Data » Personalities » Django Reinhardt http://romani.uni-graz.at/rombase Django Reinhardt Peter Wagner Today is the 1st of November, 1928, All Saint’s Day, late in the evening. The Reinhardt family shares this holiday with the souls of the deceased, particularly with a young one, only lately deceased, for whom the caravan has been decorated with artificial flowers. Young Django Reinhardt is returning from a concert, most probably preoccupied by an offer by Jack Holton, the English master of symphonic jazz, to move to him to England and play in his orchestra. Fate, however, had decreed otherwise. He lights the candles, and with them the flowers, and immediately the whole caravan catches fire; the family is glad to escape with their lives. For the young, promising musician, this incident is a catastrophe. His left leg is badly burnt, it will later have to be operated on, but what is worse, two fingers of his left hand remain unable to function, which is to lose the basis of existence for a goldsmith or a musician. But not Django Reinhardt. A fanatic love of music had already rooted in him, and a present – a guitar which should support his therapy – makes it break out. Notwithstanding his handicap, an inner need to express himself via music makes him return in all his virtuosity within one and a half years, equipped with additional, original means of expression. His new technique arouses amazement and curiosity with a whole generation of guitarists and musical researchers. It is difficult to judge the role of his handicap in this still significant– mainly among the Roma – school. Evidence of his pronounced solo character can be found also in the time before his accident; it can be heard in every single recording. He never subordinates himself to fashionable styles, resounding from juke boxes and bars at a particular time, but still does not lose the ability to play consonantly in a team. The famous American jazz saxophonist Benny Carter once said that Django Reinhardt simply was not able to play off key. Also on a general level, America is in ecstasies about him; his jazz quintet is the only European one to be featured in CBS’ documentary series on jazz. Some even consider him as the first European jazz musician with supra-regional influence. The instrumentalization of Django’s proper ensemble, the "Quintette du Hot Club de France" is also extraordinary. The violin is at that time a very unusual jazz instrument, and the combination with the guitar is practically unique, as is the lack of any kind of percussion, rejected as being too monotonous. It also disturbs because it is usually played the whole time through. Even the best drummers of that time were not able to dispel these conceptual reservations. The melodic emphasis, in most ensembles constituted by trumpet or saxophone, has to be replaces by the imaginativeness of the brilliant soloist Django Reinhardt playing the guitar and Stéphane Grappelli playing the violin. After the war, he is not fascinated by the new jazz styles which had developed outside of occupied France, but this is by no means a sign of exhausted creativity. That can be seen by the enthusiasm and virtuosity with which he takes up the electric guitar. His musical genius is finally revealed when he, in the 1950ies, effortlessly gains the upper hand over younger musicians after a long absence from the musical scene by quick passages or by casually played complex harmonies which are too difficult for the other musicians. The common denominator of his eccentric demeanor in everyday life and his musical creativity may be his inability to see what is common, what is right and proper, how to play, in short, what is "normal". Obviously, he has never gone beyond the limits on purpose, he just did not perceive them at all. This was his way to play the "unplayable". - 1 - Data » Personalities » Django Reinhardt http://romani.uni-graz.at/rombase Django, Musician and Artist For a member of a European majority population, Django’s way to music may seem unusual, but for many members of the Roma minority it is almost inevitable. For them, playing for the Gadže, that is the Non-Roma, whether French, Belgians or Germans, for money, for a dinner, for a basket full of food, for alcohol or tobacco is a tradition. Also, the methods of learning were very different. Django has never stood in front of a music stand, playing one étude after the other, but he grasped music from an early age on, by listening and repeating, and very soon by standing in for relatives at performances. But he does not get his education just like that, incidentally, thanks to his origin; he imposes hard work upon himself, always wanting to keep pace, never to humiliate himself, always wanting to prove himself. Thus, to a large extent, his virtuosity was not handed to him on a plate, thanks to his ethnic origin, but arises form a strong will, and untiring, hard work with the instrument. As an adult, things change, and he is a source of inspiration for his brother Joseph, his cousins' Eugene Vées und Joseph "Piton" Reinhardt, who then replaces him quite often – without loss for the audience. The young Django threads his way into the dance scene of Paris in the 1920ies. He becomes particularly involved in the valse manouche, so to speak the "gypsy waltz", at the so-called "Musette balls", later in the one-step and foxtrot. He does not have to prove his skill in playing the violin, and later the banjo, it is enough to refer to several competitions where he won first prize. At the same time, the guitar appears on the scene, which for him easily ties on to the banjo. As a diversion, he makes miniature models of caravans. During their visit in Paris, the Reinhardt family, apparently together with other families, stopped off in certain quarters, "zones", on the outskirts of Paris, like at Porte d’Italie, or Porte de Clichy, both uneconomic no man’s land with coal deposits, wooden huts, and the cravans of the Manouche. [→ Roma Groups] In the time after the accident, jazz appears on the musical scene. Thanks to the painter Émile Savitry’s connections, the "Hot Club de France", in Paris, offers him an engagement for recordings with the company Ultraphone, and later also for evening shows. There, he intensifies his musical relationship to violinist and autodidact Stéphane Grappelli, whose influence on Django Reinhardt can not be overestimated. Playing together with the academically trained talent is a challenge for him. At first, they play incidental music for silent films together, but then jazz won’t go out of Grappelli’s mind, and he buys himself a gramophone and learns to play the piano. Reinhardt and Grappelli, oral tradition and conservatory education, flashy and courtly, and additionally the inner tension between these two full-blooded jazz musicians are at the center of the famous "Quintette du Hot Club de France". The club’s manager, Charles Delauney, puts together the first version of the Quintette in 1934. Most of the time, they performed together with bass guitarist Louis Vola, originally an accordion player, and the guitarists Roger Chaput and Joseph Reinhardt, Django’s brother, unless one of them was replaced by a high-ranking guitarist like Baro Ferret. A jazz session is, like normal concerts, based on a repertoire of musical themes, but these are only the common elements that help the musicians to communicate. On such a basis, they can perfectly well play improvisations on the basic themes for forty minutes. This arrangement works beyond linguistic boundaries; playing together with an American jazz musician poses no problems. Additionally, Django Reinhardt’s capacity for understanding is praised by everybody; they quickly learn that it is not - 2 - Data » Personalities » Django Reinhardt http://romani.uni-graz.at/rombase necessary to be afraid of a public concert without previous rehearsal. Right from the start, the souls of the musicians are in accord with each other. On a certain level, Django feels to be in accord with Johann Sebastian Bach, who differs only in so far as the latter set down his ideas on paper. Thanks to his reputation, Django Reinhardt and the leading lights of the American jazz scene, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Smith, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, or Duke Ellington, sought each other during their concert tours in Europe and America. During their joint sessions in studios and concert halls, unique works of art came into being; they cannot even be disturbed by the fact that the Bohemian Django leaves his guitar at home, believing that he will find one there. He does, but it is an electric one. During the war, his artistic creations are prolific. He rarely records in the studio, but in the evening he has more than enough gigs – jazz being considered a form of protest against the occupying forces’ regime. He founds his own club, "La Roulette", later called "Chez Django Reinhardt". He tours Belgium, the Provence, which is not occupied, and Algeria. His wish – an own jazz orchestra, – "Django’s Music" – comes true. Its members unfortunately do not have a permanent position, and go their own way after the war. On the basis of texts by the French poet Jean Cocteau he composes the opera "Le manoir de mes reves", but it is never performed. He also impresses the experts with an organ mass which he had composed in 1944 in honor of the French Roma’s – Manouche – holy place of pilgrimage, St.-Maries-de-la-mer, on the Riviera.