Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.62 (826 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0195304489 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 344 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-05-24 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"Powerful account of a force of nature and music" according to The Big F. Django wasn't just a fabulous guitarist, he was a force of nature. People rave over his guitar work after the fire that destroyed half his hand, but no one, it seems, wants to say how unbelievable he would have been without his deformed digits. I love Django and h. "A fun read about a guitar legend." according to cg1-rj. I have long admired the music of Django Reinhardt, but I didn't know much about him until I read Michael Dregni's fantastic book. The author not only told the fascinating story of an incredible musician, but provided a wealth of information about the people in Dja. The real "Django" A great book--very well written. My only quibble: why mention of Django and Piaf?
King, Jerry Garcia, Chet Atkins, and many others. 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. 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. He examines his long musical partnership with violinist Stéphane 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. 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. Capturing the extraordinary life and times of one of the great musicians of the twentieth century, Django
Dregni casts Django as a mercurial, charismatic Romany innocent, alternately transfixed by gadjo life and dismissive of it. Spared by the Nazis because a German kommandant liked his playing, Django became a national hero when one of his compositions, "Nuages," became the unofficial anthem of occupied France. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. . Born in a Belgian caravan, Django began performing in Parisian dance halls at 12.