Today would be the birthday of the jazz guitar innovator, Djanogo Reinhardt. Having grown up in a Romany caravan where he survived a fire that left him with only two funcitonal fingers on his left hand, Django became an iconic character in the histories of jazz music, Romany culture and Hollywood movies.
He created the Hot Club of France along with his brother and the great violin player, Stephane Grappelli, in the early days of World War II, and it was probably his music that saved him from the Nazi holocaust that killed more than one million Roma people. This clip is pieced together but gives a sense of the intense energy contained in Djanogo’s music:
Django’s music and surrounding legend have been celebrated in movies like Chocolat, where Johnny Depp’s Roma character plays a nice version of Django’s ‘Minor Swing’, Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown, The Triplets of Belleville, and on numerous soundtracks.
Probably the place where Django’s name is held in most reverence today is among young Romany musicians. I can remember, some years ago in Spain, sitting and listening to his exuberant melodies played by Gitano guitar players who found pride in their heritage through Django’s musical legacy. Here’s another clip, this one from a Djano Reinhardt Festival that captures that same spirit:
