BARO FERRET PLAYING IN THE THIRTIES!

spatzo

Hi!


Many of us wonder how far Baro Ferret was from Django, here's an occasion to see and hear him playing in the thirties

Best!

Teddy Dupont

Fantastic stuff Spatzo!! An incredible find. I am almost 100% sure the other guitarist is Gusti Malha and the accordion player is Guérino.

Teddy Dupont

........in fact it is "La Boîte a Matelots". :shock:

MichaelHorowitz

Wow...very cool! Thanks for posting this...

Teddy Dupont

Here is a photo of La Boîte a Matelots taken at the same venue. This one has Sarane Ferret sitting between Baro and Gusti - the latter is playing the Julian Gomez Ramirez guitar.

Salieri

Haha, cool photo, Teddy !

billyshakes

I wish I would have seen this video of Baro playing in the 30s that @spatzo references. Looks like a dead link now. Anyone manage to capture this one back in the day that might re-post it on youtube?

I was looking for more info today on the crazy guitar that Django is seen playing on the cover of the Disques Vogue release of Matelo Ferret playing Django's "inedits." Since it is the same Ramirez model as seen being played by Gusti Malha in the above photo that @Teddy Dupont shared from La Boite à Matelots, I thought I'd post this article I found today in this old thread. The article is by Michael Dregni from a 2018 Vintage Guitar issue. If someone posted it on the forum, my terrible search words didn't turn it up. So, I'll (re)post it here.

https://www.vintageguitar.com/35031/quest-for-volume/

It is a neat article about a few of the guitars Django played, including the Ramirez. With a label that says "Built for Mr. Ferret", add this to the list of instruments I'd like to know where it ended up. Hopefully it still resides w/Boulou & Elios Ferre? The article shows a Ramirez "wappen" guitar on display at the Cité de la Musique, but I'm not sure if they are still on display. Anyway, enjoy the read if it was never posted or you missed it the first time around.

ChrisMartin

I believe 'wappen' is German for shield, which describes the shape I guess. I thought I read that Django used that guitar, the one he used with Gusti and that the Ramirez at the Cité de la Musique was that exact same one. I have a contact there, I will ask, and see if it is not there now, where it went.

billyshakes

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/112695#Comment_112695

That's very kind, Chris. I'd be curious to know if it is the model that says "Construit pour Monsieur Ferret" on the label or just another similar model.

Wappen is indeed the name that has been given to this style of guitar. Das Wappen is more the shield on a coat of arms rather than der Schild, which would be what a knight would carry. (As an aside, eine Schildkröte is the German word for turtle, which literally translates as "shield toad").

I believe I read that it was because German luthiers (such as Hermann Hauser) started to build it, even though Ramirez was not one and probably had his own name for the model. I've also seen that JWC guitars recently built both a nylon-string and a steel-string replica of this guitar, though it isn't actively showing on their website. Here's the great Martin Limberger playing the steel-string model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxVqp-bCHQA