Where did this lick come from?

csdefehr

n the video of stochelo playing a solo piece from a django documentary on youtube ( ) that first descending riff ive heard played by joscho stephan, fapy lafertin and bireli. Its beautiful and through the process of hearing it for years and learning it ive been very curious as to its origins. Is it a django concoction? If so from which song? Its kind of similar to the beginning of improv 2 but not quite the same. Just curious if anyone has more info on this one thanks a bunch

Al Watsky

Lines like that are called sequences. Any grouping of notes repeated at a set interval ascending or descending can be classified as a sequence. Sequential writing became a fixture in the late classical and early romantic period and has continued to be used and is in a sense a gestural element the lends urgency and pathos . Some folks dislike sequences that repeat more than 3 times, as its thought to be somewhat predictable after the 4th repetition.
Other folks love the heck out of sequences. Its a matter of taste. Anyhow, this sort of sequential thinking as a hallmark of plenty of early 20th century classical music and as such would have been in the air in Europe in Djangos day and later, much as Chuck Berry licks are the stuff of legend in the USA.

wim

I don't know which Django tune had it first, but Benoit has a nice one full of semitones. He maybe uses it too much , because its very distinctive and you can be sure any Benoit gig you go to you're going to hear some variation of it once or twice ... but here you go anyway about 30 seconds in

Al Watsky

Its interesting to note that if you listen to Django's Improvisations , his solo pieces, you will hear melodic elements and harmonic patterns that echo Villa Lobos Etudes and Preludes.
Our man had big ears and was no stranger to Debussy or Stravinsky either. Many of the sequences that are used as a stylistic element in GJ first appeared in the classical literature .
The guitar lends it self easily to sequential thinking as its a bit of a repeating pattern gadget in many ways.
The real trick is to not pander to flash and really improvise. Its harder though, so most folks rely on patterns and formulas which though effective lack real melodic content.