Let's do a Djangobooks colab

bbwood_98

OK, I Would be into this - either to provide a rhtyhm solo, or bass . . . let me know

B

Lango-Django

What a great suggestion Buco, here is an idea that might be interesting...

What if...

...one of our creative songwriter members supplies us all with just the chords and perhaps a backing track for a song...

...and then our djob is to create a Django-esque version of an appropriate melody to fit over those chords...

That would be the kind of thing that I would enjoy, and hopefully there would be some others who would agree...

Will

Buco

It's@AndyW that suggested it, I just jumped on it.

It's not a bad idea, I like it. At the same time I'd like to directly pay tribute to Django with one of his melodies. Then we should also think about the audiences' interest. Let's hear people speak, if others echo this let's do it. I'd personally do this as a project down the road when this Djangobooks Hot Club hopefully gains traction.

I'd still stress out that it's important to keep it simple when a lot of people are involved in order to get it done.

MichaelHorowitz

@Buco Great idea!

Buco

Thanks for endorsement, Michael.

Buco

@rudolfochrist proposed we list the song suggestions, one post/one song suggestion, in the other thread and the one with most likes gets to be recorded. That sounds good to me. There used to a poll feature with the old forum software but "likes" should do it.

It would be nice to have at least three rhythm guitars chugging away.

MikeK

Buco, I'd be happy to join in on this if you have room for another guitar. I'm not very tech-savvy, but it sure sounds like fun.

billyshakes

It would be nice to have at least three rhythm guitars chugging away.

I'll be your rhythm slave. Maybe I could come over and we could both play in the same room to make the rhythm track?

Willie

If "J'attendrai" will be included on the list: the song is mostly played without the original stanzas, most artists only play the refrain. Down here is a sheet with the melody of both stanza and refrain, unfortunately without chords. I'll try to check them out (the chords of the refrain are well known, I think), because I would love doing "J'attendrai" in it's complete form. A big part of the jazz standards usually are played without the stanzas/prefaces/introductions; this really is a shame, because half of the compositions are omitted this way, and all of them are beautifully preparing the common tunes.

Remeber for example the fantastic intro of "Night and day":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT9bg1gxssY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEM_63_P0CY

billyshakes

Willie, thanks for sharing that. It is interesting for me to see the different lyrics in French vs. Italian. The song is still about awaiting a loved one, but in French it is "I will wait" vs. "You Will Return" in Italian. Same general sense, but the point of action is different. In French, it is stressing the action of the narrator - the waiting. In the Italian, the action is for the loved one to take action by returning.

I think the reason Django didn't play the "Les fleurs palissent..." part is it is pretty stagnant harmonically. It doesn't really have the hook that grabs you like the "J'a - ten - drai..." part does. Since he wasn't singing the song, there wasn't a missing story that the listener was awaiting. To my mind, this is like in some EDM music when they grab the hook of a popular 80s song and repeat it over and over again. The song below comes to mind (the SFW video version). If you know the original song, you might miss hearing the verses or see this a dumbing down of the song. However, for the intended purpose here (to get people to dance to a recognizable song), it serves its purpose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BC2hVCl6s8

Perhaps Django just took the memorable part and soloed over it...it is already an unusual 26-bar form the way he plays it. The other part would have overly complicated the song without providing harmonic (or audience) interest.