Django Reinhardt changed the very philosophy of the jazz guitar, turning it into a major solo instrument. At the age of twelve, Django Reinhardt was given his first banjo/guitar, a 6-string instrument he learned to play within a couple of months, astonishing everyone who cared to listen. When he was 13, he joined forces with the hugely popular accordionist Guerino at a small dance hall on Paris' smart Rue Monge on the right bank, where he quickly established a reputation as a virtuoso player.

Over the next 5 years he went from strength to strength and made his first recording in 1928 with another popular accordionist, Jean Vaissade. His name was spelled "Jiango" on the record label. Then, later in 1928, his left hand was badly burned when his caravan caught fire. For most guitar players damaging the last 2 fingers of the left hand would probably mean giving up playing. Not for this tough Belgian gypsy, it didn't.

Jean Baptiste 'Django' Reinhardt was born on January 23rd, 1910, into a family of nomadic gypsies just outside the Belgian village of Liberchies. At the age of eight, his mother (who was well known in the gypsy world as a singer and dancer) moved her family near to the Choisy Gate - one of the many gates in the ancient fortified walls of Paris - where her small tribe quickly became a part of a larger settlement of French gypsies. This closeness to Paris was, for the young Django, a huge draw that gradually took him away from gypsy life - although he didn't live in a house until he was twenty, and only began to dress smartly when he realised it was part and parcel of any success he might achieve.

By the early 1930s, as jazz writer Ken Sykora reminds us, rumours of a " brilliant gypsy guitarist were spreading through Europe, and these were confirmed in 1934 with the formation [ with Stephane Grappelly] of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, the first string quintet in jazz...", which toured throughout Europe. The London leg of the tour was a triumph, with the editor of the music paper, Melody Maker, writing in 1938: "What can one say of Reinhardt adequately to appraise his enormous talents? His command of the instrument, his own self developed technique, the subtle nuances imparted to every note struck, the terrific fecundity of his musical imagination."

With the outbreak of war, in 1939, Reinhardt made his way back to France, leaving both his wife and Grappelly in Britain. Throughout the war he continued to play (with the help of Luftwaffe officer Deitrich Schulz-Kohn, known as 'Doktor Jazz') in the Paris clubs, this time with the clarinet accompaniment of Hubert Rostaing, instead of Grappelly's violin. Reinhardt has often been criticised for staying in Paris during the war and playing to audiences of mainly German officers, but if you listen to the recordings he made during those war years you'll hear many references to Jewish 'Klezmer' music that are strong ironic references to the German occupation.

After the war he re-joined Grappelly in England, before touring the US, where he played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Back in France he began to experiment with be-bop and the electric guitar in his attempt to always stay ahead musically. In 1951 he retired to the town of Samois-sur-Seine where, in 1953, he died from a massive brain haemorrhage.

Learn more about this author, Steve Newman.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Biography: Django Reinhardt?
We want to hear your view. Write now!