literature help

ivana_serbia

Hello everyone,

I’m writting an essay on Gipsy jazz and Django for my history of jazz exam please if you have any recommendation for literature that i could use send me a link, or pdf file
Thanks for help!!

Greetings from Serbia!

AmundLauritzen

You might want to check out the book "Django" by Michael Dregni. I bought it here on Djangobooks. It's so well written you won't be able to put it down. It will make writing your essay a breeze

I thought I knew a lot about Django, but I was wrong. I learned so much from the book. The historical details related to his career that you might want to consider for your essay are there, but there are also the details about Djangos peculiar mannerisms and behavior that really made it entertaining for me. It's not only "Django the guitar player" but also a big focus on all the other things in his life.

Jazzaferri

The other one that gives quite a different view is by Charles Delauney, and as he new Django well, it does provide some insights and quite a different perspective.

Also Dregni's second book on searching fro the spirit of Django is really excellent, in quite a different way. For your essay, whether it be Delauney or Dregni, hopefully one will be in your local livrary.

Michael Bauer

1. Charles Dalaunay/ Django Reinhardt
2. Michael Dregni/ Django
3. Michael Dregni/ Gypsy Jazz
4. Michael Dregni/ Django Reinhardt and the Illustrated History of Gypsy Jazz
5. Benjamin Givan/ The Music of Django Reinhardt
6. Ian Cruickshank/ Django's Gypsies
7. Paul Balmer/ Stephane Grapelli
8. Francois Charle/ The Story of Selmer-Maccaferri Guitars

These are the major ones in English that I can think of, although the Dalaunay book is translated from French, and I am certain there are other good ones.

In French, Alain Antoinietto has written a biography and numerous articles on Django, including the great liner booklet to the CD collection, Gipsy School, which is also translated into English.

I'm sure I have missed a bunch, but these are a good start. There is also a DVD called "Swing Guitar: The Genius of Django Reinhardt", which isn't great, but is good.

Lango-Django

The Paul Balmer Grappelli book is a pretty good one, too:

http://www.amazon.ca/Stephane-Grappelli ... B003Q6CQUW

I don't own it but managed to read most of it standing up at a bookstore, and what I liked best about it was that it included a full photographic version of the famous letter that Django once managed to write to Grappelli, in childish block letters chocked with cute mis-spellings.

I'd often read about this letter but had never actually seen it. And come to think of it, it's too bad that last winter's Django exhibition at the Cite de la Musique in Paris didn't have this artifact on display... I wonder who now owns the original?