Django Reinhardt (1910 - 1953 )
Django spent most of WWII in Paris, where probably his fame saved him from being sent to concentration camps, like thousands of other gypsies in Europe during the Nazi occupation. After the war, in 1946, he acquired a more international profile, as he was invited by Duke Ellington to tour the United States. Somehow this was not a very successful experience, and he then returned to France. Upon his return, he kept a lower profile for live performances and an active recording activity. During this period, the famous Djangology was released. Few years later, in 1953, he died of a brain hemorrhage. Django Reinhardt left behind a music genre and subculture that remains active to this day. His style is unique and sounds as fresh and lively today, 80 years afters it was first conceived. There are bands and festivals around the globe dedicated to this guitar genius. To this day, he still has a spot at the most select league of guitar players and musicians in history.
Based on several accounts, Django Reinhardt possessed perfect pitch, a gift that explains in part how be became such an accomplished self-taught musician. As he was almost illiterate and didn’t know much music theory, his natural musical talent becomes evident. Therefore, jazz improvisation was a perfect match for him and he ventured into complicated music structures in a way even the most educated musicians would never dare to.
Often his speed is accomplished by executing very fast picking in his right hand, while playing single notes or two or three notes chords (even though he only had two working fingers, he would use the remaining two to help with chords). Another characteristic of his playing is the use of chromatic phrases. This is common in jazz, but I also think it is in part because of his short reach limitation in his left hand. He would complement his fluent phrasing with explosive short burst of notes. He knew exactly where and how to place them in such a tasteful way, which is one of the characteristics I admire the most about Django’s playing; a musical finesse seen only few times in guitar history. Another important feature of his phrasing are his characteristic three-note arpeggios, sometimes played at bursting speeds. In doing so, he would be the pioneer of the sweep-picking technique later used in the 1980’s by neo-classical rock guitar players. Django would play three-note arpeggios by using the first finger (index) as a pivot and then using the second finger (middle) as the moving finger for the first and third notes of the arpeggio. Actually, an important part of his phrasing is played in 3-note intervals or blocks. The way he starts and finishes his phrases is done this way and the end result is commonly "sentences" of multiple-of-3 number of notes (i.e. 6,9,12). Again, this is very likely to be a result of having only two working fingers in his left hand. Although his jumpy phrasing is universally famous, he had a very tasteful approach for ballads as well. Overall, his guitar style is the subject of multiple studies and books.
Django Reinhardt played Selmer-Maccaferri guitars, back then known as the "Modele Jazz" and later changed to "Modele Django Reinhardt". These are the main characteristics of these guitars:
These guitars are designed to produce a higher volume acoustic sound, which was accomplished by increasing the tension at the top of the instrument. This feature made these guitars popular in the jazz community, as back then guitar players had to compete with all the naturally louder instruments in a jazz ensemble (there was no amplification). He was known to use 0.010 – 0.046 gauge steel and silk strings and a thick guitar pick. Models #503 and #704 are the only ones confirmed to have belonged to him.
Album Highlights Django Reinhardt was known to record hundreds of singles (some sources set the number to around 1,000).
Videos There are not too many videos of Django Reinhardt. On this one, you can see few elements of his playing. From his bending technique to the way he finishes third notes by releasing the index finger to a lower note. Also, his characteristic fast picking. Another interesting feature is the way he has to skip strings to play notes that are far from each other. Interesting video where you can see Django’s approach to playing chords. I like the first part where he plays solo and alternates between scales, arpeggios and chords. This is a very interesting short documentary about Django’s life. It also has some interesting footage of him playing. Worth watching.
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