Django and other Guitarists

Colin Perry

Teddy Dupont wrote:

No there was one other major factor. Guitar duets/summits were simply not fashionable at the time. That is something that developed much later. There were a few duets around but not really at the top level. How many other really top guitarists of the time were recorded soloing together (Lang & Johnson excepted). Baro, Sarane and Matelo often recorded together but how often did they trade solos on the same track?

There are plenty of examples of guitar duets from this time. Kress/Mcdonough, Lang/Kress/, Victor/Volpe, Cali/Gattuso, Kress/ Mottola. George Van Eps and Eddie Lang were featured together on a recording session. In addition to their duets, Dick McDonough and Carl Kress led a big band where the would play duets in the middle of the arrangement. There are rumors that Teddy Bunn and Bernard Addison worked together as a duo. Ivor Mairants and Albert Harris not only played duets, they also led a recording session that featured three guitars and a tiple. Paul Whiteman led a number of sessions that featured Allen Reuss and Art Ryerson with strings. None of these players were the creative improvisers that Django was, but I would argue that if anything, pairing together guitarists was quite fashionable then.

emicad

kimmo wrote:

Josh Hegg wrote:

I have read that Django never let Baro solo even though he was a great solo player – as we know from later recordings.

Actually, it is probably Baro, who takes solos and Django plays rhythm in Brise Napolitaine from the 1933 session of Guerino et son orchestre musette de la boîte à matelots, although some earlier sleeve notes have suggested vice versa. I know, it is controversial and we never know for sure - and anyway it's before QHCF and it certainly isn't jazz.

You're probably right

nwilkins

yes Joe, that is a nylon Mac - there was some discussion on here or on the hotclub forum about this a while back. I think it came up because Andy played his nylon Mac on the movie date with John Jorgensen, with Francois Rousseau on steel string rhythm, and the blend sounded similar to the early QHCF.

kimmo

nwilkins wrote:

yes Joe, that is a nylon Mac - there was some discussion on here or on the hotclub forum about this a while back. I think it came up because Andy played his nylon Mac on the movie date with John Jorgensen, with Francois Rousseau on steel string rhythm, and the blend sounded similar to the early QHCF.

Yes, it's a nylon model (actually gut 'cause it's pre-war), but that doesn't mean it's got gut strings. According to F. Charle not many Mac Concerts ever survived in decent playing form because they were often strung with steels.

Note that Django is still with D-hole. This is Decca, so it's 1938. I know he played a lot of borrowed guitars, but if he hadn't made the transition by that date, then the pic titled Django, Joseph Reinhardt, Gusti Mahla, Louis Vola, Stéphane Grappelli-Big Apple-Chez Bricktop, 1937 in Patrus' collection in http://www.djangostation.com/article.ph ... rticle=438 must be newer.

Teddy Dupont

kimmo wrote:

Note that Django is still with D-hole. This is Decca, so it's 1938. I know he played a lot of borrowed guitars, but if he hadn't made the transition by that date, then the pic titled Django, Joseph Reinhardt, Gusti Mahla, Louis Vola, Stéphane Grappelli-Big Apple-Chez Bricktop, 1937 in Patrus' collection in http://www.djangostation.com/article.ph ... rticle=438 must be newer.

That's an interesting observation Kimmo. The dates for the Decca and Bricktop photos seem to check out though. The Chaput/Vees combination is correct for the January, 1938 recording session in the UK. All the documentation I have seen for the Gusti Mahla gig at Bricktop is summer 1937.

The HCQ returned to the UK to tour and record in August, 1938 and Django had an oval hole then (see below). So unless all the information on the Bricktop session is wrong (not impossible), Django swapped between oval and "D" hole between Summer 1937 and early 1938. After that I think all the photos show him exclusively using an oval hole.

joef

Django is playing that same "special" short scale ( 640mm ) oval hole in the J'Attendrai film from April/May 1938.
So it looks like he played D-hole to around the end of 1937 and then switched to a short scale oval hole ( ie with a D-hole fingerboard on a lengthened neck ) up to the out break of war when he allegedly left that guitar behind in England.
After that, in 1940, he is only pictured with the more common longer scale oval hole guitars.

kimmo

joef wrote:

Django is playing that same "special" short scale ( 640mm ) oval hole in the J'Attendrai film from April/May 1938.
So it looks like he played D-hole to around the end of 1937 and then switched to a short scale oval hole ( ie with a D-hole fingerboard on a lengthened neck ) up to the out break of war when he allegedly left that guitar behind in England.
After that, in 1940, he is only pictured with the more common longer scale oval hole guitars.

It's a bit more complicated than that... in 1937 Big Apple -pic with Gusti Malha Django plays a normal long-scale oval-hole (assuming it is 1937 - it seems to be); Teddy's first Decca-picture from early 1938 in this thread shows Django playing a regular D-hole; In Teddy's second pic, called DJANGO HCQ AUTUMN 1938 Django holds that short-scaled oval-hole.

BTW I'm quite sure the Mac Concert in the first picture (DJANGO HCQ DECCA 1938 (red)) is armed with steel strings. If you enlarge the picture, you can see how the G-string looks wound.

Teddy Dupont

Here is the Bricktop photo of Django playing an oval hole in what all the documents say was summer 1937.

Barengero

Btw: Teddy, is there a picture of Bricktop herself that you could post here?

Best,
Barengero

Teddy Dupont

Barengero wrote:

Btw: Teddy, is there a picture of Bricktop herself that you could post here?

I have better quality photos of Bricktop by herself but I like this one because it is a great photo of thirties Parisian nightlife. - If you are interested I'll post another of Bricktop.

Steph, Bricktop, Joseph, Mabel Mercer, Django, Grasset, Chaput.