Gérard Lévêque

Teddy Dupont

I am trying to identify an individual in a photo with Django whom I believe could be Gérard Lévêque. Unfortunately, I only seem to have photos of Lévêque in profile.

Has anyone got a full face photograph of Gérard Lévêque?

Thanks

brandoneon

I'm not sure if this will help, but then again maybe we're talking about the same photo. In Charles Delaunay's 'Souvenirs' book (Editions Jazz-Hot, 1954) there is a picture of him and Django overlooking an organist playing Django's mass. The photo is from 1945, unfortunately it is a profile!

Teddy Dupont

brandoneon wrote:

I'm not sure if this will help, but then again maybe we're talking about the same photo. In Charles Delaunay's 'Souvenirs' book (Editions Jazz-Hot, 1954) there is a picture of him and Django overlooking an organist playing Django's mass. The photo is from 1945, unfortunately it is a profile!

Thanks but I have that one of him together with about nine others but they are all in profile or slight three-quarters. This is the one I am trying to identify. The big ears should be a bit of a giveaway. From the side, Lévêque looked as if he had stick-out ears:-

Teddy Dupont

............That poor quality photo is taken from the excellent wedding shot in the centre of the Integrale Vol 20 booklet. Daniel Nevers identifies the clarinet player as Gérard Lévêque but a much greater Reinhardt authority than he says it is not. I still believe it could be.

There are, however, several omissions/ errors in the caption for that photo. Joseph Reinhardt (next to Fouad) and Emmanuel Soudieux (behind wedding couple) are missed and Sarane Ferret is mis-identified as Baro Ferret and Eugène Vées as Joseph.

Tried to soften the image a bit but I don't think it helps much:-

brandoneon

My judgement could be obscured by the blinding hair glare, but your man resembles this other clarinetist ... Hubert Rostaing. Especially the chin.

As for those Prince Charles ears: although it's hard to tell in this Rostaing portrait, there is a photo in the Prosper Records box set "Swing de Paris" captioned "Bill Coleman at Django's funeral". Standing next to Bill Coleman is somebody who fits the bill ... he could pass for an older Hubert Rostaing.

nwilkins

looks like Rostaing to me

Teddy Dupont

brandoneon wrote:

My judgement could be obscured by the blinding hair glare, but your man resembles this other clarinetist ... Hubert Rostaing.

I am almost certain it is Rostaing. The features fit him very closely but since Lévêque was specifically identified, I wanted to get a full face photo of him to be sure. It seemed odd to me that someone who looked so much like Rostaing would be identified as Lévêque by Nevers and wondered whether I was missing something. A problem with Rostaing is that the date given for the photo is 1943 and Django had fallen out with him by then which would make Lévêque a more likely candidate. But the date could well be wrong. There are lots of errors in the Fremeaux series.