Django's daughter ? song title

TonyRees

Thanks Stuology - both your points possible of course, especially if the families were related in some way... Likely? Someone would have to ask Sandra!

scot

I found an academic paper about Sandra Jayat in my library, and it's a bit obtuse but does give up some useful information. Tony's guess is correct - she made her journey to Paris in 1955 when she was 15 and was devastated to learn that he'd been dead for several years. In her autobiography, she says she was "adopted" by the Reinhardt family and remained lifelong friends with Naguine and both sons. The versions of Minor Swing and Tears on the record were taken from the 1947 RDF broadcast, both versions sped up a half step. No doubt that's why they sounded odd to me as my ear is normally infallible 🤣😑.

She's had an interesting life, apparently still active in Roma arts and politics in Paris, but not a person who actually knew Django.

Here's the flip side.

Sandra Jayat chante Django Reinhardt - Comme Leau Claire (Tears).mp3

TonyRees

Thanks Scot! "Adopted" by Django's surviving family at age 15 or so might in fact give her an honorary "daughter" status, then, so maybe not as far fetched as first appeared...

TonyRees

Photo of Sandra with Naguine looking on here: https://www.facebook.com/django.liberchies/posts/pfbid02sRprLBaNvx6t7MMtzy8zNspF6XTqQzX3vkVnxdb37NKCyQE5EEW5ivm9wWsUH2fzl

... Tony

TonyRees

Pertinent extracts from Begoña Barrera "Chapter 2 The Long Road in Search of a Tzigane Language: Sandra Jayat", located via the web (full reference is Begoña Barrera: ‘The Long Road in Search of a Tzigane Language: Sandra Jayat’, in Eve Rosenhaft and María Sierra, eds, European Roma Lives Beyond Stereotypes (Liverpool 2022).)

"Closely following the remembered testimony of her grandfather, Jayat told how the rest of her family decided to cross [from Italy] into France in search of peace after some family members were imprisoned. It was while they were crossing the border “somewhere between two countries” that Sandra Jayat was born, between 1938 and 1939 ... At some unspecified point, probably still during the war, the continuous attacks and abuse aimed at family members who had refused to hide led them all to decide to set off on their travels once more in search of peace, this time to the south of France (i.e. the unoccupied territory where the internment policy did not apply) ...

By the time Jayat had turned 14, her group was on the move again through Lombardy, and the reference point is a camp close to Sesto Calende on the banks of Lake Maggiore. Her two most important autobiographical stories both begin here, in this camp, on the eve of her fifteenth birthday, when her grandfather told her that she would be married the next day. The prospect of a rushed, forced wedding terrified Jayat so much that she abandoned the camp where she had grown up ... At some point in her journey, or maybe before starting it, Jayat made it her first objective to cross the border into France and then make her way to Paris to meet a “cousin”, a musician whom her grandfather had talked about for years, Django Reinhardt.

...Jayat reached Paris in spring 1955. She managed to survive in the early months thanks to a Jewish family who gave her somewhere to stay in their home and later let her use a small studio in the heart of Montmartre where she started to paint, write and establish her first contacts with the world of art and literature. These early friendships played a crucial role in enabling Jayat to make contact with the family of Django Reinhardt, who had died barely two years before she arrived in the French capital. Even though she was never able to meet him personally, the memory of Django became a constant motif in her work and a strategy that she employed time and again to assert herself in the artistic and intellectual circles of 1950s Paris.

... in 1963, when Jayat published her second book, Lunes nomades, her calling to find her own individual voice and demonstrate that her Manouche origin could be a source of inspiration that personalized her work already seemed clear. Lunes nomades returned to the same subjects that had already appeared in Herbes manouches and included new references, such as the poem dedicated to her close friend “Babik, son of Django”, a direct reference to the artistic genealogy that she sought to emulate."

(Full text at https://idus.us.es/bitstream/handle/11441/136362/Barrera_European%20Roma_53_70.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y)

TonyRees

And here is a transcript of the interview in the film snippet:

"We go meet Django's daughter with Pierre Guillermo. You come, let's go. She left her caravan and now lives in a modern apartment here's Django Reinhardt's daughter.

Sandra Jayat who are you? I am first Sandra Jayat and if you wonder what race I am, I am gypsy. And you are the daughter of a great musician? Django is so big for us he's more than a brother, there's not a word to describe him. You knew him well? No because I was too young. You just released a disc where you recite poems over Django's music. Yes it was La Guigne's wish. La Guigne is Django Reinhardt's wife. Can you recite us a poem?

Forbidden to nomads, forbidden to nomads, why not forbidden to the waves of the sea, forbidden to nomads.

You are not nostalgic about the life in caravan? It's been a long time since you left the caravan? I was 15. I left on a whim. Nomads go away with the aura and they come back with their music."

TonyRees

And (my last contribution on the subject?) here is Sandra's poem "Django" (English translation)...

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=j8Zg31lFgLsC&pg=PA57&lpg=PA57&dq=%22Django%22,+Sandra+Jayat&source=bl&ots=k3Bamn_7CE&sig=ACfU3U0AbYjJHIYK4dhN0RrapfOupm-SFA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwir14zZ9478AhXjcWwGHW08DocQ6AF6BQi7ARAD#v=onepage&q=%22Django%22%2C%20Sandra%20Jayat&f=false

TonyRees

OK, I spoke too soon: a couple more things:

This lady gives an account of a meeting she arranged with Sandra Jayat in 2013, including a contemporary photograph (Google translate is your friend): https://larevolutioninterieure.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/le-fabuleux-destin-de-sandra-jayat/

This page shows a number of her works (paintings and poems): https://www.icem-pedagogie-freinet.org/sites/default/files/creations_n_52_p_20-25.pdf

Not really any mention of Django, but interesting / remarkable all the same!

Cheers - Tony

TonyRees

OK - after a week or so reading and internet sleuthing, I have created the following article on Sandra Jayat for English Wikipedia - take a look if interested. Happy to add any more info to hand (must be "published sources" - blogs etc. do not normally count) or correct any errors, etc. Enjoy... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Jayat

Regards Tony

TonyRees

Hi Scot, you wrote:

>In her autobiography, she says she was "adopted" by the Reinhardt family

I wonder if you can transcribe the relevant sentence for me, if it is not too long - if so, I can add it to the article... (sorry, I do not have access to the original French text).

Regards Tony