If Django had lived longer.....

Lango-Django

Eddie would have been the greatest accompanist Django ever had, but I doubt he would have carried Django’s guitar case or changed broken strings for him!

billyshakes

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/104459#Comment_104459

Something tells me this is not the first time you've had this dream! ;-) What the heck, Oscar Aleman (born 1909) could have joined to give you your Holy Trifecta! Think of it as the first iteration of the G3 Tour.

🎼"...and the 3 men I admired most, the father, son, and holy ghost...."🎶

Lango-Django

I like the way you think, Billy...

MikeK

Fun topic. The initial post wondered what musicians Django would have liked, had he stuck around longer on the planet. My guess is that he would have liked Grant Green. Not necessarily his 70's funk stuff, but his classic blue note recordings from the early to mid 60's under his own name & as a sideman. Ex--Matador, Idle Moments, etc. In his later years, Django seems to have embraced both the electric guitar and bebop stylings, so I think he would have liked the way Grant Green tastefully employed both. I have a cd that I love of Django electric from Paris in 1953, all in a quartet format with piano, bass & drums. His playing is brilliant & inspired on it. To my ears, those tracks sit beautifully alongside one of my other favorite collections, Grant Green's Sonny Clark Quartet recordings, from nearly a decade later.

cmcmurphy22

+1 for grant green. Glad you like the topic. I was driving the other day and was listening to Django and thought what he might have become, who would he have listened to himself, what if he stated hanging out with the beatniks and dropping acid. Lol.

I don’t control these thoughts.

MikeK

He may have liked Jerry Garcia, Garcia certainly liked him (as well as Oscar Aleman) & often cited Django as an inspiration and an influence. I think it was Elvis Costello who once said "if it wasn't for the name 'The Grateful Dead', they would be regarded as one of the greatest jazz bands in the world". Or something along those lines. Either way, it's interesting to think about.

cmcmurphy22

jerry is the obvious draw. But a close listen to Phil’s bass lines reveals some genius. He is such a unique bass player.

MikeK

Agreed, Phil Lesh is an extraordinary musician. It would be interesting to hear him play upright with a gypsy jazz band. I'm not aware of him ever having done that, I'd like to hear it if he did.

Quadropenta

I think he would have retired to Samois to play billiards, paint and go fishing. :^) Maybe toured in Europe with Dizzy Gillespie, Ellington, Jazz at the Philharmonic groups etc, played at festivals and recorded a symphony and mass. Played on soundtracks by French new wave film directors. I can imagine him in the 1960s writing new compositions in a contemporary jazz style, arranged for ensembles. [Years of timeless music like Manoir or Anouman. Look what we missed.] Maybe playing Bossa on a recording. Django and Jobim? Rolls off the tongue nicely... Most likely he would have played with piano groups rather than other guitarists. There probably would have been pressure to reunite with Grappelli to play hot club music now & then. I wonder if he would have been interested, or if it would have represented something old fashioned & nostalgic. Certainly many people felt that way about his music representing an era. A gig is a gig though... If he had lived into his 70s I believe there would have been an earlier revival of his music.

Gouch

IMO

Django woulda been a cool addition to MJQ c. 1958, musically.

But he’d have really liked being a Western movies star, paired with Clint Eastwood and making tons of money doing that.