Which Django Era?

Buco

I really do love'em all but I voted for early stuff. And I am listening to the postwar stuff as I write, I love the la pompe, big band experiments, Stimer sound, everything. Listening to the postwar stuff is what made me think about this thread and I decided to write it down.
The thing the way I see it is that the genius of Django sound is with the Quintette. But I emphasize; not Django as a soloist, the whole group.
When I first heard the Quintette in my early teens, I was immediately struck with with THE sound. It was audibly very old but so entirely new and original and infectious.
Somehow I don't think I would have had the same reaction if I had heard any of the other periods first.
After a while and after listening to all of Django's music so much, the classic Quintette sound is so familiar that it has lost some of it's initial dazzle but it still has the same ingenuity.

Bob Holo

Stringswinger wrote: »

I think Fapy is a bit of a one trick pony. He plays Django's pre-war stuff as well as anyone ever could and is admired (rightfully so) for it. It is not my cup of tea, but I think in the world of Gypsy jazz, it may be the taste of the majority of the Djangophiles.

Lol, no.

Billy Ray Cyrus is a one trick pony. Fapy is not. Mastering and adding to a genre, and being successful in it for 40+ years does not make a musician a one trick pony. It makes them a successful musician with a genre preference. Here tickle your ears with this for a few moments.

Matteo

I like Django's playing in all eras; he always has something to say. There is a string (pun intended) of recordings 1936-37 without which life undoubtedly wouldn't be the same. But I'd say that he got better and better over the years. Also, I somehow prefer clarinet over violin to complement Django's guitar soloing. It seems to me that the clarinet and the Selmer style guitar were made for each other, a perfect match! Ok, how is the voting going?

David F.

Allow me to offer an idea about Django's earliest period--the exuberance and sort of unedited approach reminds me of early 60's rock guitarists who had just started playing electric instruments, the feeling of starting to enjoy making a different noise. The three modern guitarists? My choice would be Bireli for ranging far and wide but coming back to jazz manouche.

Svanis1337

When I first heard Django, the music didn't immediately click with me. It was just jazz with a guitar and violin. But after listening some more I realized I had memorised entire solos after just one or two plays. Then all of a sudden I just understood the music, in an almost transcendental way. It was a kick in the head, as Dean Martin sang. (A pleasant one. :giggle:)

It turned out that Django's music had everything that I relish in music, things I hadn't realised before. A good melodic vocabulary, and rhythm. To be able to swing in such a way with his sophistication just blew my mind at the time. And don't get me started on his composing skills - my god! The great tunes he made. Hearing Nuages for the first time was like never having heard Für Elise before. It was so obviously great. Manoir De Mes Reves still has one of the most beautiful solos I've ever heard in my life.

I'll admit that the sheer novelty of the early recordings is what first got me interested, as well as some of his best known WWII recordings. Nowadays, I really like some of the 1947 stuff, especially with Grappelli. I hate to say it but Grappelli's pre-war sound could get a little grating at times, but after their reunion in 1946 he was on fire!

It's very hard to choose which era I like the most, I share similar opinions to those who have already posted, but I voted post-war 1947-1953 simply because it has the most variety.



The sound quality on a few of the 1947 recordings might be off-putting to some, but I've found much higher quality copies of some of the recordings than what is offered on Intégrale. (Nuages, Daphné...) Unfortunately they're spread out on different CD's so you can't get them all in one package.

Teddy Dupont

Well the 1947-1953 era came out tops which does not fit in with most people's perception of Gypsy Jazz and is the period where many critics say Django lost his way and his edge.

Jazzaferri

who pays attention to critics....though 47 to 50 I think he was going through some changes in his head

Teddy Dupont

Jazzaferri wrote: »

who pays attention to critics....though 47 to 50 I think he was going through some changes in his head

I always find it irritating when critics dismiss Django's post war playing. He produced some great music between 1946 and his death. One has to accept that he was no longer at the forefront of jazz guitar development as he had been for so many years but his creativity remained undiminished and his ability to adapt to the new music remarkable. His popularity had gone and he was criticised for either not playing like he used to or not sounding modern enough.

However, by 1953, I think he was once again at the cutting edge of jazz guitar evolution. Just listen to this:-

Svanis1337

Django and the Quintet is what most people agree was the most innovative period. The beginning of European Jazz et.c. When you take the Quintet away and leave just Django, that's where the critique begins. I think they don't hear past the new ensembles and get the bigger picture of Django's development. After the war broke out, how could he ever top the original quintet? He couldn't, and with the Noveau Quintet formula and by branching out, conducting his own Big Band et.c. He developed, and did not just manage to keep his stardom intact, he increased it. He managed to become even more the center of attention, which he seemed to have always sought in life. But by doing this he sacrificed the original formula which had gotten him so far (who can blame him? Stéphane wasn't around anymore.) and this is probably why critics insist that this was the beginning of the end, even more so after the war when the new jazz reached Europe.

Who knows?

Teddy Dupont wrote: »

However, by 1953, I think he was once again at the cutting edge of jazz guitar evolution. Just listen to this:-

That version is fantastic. Jimmy Rosenberg did a homage to this recording at Bimhuis in 2007 throwing in some of Django's different solos:

Jazzaferri

As Jazz at its best is a meeting of the minds, I suspect that his reluctance to travel made it harder to find players who were musically compatible.

When I listen to his later stuff, which is my fave period, I mostly hear Django and his ideas. Quite different from say Mile's first great quintette (sextet briefly) where the symbiosis is soooo evident.

Where would he have taken jazz and particularly guitar if he had been able to play along with Oscar Peterson, Miles, Bird, Dizzy, Coltrane, etc etc. I think perhaps at times he may have felt some frustration around that. Hard to imagine what would have come out of a quintette with Django, Bird, Dizzy and say Paul Chambers and Philly Jo Jones.