First time you discovered this music...

rimm

Where were you?-And I bet you can remember the tune...

For me, I had come home from a night out in Belfast and was 'two sheets to the wind' after a few Guinness.My step father was sitting at the table listening to a radio show presented by a great DJ on Radio 2 by the legendary 'whispering' Bob Harris. He played a tune by someone called Angelo Debarre playing his version of Appel Indirect and the rest as they say,is history. I had of course heard of Django Reinhardt but this blew me away. Still does for that matter.On moving to Dublin I was lucky to meet Finton from the Hot club of Dublin and I was suddenly aware that I was not alone in the love of this style-and lets face it, we all, no matter the talent or lack of in my case have all got a great thing in common -swing baby! My Taylor became defunct and a Manouche Moreno followed by my Moustache Hybrid now get an unhealthy amount of attention in the evenings. I would love to hear your stories people. 8)

Ando

For me, it was John Jorgenson's early swing record "After You've Gone," which I stumbled across while doing a jazz radio show in college. In this old dusty studio, late at night in an empty building, all the sudden hearing this ... joyful music! After that, I had to find out who this "Django Reinhardt" was, so I did. And listening to Django was like ... feeling champagne in your veins. I never looked back. Even when the music is sad and tragic, the vitality and energy is there. Picks me up every time. Great, great stuff.

Tele295

To be 100% honest, it took a while for it to really take hold. I had a Django cassette back in the 1980's and Jorgenson's After You've Gone CD (I liked Mabel). Mark O'Connor gave me a copy of his "Hot Swing" CD after a concert I staged managed for him. I had learned "Tears" from Chet Atkins/Mark Knopfler "Neck & Neck" CD, but it was really in the last 6 or 8 months that it really clicked into place for me. It may have been trying out a DG300 in October 2008 and digging the sound (finally!) that I began to fancy the possibilities, and it hit me hard just this last January. Now I breathe it.

steven_eire

the first song i heard was django's 'you rascal you' i listened to it over and over and thought it was amazing. i was already into jazz but the way django played seemed really different and cool. it wasn't until i decided to try and find a few transcriptions on the net that i discovered this whole scene and the modern gypsy players.

rimm do you know if the hot club of dublin still play the glenview hotel? i saw them there a while back and they were excellent. oleg is a fantastic player too.

emicad

My first was "Night and Day".

Captain Swing

In 1990, i was a rock guitarist. I was into bands like Led Zep & Hawkwind. I'd already been playing 10 years before i'd really heard any jazz of any kind.
At that time a mate of mate started going for guitar lessons from a professional teacher, who lent him a videotape of John McLaughlin, Paco De Lucia, & Al DiMeola doing the whole 'Meeting of the Spirits' concert, which he then lent to me to watch.
Whilst i could appreciate the skill in what they were doing, it didn't really do it for me. Then, sandwiched on the end of this videotape was a half hour performance by this kid wearing shorts, playing this infectious music that just blew me away!
The performance was from 1982, & that kid who was 15 at the time, turned out to be Bireli Lagrene. And this first tune of his set, which i put on YouTube, was my introduction to this music:



I never watched the 'Meeting of the Spirits' thing again. But i must've watched that Bireli performance hundreds of times!
As luck would have it, the 'Django Legacy' documentary was shown in the UK shortly afterwards, & that sealed it for me. I wanted to play this music! I sold my Les Paul, got myself an acoustic, & started going to Samois. And the rest is history, as they say. 8)

pinkgary

I got introduced to Django & Robert Johnson at the same time by my dad. I'd been playing a couple of years, into hair Metal (Faster Pussycat, LA Guns n the like), & my dad played me these 2 albums Djangology & the Complete Robert Johnson. They both blew me away, Swing 42 was the track i remember best from Django, Come On in my Kitchen from Bob.

I made a concious decision that day to learn to play like Robert Johnson, 'cos i could make some kind of sense of it. Django just seemed like some kind of alien language that i'd never get....

Fast forward 10-15 years, i'd become a slide master, learned a couple of Django tunes along the way (Swing 42, Daphne, Minor Swing), but still not got into the whole "Gypsy Jazz" thing untill 2003, when Dave Alexander put on the first L'Esprit Manouche festival, about a 5 minute walk from my house, so i thought i'd go along & see what a whole festival dedicated to Django could be about.....

Then my eyes opened, epiphanies happened, i played Archtop Eddy's Shelly Park & decided to take it a bit more seriously.... Just watching Fappy then Angelo then Tchavolo, and Gary Potter, Jonny Hepbir, Paul Vernon Chester, Mandino & David........ All in the space of 2 days..

I can remember thinking i'm now gonna pick my jaw off the floor & walk home with my tail between my legs, knowing there's a hell of a lot of practice to come....

And it hasn't stopped since.... But on the plus side, Django's playing no longer seems like an alien language to me, it all makes sense, i just can't do it.......... yet

Ewan

Tchavolo in Swing - I had played in my umpteenth electric band, was jaded and tired, had given up playing for a living after 25 years and got an IT degree, had bought a Django Lp in 1969 and thought Richie Blackmore was a piece of cake compared to that.... goodbye Django...until Swing - since then I've bought a beautiful Crocker Oval Hole and brought Jazz Manouche to Australia. I run a festival each year called OzManouche - Hank Marvin and Lulo Reinhardt played last year - and my fervent enthusiasm grows daily (down boy)..... I met some wonderful yanks and canadians at samois in 2005 and may be there this year... love you all.
Ewan

Phil

My parents took me to see Stephane Grappelli with Diz Dizley trio at Leeds Town Hall, when I was just 11 and I still remember what a great show that was! I then picked up the double LP "Djangology" and remember listening to Django's solo on Blue Drag over and over again as I was amazed by the sound he got from bending notes on his guitar. Then in 1987 I moved to Edinburgh and used to see "Swing 87" down "The Malt Shovel" on Tuesday evenings. Moved to US in 1990 and didn't come across Django's music again until after moving to Seattle in 1995 and popped down to "The Hop Vine" to see Pearl Django on a Friday night do a blistering 3 hour acoustic set, with Neil Andersson, Dudley Hill and Shelley Park on guitars - my eyes were opened to where I still didn't understand what they were doing, but I saw that it was possible! Shortly after that took a short lesson with Neil to learn Minor Swing and I was hooked and have been ever since! Cheers to all, Phil

Ewan

btw good thread

rimm

The Glenview have not had the guys recently-credit crunch and all that-they will however be In Samois with me next week if you are going! Their myspace has the gigs listed and I agree with you-Oleg is amazing (and a lovely guy) We went to see them in the Glenview last year and he invited our fiddle player Nahum to join them for a few numbers-they swung so hard my fillings became loose..

This was taped that night-the new cd is great , loads of their own tunes too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B27RdKa7 ... re=related 8)