Django's pompe

Teddy Dupont

stuart wrote: »

My favourite is a late version of Manoir, with Django soloing over muted violin notes. Unfortunately I've never found it on youtube, .........

Teddy Dupont

Jon wrote: »

For me, the pompe in @Teddy Dupont 's first video is wonderful. So swinging! Maybe it's at times too high in the mix, but that's mostly when Django is joining in on it, and he would have been pretty close to the mic. When it's going on behind his solo, I just love it!

There are some very divergent views about the rhythm playing on this session. It has been quoted by some gypsy jazz experts/fans and people involved in the music as a perfect example of "La Pompe". However, many reviews by individuals outside the music have criticised it for various reasons, not least of which is being "too overpowering". According to Hugues Panassié, it was a very troublesome session and they had a great deal of difficulty getting the mix right. He complained that some tracks took over 30 minutes to get a final take. Wow! How terrible!! As long as 30 minutes eh? Doesn't seem that bad to me!!!

I've just re-read a review of that session and it says "........... it exhibits Reinhardt's fantastic flow of ideas and it shows that, even in accompaniment, he tended to play solos".

Charles Meadows

So would I (being a noob!) be correct in generalizing that perhaps the newer generation tends to play more of a percussive second strum when compared to the older generation? To me that first one Teddy posted is an example of what I was hearing - a musical second stroke as compared to, say, Gonzalo whose second strum to me sounds almost like muted strings.

Jazzaferri

Ohhhhh ....made my day....real Dixie style......certainly Benny's alto on first solo and Bigard's clarinet......not sure but sounded like Rex Stewart trumpet solo

Love that swingy rhythm our man gets into ...swings sooo hard

Teddy Dupont

We are usually too busy listening to Django's fantastic solo here to notice just how great Baro Ferret's rhythm playing is. According to Scot Wise, many years later Baro said he had forgotten how to play like this.

Jazzaferri

Yes indeed @Teddy Dupont great rhythm playing.

Charles Meadows

I think I like this style better than the newer percussive sounds.

Jon

Fantastic rhythm. For me, that's perfect.

Steveareno

Thanks Teddy, that stuff recorded in Rome really captures Django's acoustic tone quite well. Glad they spent the 30 minutes working in it! The recording quality seems to have improved a lot compared to the 30's stuff. Better balance and clarity IMHO . Nice to hear him without the hiss and more up front in the mix. Thanks for posting.
Swang on,

Bones

Yeah love that old style. So classic! I do love the new stuff just as much though!