Being a musician of his era...was Django ever a viper?

bohemewarbler

Being a musician of his era...does anyone know...was Django ever a viper?

Jazzaferri

I gather from my readings that he was but probably not too serious a one

wim

He was probably a viper... if you listen to the version of "blue drag" where they're all singing and giggling, it certainly sounds like everyone is stoned

I got the Dregni book for a Christmas present, and I'm working my way through it, so I'll keep an eye out for any info about that ...

Jazzaferri

hopefully @scot or @Teddy Dupont will chime in here. If anyone will know they will.

Lango-Django

Don't know about Django, but Stephane--- defina-mundo!

I used to do the occasional Dixie gig with a now-departed trumpet player, Jimmy Phillip, from Hamilton, ON, and one day he told me this story.

********

Jimmy was a former alcoholic with a lot of wild stories about his drinking days, (my favourite was when he mysteriously woke up in a hotel room in Houston, Texas and found out that he had been living there for several months. Jimmy couldn't remember that time at all, in fact he had no idea how or why he'd even gone to Houston!)

But unlike yours truly, Jimmy had zero interest in the weed. Nor was he a Stephane Grappelli fan.

Anyway, in the late sixties/early seventies when the city of Hamilton built its concert hall, Hamilton Place, Jimmy, due to his many years in playing in big bands, pit bands, circus bands, etc. etc. got the job of booking local musicians to play behind touring acts that came to play at Hamilton Place.

One Sunday night Jimmy was relaxing at home when the phone rang... It was the admin from Hamilton Place, and they were desperate!

"You've got to get down here right away! Stephane Grappelli is refusing to go onstage!"

"Well, what's that got to do with ME?" wondered Jimmy.

"Because he just flew in today from the US, and he couldn't bring any marijuana across the border. So you've got to find him some NOW, because he says he never plays a gig without smoking up first!"

*******

So Jimmy made a few phone calls to his jazz musician friends, and was eventually able to score the required herbal substance..

The curtain went up a bit late that night, but Grappelli played as angelically as usual, and the audience never guessed the reason for the delay!

********

Teddy Dupont

There is no indication that Django was ever a significant drug user or that he even tried them although I expect in the environment he existed, he probably did. Neither does it seem that he drunk particularly heavily. I think he was far too obsessed with playing the guitar to bother with such things. He did like to gamble though and he did like women.

I don't think he needed drink or drugs to enhance his creativity or relieve his angst.

spatzo

Neither Django nor Grappelli were vipers, maybe Fletcher Allen was as he composed "Viper's Dream".

They only smoked regular "Gitanes" and we have also to say that drugs diffusion in France was very reduced in the thirties and limited almost entirely to opio, heroin and morphin (see Cocteau and opio for exemple) and mainly reserved for rich people.

Grappelli, as he declared himself, only drank a glass of whisky before going on stage.

dennis

I suppose it also depends on how attached to his culture he is. In their traditional culture, drug use is very taboo

spud

dennis wrote: »

I suppose it also depends on how attached to his culture he is. In their traditional culture, drug use is very taboo

even alcohol?

Lango-Django

According to jazz guitarist and historian Marty Grosz, both Eddie Lang and Bing Crosby were vipers, and occasionally viped all night after finishing a late gig on a Saturday night--- and then went to early Catholic Mass together, since both were religious.

Eddie was a lifelong sufferer of indigestion, and according to those who knew him, he was unable to tolerate any form of alcohol.

As for Bing, with his Hollywood stardom, he was able to afford the very best in weed, which he enjoyed gifting his friend Louis Armstrong, another enthusiastic viper...

Jazzaferri

Pops was at it almost every day