67 Facts About Django Reinhardt

Django Reinhardt was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.

Django Reinhardt recorded in France with many visiting American musicians, including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and briefly toured the United States with Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1946.

Django Reinhardt died suddenly of a stroke in 1953 at the age of 43.

Django Reinhardt was born on 23 January 1910 in Liberchies, Pont-a-Celles, Belgium, into a Belgian family of Manouche Romani descent.

Django Reinhardt spent most of his youth in Romani encampments close to Paris, where he started playing the violin, banjo and guitar.

Django Reinhardt was attracted to music at an early age, first playing the violin.

Django Reinhardt was able to make a living playing music by the time he was 15, busking in cafes, often with his brother Joseph.

Django Reinhardt received little formal education and acquired the rudiments of literacy only in adult life.

Django Reinhardt's name was now drawing international attention, such as from British bandleader Jack Hylton, who came to France just to hear him play.

Django Reinhardt knocked over a candle, which ignited the extremely flammable celluloid that his wife used to make artificial flowers.

The couple escaped, but Django Reinhardt suffered extensive burns over half his body.

Django Reinhardt refused the surgery and was eventually able to walk with the aid of a cane.

Django Reinhardt applied himself intensely to relearning his craft making use of a new guitar bought for him by his brother, Joseph Django Reinhardt, who was an accomplished guitarist.

Django Reinhardt had no specific goals, living a hand-to-mouth existence, spending his earnings as quickly as he made them.

In Paris on 14 March 1933, Django Reinhardt recorded two takes each of "Parce que je vous aime" and "Si, j'aime Suzy", vocal numbers with lots of guitar fills and guitar support.

Django Reinhardt used three guitarists along with an accordion lead, violin, and bass.

Django Reinhardt played and recorded with many American jazz musicians, such as Adelaide Hall, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, and Rex Stewart.

Django Reinhardt participated in a jam session and radio performance with Louis Armstrong.

Later in his career, Django Reinhardt played with Dizzy Gillespie in France.

In 1938, Django Reinhardt's quintet played to thousands at an all-star show held in London's Kilburn State auditorium.

Django Reinhardt returned to Paris at once, leaving his wife in the UK.

Django Reinhardt re-formed the quintet, with Hubert Rostaing on clarinet replacing Grappelli.

Django Reinhardt was the most famous jazz musician in Europe at the time, working steadily during the early war years and earning a great deal of money, yet always under threat.

Django Reinhardt experimented with classical composition, writing a Mass for the Gypsies and a symphony.

Since he did not read music, Django Reinhardt worked with an assistant to notate what he was improvising.

In 1943, Django Reinhardt married his long-term partner Sophie "Naguine" Ziegler in Salbris.

Severe rationing was in place, and members of Django Reinhardt's circle were being captured by the Nazis or joining the resistance.

Django Reinhardt made a second attempt a few days later, but was stopped in the middle of the night by Swiss border guards, who forced him to return to Paris again.

Unlike the estimated 600,000 Romani people who were interned and killed in the Porajmos, the Romani Holocaust, Django Reinhardt survived the war.

Django Reinhardt played with many musicians and composers, such as Maury Deutsch.

Django Reinhardt played a few tunes at the end of the show, backed by Ellington, with no special arrangements written for him.

Django Reinhardt had been promised jobs in California, but they failed to develop.

Tired of waiting, Django Reinhardt returned to France in February 1947.

Django Reinhardt sometimes showed up for scheduled concerts without a guitar or amplifier, or wandered off to the park or beach.

Django Reinhardt developed a reputation among his band, fans, and managers as extremely unreliable.

In Rome in 1949, Django Reinhardt recruited three Italian jazz players and recorded over 60 tunes in an Italian studio.

Django Reinhardt united with Grappelli, and used his acoustic Selmer-Maccaferri.

Back in Paris, in June 1950, Django Reinhardt was invited to join an entourage to welcome the return of Benny Goodman.

Django Reinhardt attended a reception for Goodman, who, after the war ended, had asked Reinhardt to join him in the US Goodman repeated his invitation and, out of politeness, Reinhardt accepted.

However, Django Reinhardt later had second thoughts about what role he could play alongside Goodman, who was the "King of Swing", and remained in France.

In 1951, Django Reinhardt retired to Samois-sur-Seine, near Fontainebleau, where he lived until his death.

Django Reinhardt continued to play in Paris jazz clubs and began playing electric guitar.

Django Reinhardt was declared dead on arrival at the hospital in Fontainebleau, at the age of 43.

Django Reinhardt developed his initial musical approach via tutoring by relatives and exposure to other gypsy guitar players of the day, then playing the banjo-guitar alongside accordionists in the world of the Paris bal-musettes.

Django Reinhardt played mainly with a plectrum for maximum volume and attack, although he could play fingerstyle on occasion, as evidenced by some recorded introductions and solos.

Django Reinhardt produced some of his characteristic "effects" by moving a fixed shape rapidly up and down the fretboard, resulting in what one writer has called "intervallic cycling of melodic motifs and chords".

Django Reinhardt set new standards by an almost incredible and hitherto unthought-of technique.

Django Reinhardt's ideas have a freshness and spontaneity that are at once fascinating and alluring.

Django Reinhardt's guitar playing always has so much personality in it, and seems to contain such joy and feeling that it is infectious.

Django Reinhardt pushes himself to the edge nearly all the time, and rides a wave of inspiration that sometimes gets dangerous.

Django Reinhardt's technique was not only phenomenal, but it was personal and unique to him due to his handicap.

Probably the thing about this music that makes it always challenging and exciting to play is that Django Reinhardt raised the bar so high, that it is like chasing genius to get close to his level of playing.

Django Reinhardt is on top form; full of new ideas that are executed with amazing fluidity, cutting angular lines that always retain that ferocious swing.

Django Reinhardt followed the Romani lifestyle and was relatively little recorded.

Joseph's son Markus Django Reinhardt is a violinist in the Romani style.

Django Reinhardt is regarded as one of the greatest guitar players of all time, and the first important European jazz musician to make a major contribution with jazz guitar.

Django Reinhardt's devotees included classical guitarist Julian Bream and country guitarist Chet Atkins, who considered him one of the ten greatest guitarists of the twentieth century.

Byrd, who lived from 1925 to 1999, said that Django Reinhardt was his primary influence.

The popularity of gypsy jazz has generated an increasing number of festivals, such as the Festival Django Reinhardt held every last weekend of June since 1983 in Samois-sur-Seine, the various DjangoFests held throughout Europe and the US, and Django in June, an annual camp for Gypsy jazz musicians and aficionados.

The movie covers Django Reinhardt's escape from Nazi-occupied Paris in 1943 and the fact that even under "constant danger, flight and the atrocities committed against his family", he continued composing and performing.

Django Reinhardt's music was re-recorded for the film by the Dutch jazz band Rosenberg Trio with lead guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg.

Django Reinhardt is celebrated annually in the village of Liberchies, his birthplace.

Many guitar players and other musicians have expressed admiration for Django Reinhardt or have cited him as a major influence.

Django Reinhardt is still one of my main influences, I think, for lyricism.

Django Reinhardt must have been playing all the time to be that good.

Django Reinhardt recorded over 900 sides in his recording career, from 1928 to 1953, the majority as sides of the then-prevalent 78-RPM records, with the remainder as acetates, transcription discs, private and off-air recordings, and part of a film soundtrack.

Only one session from March 1953 was ever recorded specifically for album release by Norman Granz in the then-new LP format, but Django Reinhardt died before the album could be released.