Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt January 23, 1910--May 16, 1953
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Didn't expect to see his image this morning. Thanks for putting it up. (And for the other ones as you do so often.) I imagine I'm one of few that has his music on an iPod. Of course, Stephane Grapelli is there too. You can't separate them.
As a boy, I was in love with certain bits/types of music when the heathens around me didn't seem moved. Gypsy swing was one of them, a lovely longing that pursued and distracted me when I was doing other things. One happy day I connected names, stories, and the music, and my life has been better for it. Thanks for the pic.
Heydave, I know exactly what you mean. I was a big fan of swing, bossa nova, Hank Williams, the Carter family, gospel, pre-Renaissance music, and on and on. My hipper than thou friends looked at me like I'd eaten one too many sugar cubes.
And I think I've told the story here before, but I used to supply music to some friends who owned a restaurant with a fairly eclectic customer base. I sent 'em David Byrne's Rei Momo once and the crowd went nuts. They had to keep apologizing to people because they didn't know what the album was.
Great, I sez, and I made 'em a tape of genuine Brazilian music. When I went back to swap it out I asked how it went over. After four or five songs they'd had so many requests to take it off they never played it again.
Sometimes it hurts to see the good stuff bastardized because of my feelings toward the music; like when Rhapsody in Blue was used for a fucking airline. OK, gotta give you my story with that one: there used to be an odd little sci-fi-sorta show on the B/W TV called One Step Beyond. They used Gershwin as the closing number everyweek. I was mesmerized when I heard it first; the family shrugged, said they didn't know what it was, and just left me to sort of vibrate internally every week while listening to it. I can't recall one plot line from the show now, and even through college the crowd I was in didn't listen to such things. Then, one dark and, sorry... one day I heard it on the radio while in traffic. I pulled the car over and listened as a voice from my past spoke to me. Again, things were no longer the same. So it was with that Django sound.
5 comments:
Didn't expect to see his image this morning. Thanks for putting it up. (And for the other ones as you do so often.)
I imagine I'm one of few that has his music on an iPod.
Of course, Stephane Grapelli is there too. You can't separate them.
As a boy, I was in love with certain bits/types of music when the heathens around me didn't seem moved. Gypsy swing was one of them, a lovely longing that pursued and distracted me when I was doing other things. One happy day I connected names, stories, and the music, and my life has been better for it. Thanks for the pic.
Oh sure. Remind me that Django could do more with 2 fingers than I'll ever do with 4. Thanks.
Don't feel so all alone, Dog.
Heydave, I know exactly what you mean. I was a big fan of swing, bossa nova, Hank Williams, the Carter family, gospel, pre-Renaissance music, and on and on. My hipper than thou friends looked at me like I'd eaten one too many sugar cubes.
And I think I've told the story here before, but I used to supply music to some friends who owned a restaurant with a fairly eclectic customer base. I sent 'em David Byrne's Rei Momo once and the crowd went nuts. They had to keep apologizing to people because they didn't know what the album was.
Great, I sez, and I made 'em a tape of genuine Brazilian music. When I went back to swap it out I asked how it went over. After four or five songs they'd had so many requests to take it off they never played it again.
Philistines.
Sometimes it hurts to see the good stuff bastardized because of my feelings toward the music; like when Rhapsody in Blue was used for a fucking airline. OK, gotta give you my story with that one: there used to be an odd little sci-fi-sorta show on the B/W TV called One Step Beyond. They used Gershwin as the closing number everyweek. I was mesmerized when I heard it first; the family shrugged, said they didn't know what it was, and just left me to sort of vibrate internally every week while listening to it. I can't recall one plot line from the show now, and even through college the crowd I was in didn't listen to such things. Then, one dark and, sorry... one day I heard it on the radio while in traffic. I pulled the car over and listened as a voice from my past spoke to me. Again, things were no longer the same. So it was with that Django sound.
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