinhardt 1 on a list of the ten greatest guitarists of the twentieth century; Latin rocker Carlos Santana; blues legend B.

This technique permits him to play with an inconceivable velocity and makes his instrument completely versatile. Though his virtuosity is stupefying, it is no less so than his creative invention. In his solos [ Django's ability to bend his guitar to the most fantastic audacities, combined with his expressive inflections and vibrato, is no less wonderful; one feels an extraordinary flame burning through every note.

Reinhardt set new standards by an almost incredible and hitherto unthought-of technique His ideas have a freshness and spontaneity that are at once fascinating and alluring His relative association of experience, reinforced by a profound rational knowledge of his instrument; the guitar's possibilities and limitations; his love for music and the expression of it—all are a necessary adjunct to the means of expressing these emotions.

Django-style enthusiast John Jorgenson has been quoted as saying:. Django's guitar playing always has so much personality in it, and seems to contain such joy and feeling that it is infectious. He also pushes himself to the edge nearly all the time, and rides a wave of inspiration that sometimes gets dangerous. Even the few times he does not quite make his ideas flow out flawlessly it is still so exciting that mistakes don't matter!

Django's seemingly never-ending bag of licks, tricks and colors always keep the song interesting, and his intensity level is rarely met by any guitarist. Django's technique was not only phenomenal, but it was personal and unique to him due to his handicap. It is very difficult to achieve the same tone, articulation and clarity using all 5 left hand fingers.

It is possible to get closer with only 2 fingers, but again is quite challenging. Probably the thing about this music that makes it always challenging and exciting to play is that Django raised the bar so high, that it is like chasing genius to get close to his level of playing. In his later style c. 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.

Wayne Jefferies, in his article "Django's Forgotten Era", writes:. Early inarmed with his amplified Maccaferri — which he used to the very end — he put together a new band of the best young modern musicians in Paris; including Hubert Fol, an altoist in the Charlie Parker mould. Although Django was twenty years older than the rest of the band, he was completely in command of the modern style.

Whilst his solos became less chordal and his lines more Christian -like, he retained his originality.

Honeysuckle rose django reinhardt biography: "Honeysuckle Rose" is a

I believe he should be rated much more highly as a be-bop guitarist. His infallible technique, his daring, 'on the edge' improvisations coupled with his vastly advanced harmonic sense, took him to musical heights that Christian and many other Bop musicians never came near. The live cuts from Club St. Germain in February are a revelation.

Django is on top form; full of new ideas that are executed with amazing fluidity, cutting angular lines that always retain that ferocious swing. Reinhardt's first son, Lousson a. Henri Baumgartnerplayed jazz in a mostly bebop style in the s and s. He followed the Romani lifestyle and was relatively little recorded. Reinhardt's second son, Babikbecame a guitarist in a more contemporary jazz style, and recorded a number of albums before his death in After Reinhardt died, his younger brother Joseph at first swore to abandon music, but he was persuaded to perform and record again.

Joseph's son Markus Reinhardt is a violinist in the Romani style. A third generation of direct descendants has developed as musicians: David Reinhardt, Reinhardt's grandson by his son Babikleads his own trio. Dallas Baumgartner, a great-grandson by Lousson, is a guitarist who travels with the Romani and keeps a low public profile. A distant relative, violinist Schnuckenack Reinhardtbecame known in Germany as a performer of gypsy music and gypsy jazz up to his death inand assisted in keeping Reinhardt's legacy alive through the period following Django's death.

Reinhardt is regarded as one of the greatest guitar players of all time, and the first important European jazz musician to make a major contribution with jazz guitar. Using a Selmer guitar in the mids, his style took on new volume and expressiveness. For about a decade after Reinhardt's death, interest in his musical style was minimal.

In the fifties, bebop superseded swing in jazz, rock and roll took off, and electric instruments became dominant in popular music. Since the mid-sixties, there has been a revival of interest in Reinhardt's music, a revival that has extended into the 21st century, with annual festivals and periodic tribute concerts. His devotees included classical guitarist Julian Bream and country guitarist Chet Atkinswho considered him one of the ten greatest guitarists of the twentieth century.

Honeysuckle rose django reinhardt biography: Born in , Romani-Belgian

Jazz guitarists in the U. Byrd, who lived from tosaid that Reinhardt was his primary influence. The rock musician Mike Peters noted that "the word 'genius' is bantered about too much. The popularity of gypsy jazz has generated an increasing number of festivals, such as the Festival Django Reinhardt held every last weekend of June since in Samois-sur-Seine France[ 48 ] [ 49 ] and since in nearby Fontainebleau ; the various DjangoFests held throughout Europe [ 50 ] and the US; and "Django in June", an annual camp for Gypsy jazz musicians and aficionados held at Smith College in Massachusetts.

The instant I heard Django, I flipped. I chose his style because it spoke to me. He was too far ahead of his time. He was something else. 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".

He must have been playing all the time to be that good. Grateful Dead 's Jerry Garcia and Black Sabbath 's Tony Iommiboth 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 in Frets Magazine :. His technique is awesome! Even today, nobody has really come to the state that he was playing at.

As good as players are, they haven't gotten to where he is. There's a lot of guys that play fast and a lot of guys that play clean, and the guitar has come a long way as far as speed and clarity go, but nobody plays with the whole fullness of expression that Django has. I mean, the combination of incredible speed — all the speed you could possibly want — but also the thing of every note have a specific personality.

You don't hear it. I really haven't heard it anywhere but with Django. Django is still one of my main influences, I think, for lyricism. He can make me cry when I hear him. 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. Reinhardt recorded over sides in his recording career, from tothe majority as sides of the then-prevalent RPM records, with the remainder as acetates, transcription discs, private and off-air recordings of radio broadcastsand part of a film soundtrack.

Only one session eight tracks from March 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, [ 88 ] and an index of individual tunes is available from the source cited here. Since his death, Reinhardt's music has been released on many compilations. 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.

The names "Gagoug" and "Choti" were reportedly conferred by Reinhardt's widow Naguine on request from Matelo, who had learned the tunes without names. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Romani-French jazz musician — FontainebleauFrance [ 1 ].

Florine Mayer. Sophie Ziegler. Musical honeysuckle rose django reinhardt biography. Biography [ edit ]. Early life [ edit ]. Marriage and injury [ edit ]. Discovery of jazz [ edit ]. Formation of the quintet [ edit ]. Second World War [ edit ]. United States tour [ edit ]. After the quintet [ edit ]. Final years [ edit ]. Technique and musical approach [ edit ].

Family [ edit ]. Legacy [ edit ]. Main article: Gypsy jazz. Influence [ edit ]. French recording artist, Serge Krief [ 53 ].