Джанго Рейнхардт: Жизнь и музыка цыганского гитариста

Romani Belgian jazz musician (1910–1953)

Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani nickname Django (dʒãŋɡo ʁɛjnaʁt or dʒɑ̃ɡo ʁenɑʁt), was a Romani French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents. With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, 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. He died suddenly of a stroke in 1953 at the age of 43. Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become standards within gypsy jazz, including "Minor Swing", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages". The jazz guitarist Frank Vignola said that nearly every major popular music guitarist in the world has been influenced by Reinhardt. Over the last few decades, annual Django festivals have been held throughout Europe and the U. S., and a biography has been written about his life. into a French family His mother, Laurence Reinhardt, was a dancer. A number of authors have repeated the suggestion that Reinhardt's nickname, Django, is Romani for "I awake"; Reinhardt spent most of his youth in Romani encampments close to Paris, where he started playing the violin, banjo and guitar. He became adept at stealing chickens. His father reportedly played music in a family band comprising himself and seven brothers; a surviving photograph shows this band including his father on piano. Reinhardt was attracted to music at an early age, first playing the violin. At the age of 12, he received a banjo guitar as a gift. He quickly taught himself to play, mimicking the fingerings of musicians he watched, who would have included local virtuoso players of the day such as Jean "Poulette" Castro and Auguste "Gusti" Malha, as well as from his uncle Guiligou, who played violin, banjo and guitar. Reinhardt received little formal education and acquired the rudiments of literacy only in adult life. On these recordings, made in 1928, Reinhardt plays the "banjo" (actually the banjo guitar) accompanying the accordionists Maurice Alexander, Jean Vaissade and Victor Marceau, and the singer Maurice Chaumel. His name was now drawing international attention, such as from British bandleader Jack Hylton, who came to France just to hear him play. During his 18 month hospitalization, doctors recommended amputation of his badly damaged right leg. Reinhardt refused the surgery and was eventually able to walk with the aid of a cane. During many months of recuperation, Reinhardt retaught himself to play using primarily the index and middle fingers of his left hand, using the two injured fingers only for chord work.

In February 2017, the Berlin International Film Festival held the world premiere of Django, a French film directed by Etienne Comar. The movie covers Django'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. Reinhardt's music was re recorded for the film by the Dutch jazz band Rosenberg Trio with lead guitarist Stochelo Rosenberg. The documentary film Djangomania! was released in 2005. The hour long film was directed and written by Jamie Kastner, who traveled throughout the world to show the influence of Django's music in various countries. In 1984 the Kool Jazz Festival, held in Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, was dedicated entirely to Reinhardt. Performers included Grappelli, Benny Carter, and Mike Peters with his group of seven musicians. The festival was organized by George Wein. Reinhardt is celebrated annually in the village of Liberchies, his birthplace. Numerous musicians have written and recorded tributes to Reinhardt. The jazz standard "Django" (1954) was composed by John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet in honour of Reinhardt. The Allman Brothers Band song "Jessica" was written by Dickey Betts in tribute to Reinhardt. Ramelton, Co. Donegal, Ireland, each year hosts a festival in tribute to Django called "Django sur Lennon" or "Django on the Lennon" the Lennon being the name of the local river that runs through the village. In coincidence with the 110th anniversary in 2020 of Django's birth, a graphic novel depicting his youth years was published under the title Django Main de Feu, by writer Salva Rubio and artist Efa through Belgian publisher Dupuis. On 23 January 2010, Google Doodle celebrated Django Reinhard’s 100th Birthday.

Many guitar players and other musicians have expressed admiration for Reinhardt or have cited him as a major influence. Jeff Beck described Reinhardt as "by far the most astonishing guitar player ever" and "quite superhuman". Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin said, "Django Reinhardt was fantastic. He must have been playing all the time to be that good." Andrew Latimer of the progressive rock band Camel said that he was influenced by Reinhardt. Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch, members of Paul McCartney's band Wings, mentioned him as an inspiration. Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia and Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, both of whom lost fingers in accidents, were inspired by Reinhardt's example of becoming an accomplished guitar player despite his injuries. Garcia was quoted in June 1985 in Frets Magazine:
His technique is awesome! Even today, nobody has really come to the state that he was playing at. As good as players are, they haven't gotten to where he is. There's a lot of guys that play fast and a lot of guys that play clean, and the guitar has come a long way as far as speed and clarity go, but nobody plays with the whole fullness of expression that Django has. I mean, the combination of incredible speed – all the speed you could possibly want – but also the thing of every note have a specific personality. You don't hear it. I really haven't heard it anywhere but with Django. Willie Nelson is a lifelong Reinhardt fan, writing in his memoir, "This was a man who changed my musical life by giving me a whole new perspective on the guitar and, on an even more profound level, on my relationship with sound During my formative years, as I listened to Django's records, especially songs like 'Nuages' that I would play for the rest of my life, I studied his technique. Even more, I studied his gentleness. I love the human sound he gave his acoustic guitar."

In 1982's "Tanta til Beate" ("Beate's Aunt"), by the Norwegian singer songwriter and folk musician Lillebjørn Nilsen, Reinhardt is hailed several times. His legacy is referred to in Woody Allen's 1999 Sweet and Lowdown. This fictional biopic features an imaginary American guitarist, Emmet Ray, who is obsessed with Reinhardt, with a soundtrack featuring Howard Alden. Reinhardt's music appears in the 2002 video game Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. One of the songs featured in the game, "Belleville", would later appear again in its 2010 sequel Mafia II. The 2003 animated film The Triplets of Belleville begins with a flashback showing The Triplets of Belleville, a trio of singers, performing on stage in the 1920s, dancing alongside other celebrities, including Josephine Baker and Django Reinhardt. The 2004 film Head in the Clouds features guitarist John Jorgenson as Django Reinhardt in a cameo role. The Django web framework is named after Reinhardt, as is version 3.1 of the blog software WordPress. Various Reinhardt songs, including his rendition of "La Mer", are included in the 2007 video game BioShock. The Belgian government issued a commemorative coin in 92.5% sterling silver in 2010 coinciding with the 100th anniversary of his birth. It is a silver 10 Euro coin with a color image of Reinhardt on the reverse side. Emil Lager portrayed Reinhardt playing guitar in a French cafe in the 2011 film Hugo. Reinhardt appears as a character in the fiction novel The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto (2015) by American author Mitch Albom. The film Django, by the French filmmaker Étienne Comar, depicting Reinhardt's life during wartime was released in 2017, with the French actor Reda Kateb performing the role of Reinhardt. It opened the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.

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 (of radio broadcasts), and part of a film soundtrack. Only one session (eight tracks) from March 1953 was ever recorded specifically for album release by Norman Granz in the then new LP format, but Reinhardt died before the album could be released. In his earliest recordings Reinhardt played banjo (or, more accurately, banjo guitar) accompanying accordionists and singers on dances and popular tunes of the day, with no jazz content, whereas in the last recordings before his death he played amplified guitar in the bebop idiom with a pool of younger, more modern French musicians. A full chronological listing of his lifetime recorded output is available from the source cited here, and an index of individual tunes is available from the source cited here. A few fragments of film performance (without original sound) also survive, as does one complete performance with sound, of the tune "J'Attendrai" performed with the Quintet in 1938 for the short film Le Jazz Hot.

A small number of waltzes composed by Reinhardt in his youth were never recorded by the composer, but were retained in the repertoire of his associates and several are still played today. They came to light via recordings by Matelo Ferret in 1960 (the waltzes "Montagne Sainte Genevieve", "Gagoug", "Chez Jacquet" and "Choti"; Disques Vogue (F)EPL7740) and 1961 ("Djalamichto" and "En Verdine"; Disques Vogue (F)EPL7829). The first four are now available on Matelo's CD Tziganskaïa and Other Rare Recordings, released by Hot Club Records (subsequently reissued as Tziganskaïa: The Django Reinhardt Waltzes); "Chez Jacquet" was also recorded by Baro Ferret in 1966. The names "Gagoug" and "Choti" were reportedly conferred by Reinhardt's widow Naguine on request from Matelo, who had learned the tunes without names. Reinhardt also worked on composing a Mass for use by the gypsies, which was not completed although an 8 minute extract exists, played by the organist Léo Chauliac for Reinhardt's benefit, via a 1944 radio broadcast; this can be found on the CD release "Gipsy Jazz School" and also on volume 12 of the "Intégrale Django Reinhardt" CD compilation.