Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend

Ozford New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Second Printing . Hard Back. Near Fine/As New. 6" x 9 1/2. 326 Pages Indexed. Used book. Dust jacket price $35.00 is unclipped. No noted defects. The first major critical biography of guitar icon, Django Reinhardt. Django Reinhardt was arguably the greatest guitarist who ever lived, an important influence on Les Paul, Charlie Christian, B.B. King, Jerry Garcia, Chet Atkins, and many others. Yet thre is no major biiography of Reinhardt. Now, in Django, Michael Dregni offers a definitive potrait of this great guitarist. Handsome, charismatic, childlike, and unpredictable, Reinhardt was a character out of a picaresque novel. Dregni not only chronicles this remarkably colorful life --- including a fascinating account of gypsy culture--but he also sheds much light on Django's musicianship. He examines his long musical partnership with violinist Stephane Grappelli --- the one suave and smooth, the other sharper and more dissonant --- and he traces the evolution of their novel string jazz ensemble, Quintette du Hot Club de France. Indeed, the author spotlights Django's amazing musical diversity, describing his swing-styled Nouveau Quintette, his big band Django's Music, and his later bebop ensemble, as well as his many compositions, including symphonic pieces influenced by Ravel and Debussy and his unfinished organ mass inspired by Bach. And along the way, the author offers vivid snapshots of the jazz scene in Paris--colorful portraits of Josephine Baker, Bricktop, Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, and countless others--and of Django's vagabond wanderings around France, Europe, and the United States, where he toured with Duke Ellington. The author captures the extraordinary life and times of one of the great musicians of the twentieth century. Includes a center section of black and white photographs.