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my favourite was "anything that starts with ellington ends with an assassination attempt on the fuhrer" said by some SS officer. anyway its about the best endorsement of jazz i've ever heard.
Me and a few heads are heading to it-pint on me buddy
"I own almost all of Django's recordings, as well as those of Eddie Lang and of most other American guitarists. Except for the use of a pick, nothing in Django's playing suggests that Eddie Lang had the slightest influence on him. Eddie Lang was considered the finest guitarist of his time, but his playing was always more rigid, and his sound harder. Some notes such as his "blue note" reveals a certain lack of taste that one never finds in the playing of Django, whose "feel" for music was of a very different nature.
I think it is futile to look for any jazz guitarist who has been as much as an inspiration as has this gypsy guitarist, who was so far superior, technically and musically, to all his contemporaries. It is more logical to acknowledge that he owes no one for the style and the content of his music, which were truly his own, and moreover, to recognize that Django Reinhardt was an authentic genius.
If one must search for the influence of American jazz on the artistry of Django, it is from the great players like Coleman Hawkins or Louis Armstrong, not to mention the orchestra of Duke Ellington, where it is to be found. Those influences readily blended with the esthetics of gypsy beauty, and together they broadened the canvas of European music."
I think Fred hits the nail on the head here and I think that more budding GJ players should take some time out to listen to early Louis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins who both define melodic playing and the spirit of jazz music by any standards today. Django had that great innate melodic gift and ability to swing and these early pioneers "spoke" to him loud and clear. They had to be an enormous influence on Django.
Whilst these were clearly extremely difficult times for the majority of people in France not least gypsies, it was actually the period during which Django was most popular and successful in France. He was a pop star like Maurice Chevalier and Edith Piaf with "Nuages" being a number one hit. In fact, many gypsies prospered in Paris at that time. Sarane Ferret was also at his most popular during the war, again playing jazz, and Baro Ferret became a highly successful black marketeer. The official policy towards ethnic minorities and jazz was the same throughout Europe but the implementation differed dramatically from one country to another; France being far more lax towards gypsies and jazz as long as neither overtly antagonise the authorities.
Why did Django attempt to escape from France? Who knows? But don't try to put any logic into Django actions. He was totally capricious and his decisions were invariably based on emotion rather than logic. Even during peacetime, he would suddenly pack up and disappear in his caravan for weeks even months. I remember reading a quote from one of the HCQ musicians saying how on one occasion, they were playing an engagement somewhere in Paris and at the end of one of the shows, Django says "I'll see you tomorrow" (for the next show) and then disappeared for about 6 weeks. When he did finally return, he behaved as if nothing untoward had happened. There are certainly reports that the Germans wanted Django to play in Germany, despite being a gypsy, and that is something he did not want to do. Django always did exactly what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it regardless of the effect it would have on others and sometimes that made sense and sometimes it didn't.
His reasons for forming the "New Quintet" had nothing whatsoever to do with him being a rebel. He was simply musically restless and wanted to move on from the old string quintet structure towards a more jazz orientated formation. The timing was a consequence of the break with Grappelli, not the start of the war per se or any attempt to fly in the face of authority.
youtube.com/user/TheTeddyDupont
Your guessing he had no rational reason to leave occupied France for neutral Switzerland. Of course he was capricious, but leaving France across an armed border for an unknown future isn't the same order of caprice as fishing, gambling, or just kicking back is it? I'm guessing he had an intention and wasn't just wandering aimlessly so far from his known hangouts.
Yes, I've read his best monetary returns and his popularity for work done were during the war. I've read also that the people at the time saw his move to an American style band, whatever its musical value, was consciously counter to the anti-American policy of of the people ruling France at the time. This wasn't because of statements Django made but because everyone knew what the cultural policy was.
It's important to recognize that we have to take the events of the day into account. The propoganda against American style jazz and jazz in general failed but was understood by everyone at the time to be the policy. Even if he was following his musical sense and wanted an American style band, its pretty unlikely that the most highly regarded jazz musician of Paris could not know the policy and also know that the German officers coming to the gigs didn't give a fig for the policy. They could both get away with snubbing the leadership's ideas and dictates.
You should watch the movie "Swing Kids". It gives a good account of the situation of Swing at the time in Europe and the cultural opposition to being told what to listen too and who to hate.
There is a picture of Django with Schulz-Koehn a Luftwaffe (sp?) officer, and two blacks among others, outside La Cigalle (a jazz club). The fact that Paris continued to be a happening place during the occupation doesn't change the fact that jazz equaled a kind of rebellion against the lunatics. Most the websites who bother to untangle the occupation years with Django think that Schulz-Koehn protected Django and helped him get gigs.
To imagine that Django and people around him at the time didn't know jazz was banned and American jazz was particularly suspect is not believable. To imagine that part of Django's popularity during the war wasn't connected to the general view in Europe that playing jazz was part of the cultural protest against the cultural nonsense of the day seems to shun a lot of history. To imagine he just wandered up to the armed guards of Switzerland wanting to walk in for no reason is hard.
In no way am I trying to impart a big political caste to Django, but nobody in Paris at the time would have been unaware the issue jazz was at the time, not Django nor his fans.
At a 100th birthday celebration of Django, the mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe said Django was a rebel. I don't know why he said this, but I agree.
There are numerous books and movies that cover this era from essentially a non-political perspective, more from the musicians perspective. Here are a few of them: Mezz Mezzrow's autobiography is a good one, so is "Jazz Away From Home" by Chris Goddard. The chapters by Alain Antoinetto in the biography he co-authored with Francois Billard give the very best insight into Django's character of any book on the subject. "Cabarets Russes" by Konstantin Kazansky is absolutely fascinating. Any books by Charles Delauney and Hugues Panassie provide valuable insight. "The Making of Jazz" by James Collier is essential. "Jazz Under the Nazis" is written by a guy who was a semi-pro trombonist and was the jazz critic for the International Herald-Tribune. He started the book with the same common misconceptions that almost everyone who wasn't there has about those times. He is honest and forthright about his own feelings as things he thought he knew are debunked one by one. An excellent documentary is "Chansons sous l'Occupation" where many people who played music in Paris during the occupation were interviewed. Another is the BBC documentary "The Story of Jazz in France" which covers this in some detail. Alan Furst's meticulously researched novels give an excellent fictional accounting of daily life in Paris during the war. There are many more.
I always found "Jazz Under the Nazis" to be especially interesting as I also couldn't imagine any kind of co-existence between jazz and Nazis. This book caused me to look further into this subject, which I have been doing for many years now.
As for Django the rebel, I always consider "rebellious-ness" as we know it here and now to be a money-making pose. It's difficult to maintain, as it demands a certain amout of exclusivity and totems shift quickly. I mean, old rebel icons like Harley-Davidsons and tattoos are today about as rebellious as a Toyota Camry (my personal car BTW).
Jeff - I'm sorry if I misunderstood some things and wasn't clear about others. I was always talking about French people embracing jazz during the 30, not then-government policy, about which I have less than zero interest. I know that there were musicians who did not like the American influx and in some districts of Paris the musician's union put restrictions on the employment of foreign musicians. Some especially nationalist social critics like Georges Duhamel were quite vehement in their denouncements of Jazz. But by and large jazz went over pretty well with the French public.
The reason I care about the authorities is that like today, it is often hip to hate hip hop. About which I know nothing much, but am cognizant of a strong underlying bias. I'm 58. I think I've seen this bias before. When I was young most folks around me hated Rock and Roll and Country feeling it was beneath them. There seemed to be something about race and class though I had no words for it at the time.
They're motivations seem to be to defend a "higher" and "normal" culture. The other thing I've notice is that blacks usually take the upper hand in inventing new musical forms. Not exclusively at all, but largely. In mid 30's Paris jazz seems to have been thought of as black music, enough so that Django and Stephan had some trouble gettting recorded. Prevailing cultures then and now do not usually meet black cultural innovation with love and open arms.
You might say, so what. These things even out over time. The Djangos get recorded after a bit.
It's true, but the music of the day (swing -30's, rock- 50's, hip hop- 90's) take on an "against the prevailing culture" attitude before they are assimilated completely and become just "music".
I think part of the "in your face" beauty and tempo of Django's and most other swing was heard and played in a context that we should try and understand. I know they play it faster now than then but I just mean the frenetic quality of swing in its day is important.
The discussion was becoming something like How do you compare Fapy and Django
I think part of the answer is Django was making music for an audience that still exists because the sound of swing continues to echo in the population some, but in its moment it was a counter culture looking for many things: Fun, a new sound, a way out of the stuffiness, and for some, a lot more.
I once heard Two Pac Shakur (sp?) give a cogent talk on US foreign policy towards El Salvador.
I listened hard when Chuck Berry sang "To Much Monkey Business".
This freedom, wish for the new, some distaste for the existing culture, and always a new way to have fun etc, seems to have a periodic quality. But the ability of us at this moment to perceive and understand the inertia of the culture in these periods is somehow slight and very prone to amnesia. Yet the art from these periods persists like crazy. I think there's a reason.
Ya kinda see where I'm goin?
I once saw a video of a swing fest (30's 40's) on youtube of thousands of people on some American Island that made Woodstock look kinda tame. They were nuts. They were racially mixed. I remember in the 50's my mother showing me the Lindy. I was impressed. She never acted like that at any succeeding moment in the next 50 years. mmmmmmmmm why not? It was kinetic!
Something was happening that we do not seem to give much credence to.
I think Django was playing, writing, and thinking into that something, and his personal stamp on his music seems so strong that we can forget what he was experiencing that might have just allowed an extra dollop of creativity, emotionality, personal vision, etc... to come forward. We can and should attribute his creativity to him alone or? Maybe he wasn't just an island in the stream: A dreamy once in a life time guy. Maybe ones attitude towards the times one is born into really mattered then and still do.
You might want to check out the end of this interview with Howard Arlen. He certainly disagrees with Sharp, and characterizes DR and EL as having borrowed freely from each other, and I suppose evenly in the exchange.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V3Pyr8u ... =1&index=7
Also, Scot
Like most of the Dead's material, I'm pretty sure both those albums were studio versions of songs they were already doing live. I can personally vouch for Workingman's first hand since I was there at the time.
Django, certainly took his music through a host of changes along the way, but it started down a familar path before it cut a new trail through the musical forest. Sort of like the Beatles, taking Lonnie Donnigan, Elvis' early sound, and early Everly Brothers music, and taking it well beyond. From 'Love Me Do' to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' is a very long way, ain't it? Just like Django took his early music from 'I'se a Muggin'" to so far beyond.
Now, did Django invent 'gypsy jazz'. I'd say no. His music evolved from 'Hot' jazz like Armstrong's and Lang's to full-on jazz genre of its' own. He invented what Duke Ellington called 'Django' music. Do I think he had influences from American jazz artists? Most certainly. Did he have influences from his roots? Without question. Gypsy Jazz is more like something fashioned from those roots, a genre that's grown over time, but the music being played today called Gypsy Jazz is different from Django's in its' approach and focus.
But, the whole argument is like what came first the chicken or the egg? From my corner, all I can say is folks like Louis Armstrong, Eddie Lange, and Django were roosters. Maybe the rest are hens, but some hens produce very good eggs.
And for the record, I like Fapy, Tchavolo, and Bireli too!
I've always been deeply underwhelmed by Langs playing--he doesn't really swing as a lead guitarist--too stilted-and compared to Django just a basic lack of technique,though admittedly his back up rhythm guitar was nice
Stu