Hello! We are two girls who are going to write a project on Django Reinhard. The main focus for us will be listing to and analyzing the music. There seems to be many people here with their expertice on Django, and we thought we might ask if anyone is interested in helping us a little...
What is characteristic for Gypsy jazz, and espacially Djangos music?
Which songs are essential? Are there anything we might not have thought of, that is important to remember? And so on...
Hoping for many answeres!
Comments
You sound like a bright student. The best thing I can do to help you out is to tell you and your friend, since you mentioned that this is a project so you probably have a bit of time, to find this book - "Django - The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend", by Michael Dregni, Oxford University Press, 2004. It is pretty new and the bookstores have it, probably even the library. It is a fun book to read about this fascinating fellow, its about 175 pages, and after you read it you will know as much as anyone. I just got finished with it, and I read that his song Nuages was one of his most famous and important songs, because it made the French people feel better to whistle it on the way home from work during the worst part of World War II. Lots of nice stories!
Good Luck!
Elliot
django was a jazz musician limited only by his imagination...
GJ on the other hand, depending on who you ask of course is generally the typical rhythm guitar thing... the term itself was coined long after django's death...
you could perhaps work with that
btw there's a t at the end of reinhardT
to me django's style is divided into 3 periods (childhood aside) , from when he first formed the quintet of hot club, to the war period, and post-war
the early style, his playing is riff oriented, and the patterns / licks he plays are very reminiscent of the jazz style of the time (armstrong)... at this point, he hasn't really begun using the long lines that have become typical in this style (stochelo rosenberg).... he relies a lot on effects as well (listen to sweet georgia brown 1937) ...
the second period: (wartime + a bit of 1946 - london sessions) , he begins experimenting with longer lines, and is less riff oriented (check out Nuages 1940, All Of Me, Les Yeux Noirs, Place De Broukere, etc.. etc...), you can really see a mature version of this style from the 1946 sessions - coquette, embraceable you, echos of france, etc.... analysis wise the playing involves more risk taking, and he begins to take advantage of substitute harmony for his improvisation (ie adding the ii before the V in his soloing, making extended uses of maj7th arpeggios on major chords)
in his final period, he starts taking way more risks ... whereas his playing in the wartime period was still more or less somewhat in the pocket (harmony wise), now he starts exploring "odd" note choices... listen to his various solos on Danse Norvegienne 1946 onwards... or his playing on minor swing from 1947 onwards (ie playing a C# on an E7 chord in the key of Am)
phrasing wise, django was always "conscious of the beats" as fapy likes to say.... he was very form conscious, he would specifically start and end certain phrases at specific points in the form/measures.... ie notice in the 1937 solo of minor swing, how he begins his phrases around the 3rd beat and how they often anticipate the nexdt chord (it is clearly evident in the first chorus of django's tiger when he does the G#m7b5 arpeggio followed by the Am7b5 arpeggio)
www.denischang.com
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I don't think they mean music theory analysis. I believe they are looking to analyze why people like his music, and what makes him special. I'd be surprised if they understood any of what Dennis has just written. Adding the ii, Stochelo, Fapy, playing a C# on an E7 chord in the key of Am? None of this can mean anything to them.
But who cares about them!
It was a great post. Thanks for taking time to write all that, Dennis. You're helping my playing every time you click 'submit'.
Neil