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I'm out of here here!!!
Stu
"Why did Django attempt to escape from France? Who knows? But don't try to put any logic into Django actions."
Yesterday you quoted Delaunay paraphrasing Django:
"When they [the Germans] grew more insistent and hinted at compulsion, I disappeared and wandered the French countryside carrying only my guitar."
I won't put logic into Django because Delaunay has done this for us. Insistence and hints of compulsion from Nazi's caused a familiar response from our hero. Although this isn't a "false rebelliousness" against the middle class that Scot was talking about. This was a Django-centric way of rebelling against the then ruling class; the Germans.
Scot, among others, your backgrounds on the musical influences of the guy are impressive. Hats off.
I do think the time he lived in coupled with his formidable skills are some part of the equation describing his playing versus the modern players. Swing was king then, and its variegated role in the culture during and before the war could not have failed to have been perceived in some way by its greatest European proponent.
I kind of take from the discussion that the only influences of interest are musical. Not to take anything away from music, which is of course the larger topic; it may be useful to think that Django was also conscious of authority when he "disappeared" to evade Nazi "insistence" and "hints of complusion".
So often authorities on a topic assume that class and race aren't so important, but often minorities simply don't have that luxury. Also, I don't hear it stated directly otherwise in this discussion, but somehow the idea that the guy had no non musical thoughts shouldn't be considered as possible.
I've often wondered if as a young man, Django didn't dream of music as a way to attain more options than would be commonly available to Roma. He must have practiced like mad, though I've only the result as evidence. There must have been a moment when he realized he could surpass all his European contemporaries within a gadgo realm just as the music was gaining ground fast. That kind of motivation alone would change anyone's perception of their role within their chosen field. It could make them bold in fact. It would take boldness to consistently reinvent oneself together with a calculation of the value of presenting new musical ideas at a time when this is clearly being undertaken by others at the top of the game in your field, and rewarded by fans on a couple continents.
I think Fapy, Birelli, and many others are also inventing but in a less heated musical environment. In other words a whole lot less people await Birelli's next composition or lastest lick than awaited Django's. At least the role of swing isn't the same at all, even if the numbers are backwards.
This takes nothing from Birelli, but puts what Django's accomplishments into useful social perspective. It suggests there was some reason why he did what he did, to add to the focus on what he did, and his possible musical influences.
The French did not play the B/C style. This 1/2 step tuning in fact is peculiar to the Irish style of playing . The B/C box ( along with the C#/D) are often referred to as "Irish accordeons"
Emil Vacher (sp) and other diatonic accordeon players of the time often played diatonic G/C/B treble with Stradella bass systems. The Stradella ssytem is based on the circle of fifths and common to the piano accordeon and many CBA ( chromatic button accordeons)
It is true there was a B row and a C row.. but not played in the "b/c style"
and these 3 row boxes were not B/C boxes but commonly known as "MIXTE" with a bisonoric diatonic treble side and a unisonoric Stradella bass side.
There is a web site specifically devoted to these accordeons with references to many of the more famous and historic players. I'll see if I can re-locate the site.
Interesting discussion.. thanks to all.
French players do play the diatonic accordion - Marc Perrone has made many recordings, he's considered to be the greatest of the diatonic players. At a jam session at the "carrefour de l'accordeon" in Montmagny Quebec a few years ago, I heard a guy playing musette waltzes on a diatonic accordion, his playing was so incredible I had to put my guitar down just to watch. He was keeping up with great chromatic players like J-C Laudat.
The mixte accordion is pretty much extinct today, I think. Vacher did play one but surely he gave it up when the modern chromatic box was perfected. That thing must have fiendishly hard to play. There is a BBC documentary called "Paris-Musette" which is interesting and a nice introduction to this kind of music. In it Marcel Azzola is shown playing Vacher's accordion, to demonstrate the way the reeds are tuned.
Info on these keyboards (written for guitar players) can be found here
http://www.thecipher.com/chromatic-acco ... ipher.html
The mixte is alive and well.
Marc Perrone is way at the top of my favorite players.
He plays 1, 2,2 1/2 , 3 and 4 row accordeons. Mostly Castagnari.
His primary accordeon has a keyboard layout in a G/C/F system of his own invention. Though modified, is still largely diatonic and is chromatic as well ,without having to resort to one of the other systems that make the third row other than diatonic, such Milleret/Pignol,Castagnari, Heim,Corgeron etc. Marc's layout is known as the "Perrone System" : )
PS
Though I play guitar, I am primarily a box player.
That was such a beautiful documentary!--i remember avidly taping it (Ah... the days before Youtube)--Didi Duprat's beautiful light rhythm playing made such an impression on me(Rue Chinois is gorgeous)
i'm still waiting for a centenary BBC tribute to Django(even a repeat of the Django Legacy would be something)
My God, they owe it to Django big time considering that almost every BBC documentary(and almost every commercial) seems to use Django or Django influenced soundtrack -instead we have to suffer(tonight) yet another tedious Hendrix documentary--why don't they spend their resources on Englands very own Robert Fripp for a change?--in every respect Hendrix's equal and totally deserving of the same recognition-- but sadly (for his career) he didn't die young.
A splendid idea Stu! Do you remember seeing this half hour doc on him from the mid 80's? You can hear him and Andy Summers playing "Nuages" at about the minute mark:
http://www.youtube.com/thrip
Fripp - I still remember buying "In the Court of the Crimson King" back in '69, just from the look of the cover. It's still one of my favorite records of all time. Later on I became very interested in Guitar Craft and even went up to Claymont Court to check it out. It wasn't for me though. Fripp is a terrific player, never got much credit outside the guitar world, though. Plus he's not weird enough for modern television.