Release Date: 06 January 2001
Label: Naxos - Jazz Legends / Naxos Jazz Legends
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 636943257524
Genres: Jazz
Description
DJANGO REINHARDTVol. 2: 1938-1939Classic recordings by the Quintet of the Hot Club of France Volatile and unpredictable, Django Reinhardt was the first European musician to make a real impact on American jazz. A poet of the guitar, he was essentially a soloist and a star soloist at that but in the context of the Hot Club de France the wild extravagance of his personality and gypsy exuberance of his playing were complemented and controlled by the overall refinement of Grappelli: the group’s polished yet buoyant, uniquely infectious rhythm earned them a special place in the Pantheon of jazz history. Django was born Jean-Baptiste Reinhardt at Liberchies, near Charleroi, in Belgium on January 23, 1910. The son of an itinerant violinist-entertainer father and a gypsy dancer mother who were both active members of a Romany travelling troupe, his childhood was essentially an unstable and nomadic existence spent in caravans. Musically speaking, as in other ways, Django was left largely to his own devices. A self-taught, prodigious talent who by his teens was already a fully-fledged multi-instrumentalist (violin, banjo and guitar), he quickly absorbed all the latest trends. Popular in Parisian cafés and cabarets, his style of playing became renowned for its synthesising of imported American jazz with traditional gypsy rhythms. Following a period of convalescence from a caravan fire in 1928 (owing to an injury sustained to his left hand he had to develop a special technique to make up for the paralysis of two fingers), he worked for several years as an accompanist to various prominent Parisian cabaret singers, most notably Jean Sablon. During 1933, he first gigged with Grappelli in André Ekyan’s band at the avant garde Croix du Sud and the following year the two were the founding star-turns of the group which became known as the Quintette du Hot Club de France.Stephane Grappelli was born in Paris on January 26, 1908. The son of an immigrant Italian dancer and would-be business entrepreneur, his artistic aspirations inclined first towards dancing (he trained as a child at the school of Isadora Duncan) but, stirred by classical music, he took a serious interest in the violin from the age of twelve. He underwent formal training at the Paris Conservatoire but by the late 1920s, like his future colleague Django, had fallen under the spell of such American jazz giants as Armstrong and Beiderbecke, and was particularly influenced by the violinist Venuti. By the mid-1920s he was already playing both piano and violin in silent cinemas, by 1927 was jazzing at Parisian society functions and in 1928, while still a pianist with Grégor et ses Grégoriens, first made the switch to jazz violin. Following various tours of southern France and South America, by 1931 Stephane was regularly heard at the Croix du Sud. In October 1932, he rejoined Grégor at the Olympia and went with this ensemble on tour to Zurich, Lugano, Milan, Rome a
Tracklisting
Various
Waller, Fats
Waller, Fats
Venuti, Joe
Vaughan
Various Artists
Various
Various
