Music & Sound

• The DownStreet Jukebox: The Music of Django Reinhardt

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The DownStreet Jukebox:
   The Music of Django Reinhardt

Simply click on any of the titles below.  The song will play after a short delay.*
{Just think of it as the jukebox searching for your record.}

This Issue:  The Music of Django Reinhardt

The Man & The Music ...  For those who may not be familiar with Django Reinhardt, he is a jazz guitarist who's considered by many to be the first non-American jazzman of influence.

Reinhardt was born in 1910, in a gypsy caravan in Belgium.  Early on, he learned to play not only guitar, but the banjo and violin, as well.  But in 1928, after a caravan fire in which he lost two fingers on his left hand, he was forced to give up the violin.  Fortunately for jazz lovers, in fact, for just about anyone who loves great music, he continued to play the guitar.

After making the standard club tour of France and Belgium during the early '30's, Reinhardt met up with another European who would himself become a jazz legend, violinist Stephane Grapelli, and together, they put together the Quintet of the Hot Club of France.  With the outbreak of WWII, the Quintet broke up, though Reinhardt quickly formed another group and extended the size, including the addition of a second guitar.

During this period, Reinhardt also played with a number of jazz greats, including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter.  After the war, he went from his previously strictly acoustic guitar to amplified, probably influenced by the post-war Bebop movement in the US.

In 1946, Reinhardt came to tour the States, but the tour didn't go off so well.  For one thing, he seemed to have a difficulty showing up on time for engagements, as, for example, he did when he was supposed to play with Duke Ellington at Carnegie Hall.  Nonetheless, Django Reinhardt did manage to show up for lots of recording sessions, and so we have this sampling of his work.

The Selections ...  This sampling includes some of the standard chestnuts of the era:

• Body & Soul: The music is by John Green, with lyrics by Edward Heyman.  Written in collaboration with lyricists Robert Sour and Frank Eyton; 1930.

• Crazy Rhythm:  Music by Joseph Meyer and Roger Wolfe Kahn; lyrics by Irving Cesar;1928.
  

• Georgia On My Mind:  Music by Hoagy Carmichael, with lyrics by Stuart Gorrell; 1930.
  

• Honeysuckle Rose:  Music by Thomas 'Fats' Waller; lyrics by Andy Razaf; 1929.
  

• Lady Be Good:  Music by George and lyrics by Ira Gershwin, from the Broadway hit; 1924.
  

• St Louis Blues:  Music and lyrics by W. C. Handy; 1914.

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If you would like to submit a play list for DownStreet's Jukebox, or if you simply  would like to suggest some tunes you'd like us to put on the jukebox, e-mail us at ... music@downstreetmagazine.com.

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Lou Colasanti, Editor & Laura Wisniewski, Associate Editor
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