Django Reinhardt!

hey guys.

i was reading through this site and i rarely ever see a mention of the legend django reinhardt.

now, i'm not gonna say YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS GUY, but i thought it would be great if some of the younger players like me could get a taste of the sort of guitar mastery that django brought to the table.

everyone talks about how hendrix, or eddie van halen revolutionised guitar playing, but i think in terms of passion two guys stand out above all else,

Django Reinhardt and pat martino

Both lost their ability to play through horrific injury, and were thoughtthat they ould never play again, yet relearned the guitar from scratch basically and became pioneers in not only guitar, but jazz as a genre.

but this thread is about django. i think that his music was THE music, period.

again, i'm not telling you, i'm just putting the great man a mention, and i hope some of you will take this recommendation and look him up, and you never know, maybe you'll become as inspired as i am.

you would know him from the composition Minor Swing, but the solos i most recommend are Django's Tiger, Rythme Futur, nuages or les yeux noirs.

thanks for reading, if anyone does, and i hope you become as inspired by him as i have.

cheers,

G---rant

theres alot of players i respect that dont get mentioned by many guitarists...and i think its primarilly becusae most guitarists' version of the "holy grail" is satch and vai...and maybe malmsteem or even (god forbid) michael angelo. i love shred as much as anyone here, but its really hard to step out of the mindset that you can ONLY show talent through that egotistical kind of "instrumental prog metal". ive listened to django for a while now, and enjoyed picking through parts of "honeysuckle rose", but a guitarist no one mentions that i find hugely inspirational is mark knoffler. maybe one day he'll get the respect i think he deserves from other guitar players...but probably not ;)

I know quickfingers, most people can't even spell Mark Knopfler's name right!

Hahahahahhaa, just busting your balls a bit man. :p

I like Django. I don't even like jazz and I like Django.

Originally Posted by: grizzlymintI know quickfingers, most people can't even spell Mark Knopfler's name right!

Hahahahahhaa, just busting your balls a bit man. :p

awww, you dog!

kindof sad because spelling is more of my strong point. hah. lets forget it ever happened, ok? :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by: quickfingersawww, you dog!

kindof sad because spelling is more of my strong point. hah. lets forget it ever happened, ok? :rolleyes:

Deal. Knopfler rules though man.

Django is a source of amazement to me. I am not a huge jazz fan but when you listen to him, you will come away amazed. If you want to kinda get a feel for the music of that period and the great guitarist's of that period, go rent "Sweet and Lowdown'. Sean Penn plays a fictional jazz guitarist who is 'second greatest guitar player in the world' behind Django. He is haunted by Django and almost faints every time someone even mentions his name.

It's a good movie but the guitar work will impress you.

Agree one hundred percent about Mark Knopfler. An amazing guitar player who rarely gets the credit he deserves. It's easy to be impressed solely on techincal ability and not put much stock into the actual music being made. There are a lot of people out there who have been successful with only a handful of chords and simple lead lines but they have a lot of passion in what they do. (Dylan, Prine..etc)

Knopfler on the other hand is a tremendously skilled guitarist who writes some great, heart-felt, music. There are plenty of others out there.

About a year ago, when I was playing a lot of acoustic, I was really big on Django. I bought a couple of Naxos' Django compilations, and they are all absolutely amazing. He is certainly underrated and under-exposed.

Pat Martino, eh? I never liked him much, but I agree that he is a technically very impressive player who could put a lot of better-known instrumental rock shredders to shame with his precision playing.

To say that Django Reinhardt is underrated is really not true. It's only in today's fast food, get it now culture, his talents have been ignored by the mainstream. In his day Django Reinhardt was considered by most to be the best guitarist in the world.

A short list of other worthy artists (In no particular order) who may have fallen off your radar

Son House (Delta Blues)

Andre Segovia (Classical)

Fernando Sor (Classical Composer, no recordings however his talent was legendary)

Scotty Moore (Elvis' guitarist...Lots of tasty nuggets in there)

Shawn Lane

Django is anything but an underrated guitarist. Within his chosen genre of music (jazz) he is revered by nearly all other guitar players. If anything he is overrated--sacrelige I know. After all, the guy did have a fairground sense of timing and was just a little too romantic in his playing at times. You never really hear about that from anyone, even though it is true.

It's not surprising that most people who play rock or metal don't mention Django---he's not a metal or rock player. He's not even really a blues player. And not only that, but his style really doesn't show in any metal or rock players. No one uses octaves like Django did, they use them more like Wes Montgomery did in the 60's. Similarly, no one phrases like Django in the rock genre.

So, great guitarist? Absolutely. One of the best? Without question. Relevance to rock/metal? Not much.

His influence in the jazz sphere is great, but not really much past that. He may be an inspiration, but not much beyond that at this point. That's why he's not mentioned often.

Originally Posted by: g----ranthey guys.

i was reading through this site and i rarely ever see a mention of the legend django reinhardt.

now, i'm not gonna say YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO THIS GUY, but i thought it would be great if some of the younger players like me could get a taste of the sort of guitar mastery that django brought to the table.

everyone talks about how hendrix, or eddie van halen revolutionised guitar playing, but i think in terms of passion two guys stand out above all else,

Django Reinhardt and pat martino

Both lost their ability to play through horrific injury, and were thoughtthat they ould never play again, yet relearned the guitar from scratch basically and became pioneers in not only guitar, but jazz as a genre.

but this thread is about django. i think that his music was THE music, period.

again, i'm not telling you, i'm just putting the great man a mention, and i hope some of you will take this recommendation and look him up, and you never know, maybe you'll become as inspired as i am.

you would know him from the composition Minor Swing, but the solos i most recommend are Django's Tiger, Rythme Futur, nuages or les yeux noirs.

thanks for reading, if anyone does, and i hope you become as inspired by him as i have.

cheers,

G---rant

I'm with you on this. His playing, which, whether you're a jazz fan or not, was simply amazing, what I find really inspiring about him was that he essentially developed a style to compensate for the injuries to his fretting hand. That just blows me away. I have a tough time just getting through a few chord changes with all 5 working on the left hand. He played with this verve and speed (yeah, I know. I said a 'bad' word...hehe) that is really something to hear. And yet he was working with a handicap.

Now that's inspiring. At least to me. :)