Django's Selmer

spatzo

Of course some transitional models of the Selmer did existed but they were only found at the beginning of the production when Selmer and Maccaferri parted that is to say round 1933 only.

Here's Selmer 445 for example that shows a round hole in an upper position and quite different compared to Selmer 704.

spatzo

Here's the "Italian" Selmer 704 after having been restaured

spatzo

Inside view...

Teddy Dupont

In an interview in 1946 when Django was in the UK, he said he had had the same guitar (a Selmer) for 6 years which means it was almost certainly the 503. But I'm sure other Selmers quickly passed through his hands. Guitars, as such, did not seem to interest him. In the same way as he, at least once, dumped a car because it had run out of petrol!!!

spatzo

In 1750 the stringed-instrument maker Antonio Monzino settled down in Contrada della Dogana Nr 4037 in Milano Italy to make violins and guitars. In 1929 Antonio Carlo VI one of his descendants will go to form to Mirecourt in France then to Markneukirchen in Germany and will return finally in Italy to continue the family business which did not moreover stop since 1750. He will then open a store to the public in Milan, store which will be kept by his aunt Rosa Garlandini, via Larga, in the number 20.

In 1950 Django played and recorded on a Mogar (Monzino & Garlandini) which had been lent to him by the Roman singer Nino Fruscella who was engaged in Rome in the same club as Django: the Open Gate Club. In fact the Open Gate was both a jazz Club and a restaurant on separated premises.

spatzo

Nino Fruscella remembers those days:

"In 1950 I played the guitar in the " Tevere Blu " show in the theater of the Open Gate, a place where the upper middle class of the Rome used to go. This theater is now closed quite a long time ago. The group consisted of Pepito Pignatelli on drums, Giancarlo Festa on piano and myself on guitar. The second entrance of the Open Gate was situated in a side street and leaded to the Night Club. There the atmosphere was insured by small groups which accompanied the evenings while at table people ate and drank. And it is in this night club that Django Reinhardt played during about twenty days with the Quintet of Hot Club of France and it is on this occasion that I met him.

In the evening, after the theater, I used to go to listen to him with the other fellow musicians. I remember that I was impressed by his speed and by the elegance of the phrasings which he executed with the two only valid fingers of his left hand. I had known that he lived not in the hotel but in a caravan outside the city. One day he broke his Selmer (nr. 704?) and knowing that at that time in Rome it was not easy to find a guitar I offered him my Mogar so that he can finish his commitment. Reinhardt kept the guitar about twenty days.

I remember that one day he collected on the ground a sharp object, a nail maybe and he began to scratch or rather to engrave his name on the harmonic table of the Mogar just below the signature and the caricature of my friend Renato Rascel. In fact the guitar was already full of these graffiti and it is doubtless the reason why Reinhardt urged to leave a memory in sign of gratitude for the loan. "

spatzo

Here's the famous signature:

spatzo

The Mogar was used by Django for the 1950 recordings at the italian RAI

spatzo

Here's a video where you can see Django's Mogar:



Just after the Mogar you will also notice two beautiful guitars a Di Mauro and a magnificient Francesco Olivieri de Catania (Sicily) of 1956.

pickitjohn

@spatzo …

So Fun having your guided tour thru Selmer and Gypsy Jazz Guitar Land.

THANKS MUCH :bow:

Soon as time allows I'm going to start snooping thru your old post uncover GEMS you have shared in the past.

Glad your here and willing to share.

pick on

pickitjohn :peace: