Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend
by Michael Dregni
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael DregniEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-05-12
ISBN: 0195304489
Number of pages: 344
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend
Book Review: Probably the Best Biography of Django Written to Date . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
. . . and it's unlikely that it will ever be surpassed.
Django Reinhardt is an icon to many guitarists. The story of a Gypsy with only two fully functional fingers on his left hand becoming one of the world's greatest Jazz guitarists has been told over and again but Dregni has taken the time to dig deeper and learn more about Django not only as a musician but also within the context of the life of a European Gypsy. It's obvious that this book, along with Dregni's similar book Gypsy Jazz: In Search of Django Reinhardt and the Soul of Gypsy Swing are labors of love for Dregni who has written on a variety of subjects but obviously has a great affinity for Django and the music he was most associated with.
As a result of that affinity the reader is treated to a biography that in both scope and detail exceeds Django Reinhardt the biography written by Charles Delaunay, the man that discovered Django and helped to establish him as a fixture in the French Jazz scene.
Now there's only so much material available about Django but Dregni fleshes this out with insights into the world that Django was born into, the culture and circumstances of Gypsies living in France early in the 20th century. I came away from the reading of this book with a lot of information about Gypsy culture and it certainly gives insight into the man himself.
I strongly recommend this biography for anyone interested in Django and his music. I've read pretty much everything I could find about Django and this book truly stands out. The other books told me about the things Django did, this book told me about him as a person.
Summary of Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend
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 there is no major biography of Reinhardt.Now, in Django, Michael Dregni offers a definitive portrait of this great guitarist. Handsome, charismatic, childlike, and unpredictable, Reinhardt was a character out of a picaresque novel. Born in a gypsy caravan at a crossroads in Belgium, he was almost killed in a freak fire that burned half of his body and left his left hand twisted into a claw. But with this maimed left hand flying over the frets and his right hand plucking at dizzying speed, Django became Europe's most famous jazz musician, commanding exorbitant fees--and spending the money as fast as he made it. 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 St�phane 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.
Capturing the extraordinary life and times of one of the great musicians of the twentieth century, Django is a must-read portrait of a true original.
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