mesa, az : who's django?

blindjimmy

so , in mesa arizona, the largest music instrument store is called milano's. each time i go in there, and ask about selmer style guitars, they not only don't know what i'm talking about, they couldn't possibly care less. yesterday was the ultimate.the guitar salesman comes up, cool enough guy, older, fat, long greying hair with overconditioned curls, those 80's dudes are such diehards,i ask about the saga gitane, blank stare, i say django guitar, blank stare, i say django reinhardt, BLANK STARE !!! these guys had never heard of him. never heard of bireli, angelo, or even gj.again, he couldn't care less, starts telling me how you can't know who every guitar player is, asks if i've heard of scott henderson...?!? so i thought it might be cool if everyone here, and your friends and family and bandmates and drinking buddies all sent these people some emails to educate them. their site is www.milanomusic.com, click contact, then click email us. what do you think? thank you

Bob Holo

Wow... sells guitars and doesn't know about the old man?

But he knows about Scott Henderson... good, he should. I'm a Zawinul fan too - but excusing himself from not knowing of Django by knowing Scott Henderson is like a trumpet salesman excusing himself from not knowing Louis Armstrong because he knows about Wynton Marsalis. He has good taste but his sample size could be larger

I don't think I'll email him though - he might take it the wrong way.

CalebFSU

I think we may be getting ahead of ourselves here. I used to sell guitars (thankfully not any more I am a horrible sales man) but I remember kids coming in asking me about all sorts of bands I have never heard of. Granted none of them hold the same place in histroy as Django, but honestly I can't blame the guy for not knowing who Angelo or Bireli or even that there is a thing called Gypsy Jazz. I know a lot of very good jazz players who have never heard of any of this and have only heard Django in passing the same way they heard of Carl Kress or someone like that. Sometimes I think we are insulating ourselves. we come to these web forums have jams and talk to people who know this music so much that when we talk to other musicins we find it appauling that they have never heard of Django. The fact is that Jazz is a very small genre these days and we are even a smaller group within that small group. So I wouldn't take it to personally that the guy didn't know what gypsy jazz was or who alot of the modern players are. I know how you feel though I remember the first time someone told me they had never heard of the clash I was floored. i also remember the brow beating I got my first year of music school when I asked who Ben Webster was. So just think of who you are talking to when.
i do find it odd though he had heard of Scott Henderson, but Django.

AJATango

sadly berklee only acknowledges Django, Eddie Lang and Charlie Christian as footnotes. pre-Wes it just isn't covered. Although, thanks to John McGann a gyspy jazz ensemble exists now.

Bob Holo

Hah, true... many musicians seem to view jazz as something that was basically born after the decline of Big Bands, and itself declined shortly after the rise of the Beatles. I'm an odd exception to that rule having been somewhat raised by a traditional jazz trumpeter. So, I grew up listening to Van Halen and AC/DC and Black Sabbath in one ear and Bix Beiderbecke and Eddie Condon and Jack Teagarten in the other. However, I have to admit to near ignorance as regards classical music and I'm impressed by the generally high level of knowledge that European and Asian musicians have of classical music. I think it was the reverse psychology of those years of studying classical music on the horn that sent me running away from classical music outside the classroom - which is a pity since it is such an amazing genre of music. I have only a few albums of famous symphonies and some work by classical guitar players now - but as a result of the guitarists have also become more aware of Flamenco. Pepe Romero is just stunning - a near perfect unity between mechanical perfection and expression of emotion... But your point is well taken - there's a LOT of music out there and our shared musical interests are probably a footnote to the general musical community. But oh what a great footnote we are!

AJATango

I was raised very renaissance so all topics were of interest to me. i eat a tthe buffet of life
this of course included music. being born to eastern European immigrants i of course heard jewish and klezmer music, them coming from Argentina I grew up on tango and my grandmother was a tango singer, I expoed myself to flamenco and many other styles. i wish e eyr parent did this with their kids. play them everything.

Wirralgitane

this is hilarious this topic.
To hold my hands up i've been in a guitar shop and at first the only thing i wanted to do was play Blues (and i'm talking Eric Clapton pentatonic not Johnson/Pass blues back then) and HOW nieve i was thinking no one is better than them, if i herd Django i probably would of pronounced it Dango and not gave it another listen, but after getting into guitar stuff so much i find my ears have learnt to appreciate and open up to different sounds, rhythms now etc so it is like a journey and i'm appreciating it more than ever after hearing so many supposebly 'god' type figures on the sweet guit, i can happily listen to Flamenco, Mariachi, Gypsy Waltzes, Rumba Dabango African sounds all because i was luckily ready for Gypsy Jazz and the History of the Instrument. (and Sweet & Lowdown :oops:)

I do find it strange that at jam nights, someone is clunking out another version of sweet.c.o.mine on gauge 9 slinkys on an elecki and out it comes "yeah i love all guitar music mate..." then i pop out my Gitane, strung with 11/12's with high action and they can only produce an average G chord (no thumb inversions btw) off they go with a saw hand shaking their head thinking wtf and hadn't a clue who Django or GJ was!?

:oops:

I love Knowing and spreading Django's music but it is abit strange that a guitar hero salesman hasn't herd of The Zeus of the guitar who can make it rain, Shine or even 'Hot' before the lot of them came wanking there way on the guitar which gets the front cover of 'Total Guitar'.

Duozona

Jimmy

I know what you mean about salesman at Milano's and all the others in the valley, guitarists in general, but its a moot point, its such a small market within a market, the stores are not going to carry the instruments, and if they did they would have bad set-ups and maybe even strange strings, and then they would sit there forever. We've had similar threads here before about how much it takes to 'get' this style that most people find it not worth their time, as they dont have that much time to spare.

Be glad we all have one another here! We are not the only ones who live somewhere were there is no 'scene' to speak of or availability of resources like guitars, CD's, etc

Now on the other hand, Cave Creek Music Co. up in north scottsdale area has a nice selection of AER and Schertler amps, and not many stores can boast that!!

Send me an email to chuck{at}duozona.com I have some gigs coming up in town that might satisfy a GJazz craving.

And of course, get your tix for JJorgensen Qtet at the Rhythm Room on Sep. 13th

-Chuck

BluesBop Harry

I live in Mexico city, so you know I can sympathize with your situation.

All I have to say is it's a really sad and thank god for Djangobooks!!!!!

djadam

Who the hell is Jango? Is he the guy who plays on those scratchy old recordings? They sound terrible - how can you listen to that? He can't play half as good as Satriani. Satriani is teh greatest.