Interesting video - Grappelli, Joseph, Vees, Babik...

TonyRees · October 2018

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but the following just appeared on my Facebook feed - don't know if you have to be a Facebook user to see it, sorry (I could not see it anywhere on youtube). "Ancienne Vidéo de Stéphane Grapelli, Joseph et Babik Reinhardt et Eugéne "ninine" véés.." https://www.facebook.com/nino.brunetti/videos/10213083318670545/

Anyone seen this before?

Regards - Tony

crookedpinky · October 2018

Can't remember where but I have seen this before. Joseph is playing the beast of a guitar which he built himself. Good to see and hear this again.

vanmalmsteen · October 2018

Thanks for posting. That was a Trip

PapsPier · October 2018

Yes it has been mentioned before. It is part of a long documentary called Hommage a Django Reinhardt, from 1959. Eugene Ninine Vees has the main part of this documentary: he played two tunes with Babik and his own sons Loulou and Mitsou. He is then interviewed about Django (it is not very informative but his smile and sparkling eyes when he talked about Django are pretty moving). He played Dinette and manoir de mes reves with Henri and Romuald Adel, Vivian Villerstein and Emmanuel Soudieux. And the documentary ends with Nuages, Daphne and Djangology played with Babik, Soudieux, Grappelli Joseph Reinhardt and Baptise Mc Kac Reilles.

It is not really a rare documentary since anybody can easily find it. And I must say that I am a bit upset when I see it circulating for free on Facebook: if you would like to see more documents about Django, Joseph Reinhardt, Eugene Vees etc. to appear one day, you should support the French Archives department (INA). They are slowly putting their archives online. Without support, they wont be able to continue doing so. And the price to access ALL the videos full length with information about the date, the context etc. is ridiculous: 3e per month (you can stop anytime)! And there are cool things to see if you are a jazz fan: Eugene Vees playing the Two guitars with Lousson Baumgartner, Eugene, Rostaing etc. playing with Yvonne Blanc for a festival, documentaries about French jazz scene in the 50s and 60s, two more videos of musicians paying tribute to Django, the Paul Paviot movie, concerts from the friends of Django (Eddie Bernard, MAurice Meunier, Rostaing) etc...

So if you like the posted video and would like to see more, you know what to do!

TonyRees · October 2018

Thanks PapsPier, armed with that information I was able to get to the home of the full video at INA: http://www.ina.fr/video/CPF86644580/hommage-a-django-reinhardt-video.html which I will watch with interest. Actually I don't think the existence of this film is particularly well known; I have a (small) shelf full of Django/Grappelli/Gypsy Jazz books and articles and have not seen it cited before in any of the major biographies. Also found no previous mention of it on the djangobooks forum, so your comments are very useful! For the record, the film is by Jean-Christophe Averty, who died just last year, and is given the series title "Jazz Memories no. 16". There is some more information about Averty (incuding the only web reference I found to the film via a Google search) at http://www.jazzhot.net/PBEvents.asp?ItmID=32776.

Thanks again - Tony

TonyRees · October 2018

Great footage of Matelo on the preview clip at INA, from about 2:04 on...

PapsPier · October 2018

And the other Jazz memories show are nice too! I think we talked about this video a year ago or so but it must be lost because not properly referenced. I referenced it on the page I dedicated to the discography of Eugene Vees.

I think (without being sure) that the video was known before to the "collectionneurs" because pictures taken from this video had been previously shared.
It was also not too often mentioned because in biographies of Django, the light is always on Django and never on his colleagues.

scot · October 2018

The last part of the video had been available for quite a while but it was rare to see the whole thing. The playing is great all the way through, with Matelot and Gros Chien playing a medley of Swing 42 and Djalamichto and Matelot playing a wonderful chord melody on Tears. Plus Rene Mailhes and Laro Sollero playing some jazz standards and of course the charming interview with Eugene Vees, along with him playing a simple but elegant version of Djangology. Most important, it gives us a detailed picture of the state of things in 1960, when there were not many recordings being made of this music.

TonyRees · October 2018

Thanks Scot and PapsPier - I was able to purchase this video to download from INA as suggested and it is great for the reasons you have mentioned! (Just a note that the download was very slow for me, and 10 mins later I was about to give up when the first flicker of activity displayed - took 3 hours, the link is very slow at the INA end perhaps). Anyway, great video and well worth watching multiple times.