Django Reinhardt
Encyclopedia
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz
guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique (sometimes called 'hot' jazz guitar) that has since become a living musical tradition
within French gypsy culture. With violinist Stéphane Grappelli
, he co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France
, described by critic Thom Jurek as "one of the most original bands in the history of recorded jazz." Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become jazz standards, including "Minor Swing
", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages".
, Pont-à-Celles
, Belgium, into a family of Manouche gypsies. Reinhardt's nickname "Django" is Romani
for "I awake." Reinhardt spent most of his youth in Romani (Gypsy) encampments close to Paris, playing banjo
, guitar and violin from an early age. His family made cane furniture
for a living, but included several keen amateur musicians.
Reinhardt was attracted to music at an early age, playing the violin at first. At the age of 12, he received a banjo-guitar that had been given to him as a gift. He quickly learned to play, mimicking the fingerings of musicians he watched. His first known recordings (in 1928) were of him playing the banjo. During this period he was influenced by two older gypsy musicians, the banjoist Gusti Mahla and the guitarist Jean "Poulette" Castro. By the age of 13, Reinhardt was able to make a living playing music. As a result, he received little formal education and acquired the rudiments of literacy only in adult life.
and paper. Consequently, their home was full of this highly flammable material. Returning from a performance late one night, Reinhardt apparently knocked over a candle on his way to bed. While his family and neighbours were quick to pull him to safety, he received first- and second-degree burns over half his body. His right leg was paralysed and the third and fourth fingers of his left hand were badly burned. Doctors believed that he would never play guitar again and intended to amputate one of his legs. Reinhardt refused to have the surgery and left the hospital after a short time; he was able to walk within a year with the aid of a cane.
His brother Joseph Reinhardt, an accomplished guitarist himself, bought Django a new guitar. With rehabilitation and practice he relearned his craft in a completely new way, even as his third and fourth fingers remained partially paralysed. He played all of his guitar solos with only two fingers, and used the two injured digits only for chord work.
In 1929, Reinhardt's estranged wife Florine gave birth to a son named Henri "Lousson" Reinhardt (aka Lousson Baumgartner).
, whom he called "my brother". Shortly afterwards he made the acquaintance of a young violinist with very similar musical interests—Stéphane Grappelli
. In the absence of paid work in their radical new music, the two would jam
together, along with a loose circle of other musicians.
" with Reinhardt's brother Joseph and Roger Chaput on guitar, and Louis Vola
on bass. Occasionally Chaput was replaced by Reinhardt's best friend and fellow Gypsy Pierre "Baro" Ferret
. The vocalist Freddy Taylor participated in a few songs, such as "Georgia On My Mind
" and "Nagasaki
". Jean Sablon
was the first singer to record with him more than 30 songs from 1933. They also used their guitars for percussive sounds, as they had no true percussion section. The Quintette du Hot Club de France was one of the few well-known jazz ensembles composed only of string instruments.
In Paris on 14 March 1933, 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, using three guitarists along with an accordion
lead, violin, and bass. In August of the following year recordings were also made with more than one guitar (Joseph Reinhardt, Roger Chaput, and Django), including the first recording by the Quintette. In both years, it should be noted, the great majority of recordings featured a wide variety of horns, often in multiples, piano, and other instruments.
Reinhardt also played and recorded with many American jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins
, Benny Carter
, Rex Stewart
(who later stayed in Paris), and participated in a jam-session and radio performance with Louis Armstrong
. Later in his career he played with Dizzy Gillespie
in France. Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France used the Selmer Maccaferri, the first commercially available guitars with a cutaway
and later with an aluminium-reinforced neck.
broke out, the original quintet was on tour in the United Kingdom. Reinhardt returned to Paris at once, leaving his wife behind. Grappelli remained in the United Kingdom for the duration of the war. Reinhardt reformed the quintet, with Hubert Rostaing
on clarinet
replacing Grappelli's violin. In 1943, Reinhardt married Sophie "Naguine" Ziegler in Salbris
, with whom he had a son, Babik Reinhardt
, who became a respected guitarist in his own right.
Reinhardt survived the war unscathed, unlike many Romanis who perished in the Porajmos
, the Nazi regime's systematic murder of several hundred thousand European Romanis. He was well aware of the dangers he and his family faced, and made several unsuccessful attempts to escape occupied France. Part of the explanation of his survival is that he enjoyed the protection of (surreptitiously) jazz-loving Nazis such as Luftwaffe officer Dietrich Schulz-Köhn, nicknamed "Doktor Jazz".
Reinhardt's problems were compounded by the fact that the Nazis also officially disapproved of jazz. Reinhardt became interested in other musical directions, attempting to write a Mass for the Gypsies and Symphony (since he could not write music, he would perform improvisations to be notated by an assistant). His modernist piece Rhythm Futur was intended to be acceptably unjazzlike.
as a special guest soloist with Duke Ellington
and His Orchestra, when he got to play with many notable musicians and composers such as Maury Deutsch
. At the end of the tour he played two nights at Carnegie Hall
; he received a great ovation and took six curtain calls on the first night. Despite Reinhardt's great pride in touring with Ellington (one of his two letters to Grappelli relates this excitement), he was not really integrated into the band, playing only a few tunes at the end of the show, backed by Ellington, with no special arrangements written for him. After the tour he secured an engagement at Café Society Uptown, where he did four solos a day backed by the resident band. These performances drew large audiences.
Reinhardt was reportedly given an untuned guitar to play with (discovered after strumming a chord) and it took him five whole minutes to tune it. Having failed to take along a Selmer Modèle Jazz, the guitar he made famous, he had to play on a haphazardly borrowed electric guitar, which failed to bring out the delicacy of his style.
Django Reinhardt was among the first people in France to appreciate the music of Charlie Parker
and Dizzy Gillespie
, whom he sought when he arrived in New York. They were both on tour at the time, however.
He had been promised some jobs in California but these failed to materialize and he got tired of waiting. He returned to France in February 1947.
In Rome in 1949, Reinhardt recruited three Italian jazz players (on bass, piano, and snare drum) and recorded his final (double) album, "Djangology". He was once again united with Grappelli, and returned to his acoustic Selmer-Maccaferri. The recording was discovered and issued for the first time in the late 1950s.
, near Fontainebleau
, where he lived until his death. He continued to play in Paris jazz clubs and began playing electric guitar, despite his initial hesitation towards the instrument. His final recordings made in the last few months of his life show him moving in a new musical direction; he had assimilated the vocabulary of bebop
and fused it with his own melodic style.
While walking from the Avon
railway station after playing in a Paris club he collapsed outside his house from a brain hemorrhage.
It was a Saturday and it took a full day for a doctor to arrive and Reinhardt was declared dead on arrival
at the hospital in Fontainebleau at age 43.
, was a guitarist in the contemporary jazz style. His first son, Lousson, was more of a traditionalist, but followed the Romani lifestyle and rarely performed in public.
Reinhardt's brother Joseph had initially sworn to abandon music on hearing of Reinhardt's death, but was persuaded to start performing and recording again. Joseph's son Markus is a gypsy violinist.
There is now a third generation of direct descendants Reinhardt's grandson (by his son Babik), David Reinhardt, leads his own trio; his grandson by Lousson, Dallas Baumgartner, is a guitarist who follows in his father's footsteps by traveling and keeping a low public profile.
superseding swing in jazz, the rise of rock and roll
, and electric instruments taking over from acoustic ones in popular music. Reinhardt's friends and sidemen Pierre Ferret
and his brothers continued to perform their own version of gypsy swing.
There was a revival of interest in Reinhardt's music from the mid sixties, with acoustic music having become popular through the folk
movement. Several of Reinhardt's near-contemporaries recorded for the first time in the sixties and seventies, for instance Paul "Tchan Tchou" Vidal
In 1973 Stéphane Grappelli formed a successful Quintette-style band with British guitarists Diz Disley
and Denny Wright
. Grappelli would go on to form many other musical partnerships, including John Etheridge
and Nigel Kennedy
. He was also to acquire his own emulators, for instance Dutch
violinist Tim Kliphuis
.
New generations began to emerge, for instance, Jimmy
and Stochelo Rosenberg
and their relatives from the Netherlands
. Another musical clan is the Reinhardt brothers and cousins from Germany
, distant relatives of Reinhardt's. Boulou Ferré, son of "Matelot" Ferret, was a child prodigy who entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 13, and studied under Olivier Messiaen
. He continues to perform, with his brother Elios, and can mix bebop and even classical music with gypsy swing. Biréli Lagrène
and Angelo Debarre
were other prodigies.
Most of the above-mentioned are Roma who learned music by the 'gypsy method', involving intense practice, direct imitation of older musicians (often family members) and playing by ear, with little formal musical study (or, indeed, formal education of any kind). Since about the late 1970s, study materials of a more conventional kind such as workshops, books and videos have become available, allowing musicians worldwide to master the style.
Non-Roma prominent gypsy-style guitarists include John Jorgenson
, Jon Larsen
(and his Hot Club de Norvège
, established 1979), Joscho Stephan
, Andreas Öberg
, Frank Vignola
, George Cole
, Stephane Wrembel
and Reynold Philipsek
. Their music is sometimes jokingly referred to as "Gadjo jazz", where Gadjo is the Romani term for a non-Romani. Young players such as Adrien Moignard and Gwenole Cahue represent the rising generation. Another sign of the rising popularity of gypsy jazz is the increasing number of festivals, such as the Samois-sur-Seine
festival (started about 1980), and the various DjangoFest
s held in the USA.
. The third and fourth fingers of the cartoon Reinhardt are considerably smaller than the fingers used to play the guitar. Reinhardt's legacy dominates in Woody Allen
's 1999 Sweet and Lowdown
. This spoof biopic focuses on fictional American guitarist Emmet Ray's obsession with Reinhardt, with soundtrack featuring Howard Alden
. He is also portrayed by guitarist John Jorgenson
in the movie Head in the Clouds
.
Reinhardt is the idol of the character Arvid in the movie Swing Kids
, where the character's left hand is smashed by a member of the Hitler Jugend, but is inspired by Reinhardt's example to keep playing. Similarly, in real life, Black Sabbath
guitarist Tony Iommi suffered an industrial accident at 17, where the tips of his right middle and ring fingers were amputated on the last day of his job at a sheet metal factory. His boss, in an effort to encourage Iommi to follow his dream of being a professional guitarist, played a Django Reinhardt record for him for inspiration.
Reinhardt's music has been used in the soundtrack of many films, including in The Matrix
; Rhythm Futur, Daltry Calhoun, Metroland, Chocolat, The Aviator, Alex and the Gypsy, Kate and Leopold and Gattaca
; the score for Louis Malle
's 1974 movie, Lacombe Lucien
; the background for the Steve Martin
movie L.A. Story
; and the background for a number of Woody Allen
movies, including Stardust Memories
. (MnHe also appeared as a character in Allen's Sweet and Lowdown
. Reinhardt's music has also been featured in the soundtracks of several video games, such as the 2002 game Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
, Mafia II
and several times in the 2007 game BioShock
. Notably, not only was Reinhardt's music used in the 1978 film King of the Gypsies
, his long-time friend and violinist Stéphane Grappelli
appeared in the film in a cameo performing as part of one of the gypsy bands.
In the Martin Scorsese
film, Hugo
, 2011, a character who appears to be Reinhardt plays guitar in a combo in the station cafe and a closeup shows him making chords without the use of his 3rd and 4th fingers. Other Paris artistic notables of the day are depicted as well.
Reinhardt has been the subject of several songs, most notably "Django" (1954), a gypsy-flavoured piece that jazz pianist John Lewis
of the Modern Jazz Quartet
wrote in honour of Reinhardt; numerous versions of the song have been recorded, including one on the 1973 Lindsey Buckingham
/Stevie Nicks
self-titled debut album; it also appears on Joe Bonamassa
's 2006 LP You & Me. The lyrics of the Norwegian song "Tanta til Beate" by Lillebjørn Nilsen
mentions Reinhardt several times.
He is mentioned in Jump Little Children's song "Mexico": "I won't let you leave, not with all my Django, Emmylou
and Steve
".
In the novel Century Rain
by Alastair Reynolds
, the characters Wendell Floyd and André Custine mention having played music with Reinhardt.
At the end of the 2009 NCIS episode "Hide and Seek," Dr. Mallard mentions that Agent McGee's prized autographed Django Reinhardt album "Crazy Rhythm" was mysteriously destroyed.
In 2010 the French and Belgian Google homepages displayed a logo commemorating the centenary of his birthday on 23 January 2010.
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique (sometimes called 'hot' jazz guitar) that has since become a living musical tradition
Gypsy jazz
Gypsy jazz is an idiom often said to have been started by guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt in the 1930s. Because its origins are largely in France it is often called by the French name, "Jazz manouche," or alternatively, "manouche jazz," even in English language sources...
within French gypsy culture. With violinist Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
, he co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France
Quintette du Hot Club de France
Quintette du Hot Club de France was a jazz group founded in France in 1934 by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and active in one form or another until 1948....
, described by critic Thom Jurek as "one of the most original bands in the history of recorded jazz." Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become jazz standards, including "Minor Swing
Minor Swing (song)
"Minor Swing" is a popular Gypsy jazz tune by Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. It was first recorded by The Quintet of the Hot Club of France in 1937...
", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages".
Early life
Jean "Django" Reinhardt was born 23 January 1910 in LiberchiesLiberchies
Liberchies is a village in the municipality of Pont-à-Celles, in the Belgian province of Hainaut.It is situated along the previous Roman highway Bavay-Tongeren where a vicus was discovered. Geminiacum is the name of the vicus that developed along the Roman highway next to the center of today's...
, Pont-à-Celles
Pont-à-Celles
Pont-à-Celles is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006, Pont-à-Celles had a total population of 16,292...
, Belgium, into a family of Manouche gypsies. Reinhardt's nickname "Django" is Romani
Romani language
Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....
for "I awake." Reinhardt spent most of his youth in Romani (Gypsy) encampments close to Paris, playing banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, guitar and violin from an early age. His family made cane furniture
Caning (furniture)
In the context of furniture, caning is a method of weaving chair seats and other furniture. Caning material is wicker such as cane, or it is derived from the skin of rattan vines native to Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. Some vines reach 500 feet in length. One of the earliest woven chair...
for a living, but included several keen amateur musicians.
Reinhardt was attracted to music at an early age, playing the violin at first. At the age of 12, he received a banjo-guitar that had been given to him as a gift. He quickly learned to play, mimicking the fingerings of musicians he watched. His first known recordings (in 1928) were of him playing the banjo. During this period he was influenced by two older gypsy musicians, the banjoist Gusti Mahla and the guitarist Jean "Poulette" Castro. By the age of 13, Reinhardt was able to make a living playing music. As a result, he received little formal education and acquired the rudiments of literacy only in adult life.
The injury
At the age of 18, Reinhardt was injured in a fire that ravaged the caravan he shared with Florine "Bella" Mayer, his first wife. They were very poor, and to supplement their income Bella made imitation flowers out of celluloidCelluloid
Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1862 and as Xylonite in 1869, before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is...
and paper. Consequently, their home was full of this highly flammable material. Returning from a performance late one night, Reinhardt apparently knocked over a candle on his way to bed. While his family and neighbours were quick to pull him to safety, he received first- and second-degree burns over half his body. His right leg was paralysed and the third and fourth fingers of his left hand were badly burned. Doctors believed that he would never play guitar again and intended to amputate one of his legs. Reinhardt refused to have the surgery and left the hospital after a short time; he was able to walk within a year with the aid of a cane.
His brother Joseph Reinhardt, an accomplished guitarist himself, bought Django a new guitar. With rehabilitation and practice he relearned his craft in a completely new way, even as his third and fourth fingers remained partially paralysed. He played all of his guitar solos with only two fingers, and used the two injured digits only for chord work.
In 1929, Reinhardt's estranged wife Florine gave birth to a son named Henri "Lousson" Reinhardt (aka Lousson Baumgartner).
Discovery of jazz
The period between 1929 and 1933 were formative years for Reinhardt. He decisively abandoned the banjo-guitar in favour of the guitar. He was particularly impressed with Louis ArmstrongLouis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, whom he called "my brother". Shortly afterwards he made the acquaintance of a young violinist with very similar musical interests—Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
. In the absence of paid work in their radical new music, the two would jam
Jam session
Jam sessions are often used by musicians to develop new material, find suitable arrangements, or simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one...
together, along with a loose circle of other musicians.
Formation of the quintet
In 1934, Reinhardt and Parisian violinist Grappelli were invited to form the "Quintette du Hot Club de FranceQuintette du Hot Club de France
Quintette du Hot Club de France was a jazz group founded in France in 1934 by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and active in one form or another until 1948....
" with Reinhardt's brother Joseph and Roger Chaput on guitar, and Louis Vola
Louis Vola
Louis Vola , was a French double-bassist famous for his work with the Quintette du Hot Club de France....
on bass. Occasionally Chaput was replaced by Reinhardt's best friend and fellow Gypsy Pierre "Baro" Ferret
Pierre Ferret
Pierre Joseph Ferret was a Gypsy jazz guitarist and composer. He was known by his Gypsy nickname "Baro," which meant "Big One" or even "King" in Romany. Through his brother Jean "Matelo" Ferret, Baro met Jean "Django" Reinhardt, and the two became both friends and notorious rivals...
. The vocalist Freddy Taylor participated in a few songs, such as "Georgia On My Mind
Georgia on My Mind
"Georgia on My Mind" is a song written in 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell . It is the official state song of the U.S. state of Georgia. Gorrell wrote the lyrics for Hoagy's sister, Georgia Carmichael. However, the lyrics of the song are ambiguous enough to refer either to the state or...
" and "Nagasaki
Nagasaki (song)
"Nagasaki" is a jazz song from 1928 by Harry Warren and Mort Dixon that became a popular Tin Pan Alley hit. The silly, bawdy lyrics have only the vaguest relation to the Japanese port city of Nagasaki...
". Jean Sablon
Jean Sablon
Jean Sablon was a popular French singer and actor.The son of a composer, with brothers and sisters who had successful careers of their own in musical entertainment, Jean Sablon studied piano at the Lyceé Charlemagne in Paris...
was the first singer to record with him more than 30 songs from 1933. They also used their guitars for percussive sounds, as they had no true percussion section. The Quintette du Hot Club de France was one of the few well-known jazz ensembles composed only of string instruments.
In Paris on 14 March 1933, 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, using three guitarists along with an accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
lead, violin, and bass. In August of the following year recordings were also made with more than one guitar (Joseph Reinhardt, Roger Chaput, and Django), including the first recording by the Quintette. In both years, it should be noted, the great majority of recordings featured a wide variety of horns, often in multiples, piano, and other instruments.
Reinhardt also played and recorded with many American jazz musicians such as Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...
, Benny Carter
Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...
, Rex Stewart
Rex Stewart
Rex Stewart was an American jazz cornetist best known for his work with the Duke Ellington orchestra....
(who later stayed in Paris), and participated in a jam-session and radio performance with Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
. Later in his career he played with Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
in France. Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France used the Selmer Maccaferri, the first commercially available guitars with a cutaway
Cutaway (guitar)
In guitar construction, a cutaway is an indentation in the body of the instrument adjacent to the neck of the instrument, designed to allow easier access to the upper frets....
and later with an aluminium-reinforced neck.
World War II
When World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out, the original quintet was on tour in the United Kingdom. Reinhardt returned to Paris at once, leaving his wife behind. Grappelli remained in the United Kingdom for the duration of the war. Reinhardt reformed the quintet, with Hubert Rostaing
Hubert Rostaing
Hubert Rostaing was a jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist. He also did film composition and classical music....
on clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
replacing Grappelli's violin. In 1943, Reinhardt married Sophie "Naguine" Ziegler in Salbris
Salbris
Salbris is a commune in the Loir-et-Cher department of central France....
, with whom he had a son, Babik Reinhardt
Babik Reinhardt
Babik Reinhardt was one of Django Reinhardt's sons, and a guitarist himself. He did not learn the guitar directly from Django, who wanted him to learn the piano instead, but from various other family members....
, who became a respected guitarist in his own right.
Reinhardt survived the war unscathed, unlike many Romanis who perished in the Porajmos
Porajmos
The Porajmos was the attempt made by Nazi Germany, the Independent State of Croatia, Horthy's Hungary and their allies to exterminate the Romani people of Europe during World War II...
, the Nazi regime's systematic murder of several hundred thousand European Romanis. He was well aware of the dangers he and his family faced, and made several unsuccessful attempts to escape occupied France. Part of the explanation of his survival is that he enjoyed the protection of (surreptitiously) jazz-loving Nazis such as Luftwaffe officer Dietrich Schulz-Köhn, nicknamed "Doktor Jazz".
Reinhardt's problems were compounded by the fact that the Nazis also officially disapproved of jazz. Reinhardt became interested in other musical directions, attempting to write a Mass for the Gypsies and Symphony (since he could not write music, he would perform improvisations to be notated by an assistant). His modernist piece Rhythm Futur was intended to be acceptably unjazzlike.
United States tour
After the war, Reinhardt rejoined Grappelli in the UK, and then went on in fall 1946 to tour the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as a special guest soloist with Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
and His Orchestra, when he got to play with many notable musicians and composers such as Maury Deutsch
Maury Deutsch
Maury Deutsch is a musician who has played the trumpet from an early age. He is one of the most prolific and accomplished arranger-composers of his time, and in New York history. Deutsch was born and raised on the Lowest East Side of Manhattan, New York...
. At the end of the tour he played two nights at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
; he received a great ovation and took six curtain calls on the first night. Despite Reinhardt's great pride in touring with Ellington (one of his two letters to Grappelli relates this excitement), he was not really integrated into the band, playing only a few tunes at the end of the show, backed by Ellington, with no special arrangements written for him. After the tour he secured an engagement at Café Society Uptown, where he did four solos a day backed by the resident band. These performances drew large audiences.
Reinhardt was reportedly given an untuned guitar to play with (discovered after strumming a chord) and it took him five whole minutes to tune it. Having failed to take along a Selmer Modèle Jazz, the guitar he made famous, he had to play on a haphazardly borrowed electric guitar, which failed to bring out the delicacy of his style.
Django Reinhardt was among the first people in France to appreciate the music of Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
and Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, whom he sought when he arrived in New York. They were both on tour at the time, however.
He had been promised some jobs in California but these failed to materialize and he got tired of waiting. He returned to France in February 1947.
After the quintet
After returning to France, Reinhardt spent the remainder of his days re-immersed in Romani life, having found it difficult to adjust to the modern world. He would sometimes show up for concerts without a guitar or amp, or wander off to the park or beach, and on a few occasions he refused even to get out of bed. Reinhardt was known by his band, fans, and managers to be extremely unpredictable. He would often skip sold-out concerts to simply "walk to the beach" or "smell the dew".In Rome in 1949, Reinhardt recruited three Italian jazz players (on bass, piano, and snare drum) and recorded his final (double) album, "Djangology". He was once again united with Grappelli, and returned to his acoustic Selmer-Maccaferri. The recording was discovered and issued for the first time in the late 1950s.
Final years
In 1951, he retired to Samois-sur-SeineSamois-sur-Seine
Samois-sur-Seine is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.It is located near Fontainebleau.-Culture:...
, near Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...
, where he lived until his death. He continued to play in Paris jazz clubs and began playing electric guitar, despite his initial hesitation towards the instrument. His final recordings made in the last few months of his life show him moving in a new musical direction; he had assimilated the vocabulary of bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
and fused it with his own melodic style.
While walking from the Avon
Avon, Seine-et-Marne
Avon is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.-Geography:Avon and Fontainebleau, together with three other smaller communes, form an urban area of 36,713 inhabitants...
railway station after playing in a Paris club he collapsed outside his house from a brain hemorrhage.
It was a Saturday and it took a full day for a doctor to arrive and Reinhardt was declared dead on arrival
Dead on arrival
Dead on arrival or D.O.A. is a term used to indicate that a patient was found to be already clinically dead upon the arrival of professional medical assistance, often in the form of first responders such as emergency medical technicians, paramedics, or police...
at the hospital in Fontainebleau at age 43.
Family
Reinhardt's second son, BabikBabik Reinhardt
Babik Reinhardt was one of Django Reinhardt's sons, and a guitarist himself. He did not learn the guitar directly from Django, who wanted him to learn the piano instead, but from various other family members....
, was a guitarist in the contemporary jazz style. His first son, Lousson, was more of a traditionalist, but followed the Romani lifestyle and rarely performed in public.
Reinhardt's brother Joseph had initially sworn to abandon music on hearing of Reinhardt's death, but was persuaded to start performing and recording again. Joseph's son Markus is a gypsy violinist.
There is now a third generation of direct descendants Reinhardt's grandson (by his son Babik), David Reinhardt, leads his own trio; his grandson by Lousson, Dallas Baumgartner, is a guitarist who follows in his father's footsteps by traveling and keeping a low public profile.
Legacy
For about a decade after Reinhardt's death, interest in his musical style was minimal, with the fifties seeing bebopBebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
superseding swing in jazz, the rise of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, and electric instruments taking over from acoustic ones in popular music. Reinhardt's friends and sidemen Pierre Ferret
Pierre Ferret
Pierre Joseph Ferret was a Gypsy jazz guitarist and composer. He was known by his Gypsy nickname "Baro," which meant "Big One" or even "King" in Romany. Through his brother Jean "Matelo" Ferret, Baro met Jean "Django" Reinhardt, and the two became both friends and notorious rivals...
and his brothers continued to perform their own version of gypsy swing.
There was a revival of interest in Reinhardt's music from the mid sixties, with acoustic music having become popular through the folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
movement. Several of Reinhardt's near-contemporaries recorded for the first time in the sixties and seventies, for instance Paul "Tchan Tchou" Vidal
In 1973 Stéphane Grappelli formed a successful Quintette-style band with British guitarists Diz Disley
Diz Disley
Diz Disley was an Anglo-Canadian jazz guitarist and graphic designer. He is best known for his jazz guitar playing, strongly influenced by Django Reinhardt, and for his collaborations with the violinist Stéphane Grappelli....
and Denny Wright
Denny Wright
Denny Wright was a jazz and skiffle guitarist, who performed with Stephane Grappelli, Lonnie Donegan, Johnny Duncan , Digby Fairweather, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstine, Fapy Lafertin and many other musicians, including young rising stars such as Bireli Lagrene and Nigel Kennedy...
. Grappelli would go on to form many other musical partnerships, including John Etheridge
John Etheridge
John Michael Glyn Etheridge is a British jazz/fusion guitarist associated with the Canterbury Scene....
and Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy is a British born violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and he has performed and recorded most of the major violin concerti...
. He was also to acquire his own emulators, for instance Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
violinist Tim Kliphuis
Tim Kliphuis
Tim Kliphuis is a Dutch violinist.He first became known in 1999 when he joined Belgian gypsy guitarist, Fapy Lafertin...
.
New generations began to emerge, for instance, Jimmy
Jimmy Rosenberg
Joseph Rosenberg is a Sinto-Romani guitarist from Netherlands, known for his virtuoso playing of Gypsy jazz and other related styles....
and Stochelo Rosenberg
Stochelo Rosenberg
Stochelo Rosenberg is a Sinti-Gypsy jazz guitarist who plays in the Jazz manouche style of Django Reinhardt and leads the Rosenberg Trio.-With The Rosenberg Trio: -Solo Albums:...
and their relatives from the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. Another musical clan is the Reinhardt brothers and cousins from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, distant relatives of Reinhardt's. Boulou Ferré, son of "Matelot" Ferret, was a child prodigy who entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 13, and studied under Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
. He continues to perform, with his brother Elios, and can mix bebop and even classical music with gypsy swing. Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène is a French guitarist and bassist. He came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt-influenced style on the classical guitar, as well as for being a jazz fusion virtuoso on the electric guitar...
and Angelo Debarre
Angelo Debarre
Angelo Debarre is a Romani guitarist in the manouche jazz style.He began playing at age 8 and in 1984 started his first group, the Angelo Debarre Quintet...
were other prodigies.
Most of the above-mentioned are Roma who learned music by the 'gypsy method', involving intense practice, direct imitation of older musicians (often family members) and playing by ear, with little formal musical study (or, indeed, formal education of any kind). Since about the late 1970s, study materials of a more conventional kind such as workshops, books and videos have become available, allowing musicians worldwide to master the style.
Non-Roma prominent gypsy-style guitarists include John Jorgenson
John Jorgenson
John Jorgenson is a US musician. Although best known for his guitar work with bands such as the Desert Rose Band and The Hellecasters, Jorgenson is also proficient in the mandolin, mandocello, Dobro, pedal steel, piano, upright bass, clarinet, bassoon and saxophone...
, Jon Larsen
Jon Larsen
Jon Larsen is an autodidact guitarist, composer, surrealistic painter, and record producer with heavy influence on the revival of Gypsy jazz worldwide...
(and his Hot Club de Norvège
Hot Club de Norvège
Hot Club de Norvège is a string Jazz quartet from Norway, established in 1979, by guitar player Jon Larsen with childhood friends Per Frydenlund and Svein Aarbostad...
, established 1979), Joscho Stephan
Joscho Stephan
Joscho Stephan is a German Jazz guitarist who mainly plays modern Gypsy jazz. In this style he is particularly noted for his virtuosity on the acoustic guitar....
, Andreas Öberg
Andreas Öberg
.Andreas Öberg is a Swedish guitar player.-Early life:Öberg was born in Stockholm on August 6, 1978. He began playing guitar at the age of 8 years old and studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.- Career :...
, Frank Vignola
Frank Vignola
Frank Vignola is an American jazz guitarist.Vignola began on guitar at age five. While he never listened to jazz exclusively, he has a wide range of influences, such as Les Paul, Eddie Van Halen and Frank Zappa. He later studied at the Cultural Arts Center of Long Island...
, George Cole
George Cole (musician)
George Cole is the producer, composer, lyricist, vocalist, and lead guitarist for the Jazz band George Cole and Vive Le Jazz. He was also a guitarist for the pop rock band Beatnik Beatch and Big Blue Hearts. He played on Chris Isaak's platinum selling Forever Blue album...
, Stephane Wrembel
Stephane Wrembel
Stephane Wrembel is a French born jazz guitarist currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. Wrembel is best known as a composer and performer of Gypsy Jazz, but is also heavily influenced by world music....
and Reynold Philipsek
Reynold Philipsek
Reynold D. Philipsek Reynold D. Philipsek May 2010 Background information Birth name Reynold David Philipsek Born...
. Their music is sometimes jokingly referred to as "Gadjo jazz", where Gadjo is the Romani term for a non-Romani. Young players such as Adrien Moignard and Gwenole Cahue represent the rising generation. Another sign of the rising popularity of gypsy jazz is the increasing number of festivals, such as the Samois-sur-Seine
Samois-sur-Seine
Samois-sur-Seine is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.It is located near Fontainebleau.-Culture:...
festival (started about 1980), and the various DjangoFest
DjangoFest
DjangoFest is a series of music festivals celebrating the music of Django Reinhardt and other forms of gypsy jazz and traditional gypsy music. There are three annual festivals DjangoFest Northwest produced by Whidbey Island Center for the Arts, DjangoFest San Francisco, a three day festival held...
s held in the USA.
Reinhardt in popular culture
Reinhardt has been portrayed in several films, such as in the opening sequence of the 2003 animated film Les Triplettes de BellevilleLes Triplettes de Belleville
The Triplets of Belleville is a 2003 animated comedy film written and directed by Sylvain Chomet. It was released as Belleville Rendez-vous in the United Kingdom...
. The third and fourth fingers of the cartoon Reinhardt are considerably smaller than the fingers used to play the guitar. Reinhardt's legacy dominates in Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's 1999 Sweet and Lowdown
Sweet and Lowdown
Sweet and Lowdown is a 1999 American comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen which tells the story of a fictional arrogant, obnoxious, alcoholic jazz guitarist named Emmet Ray who regards himself as perhaps the best guitarist in the world, or second best, after his idol, Django Reinhardt...
. This spoof biopic focuses on fictional American guitarist Emmet Ray's obsession with Reinhardt, with soundtrack featuring Howard Alden
Howard Alden
Howard Alden is an American jazz guitarist born in Newport Beach, California. He has recorded a long series of albums for Concord Records. His performances were dubbed over Sean Penn as 'Emmet Ray' in the 1999 Woody Allen film Sweet and Lowdown...
. He is also portrayed by guitarist John Jorgenson
John Jorgenson
John Jorgenson is a US musician. Although best known for his guitar work with bands such as the Desert Rose Band and The Hellecasters, Jorgenson is also proficient in the mandolin, mandocello, Dobro, pedal steel, piano, upright bass, clarinet, bassoon and saxophone...
in the movie Head in the Clouds
Head in the Clouds
Head in the Clouds is a 2004 drama film written and directed by John Duigan. The original screenplay focuses on the choices young lovers must make as they find themselves surrounded by increasing political unrest in late-1930s Europe.-Plot synopsis:...
.
Reinhardt is the idol of the character Arvid in the movie Swing Kids
Swing Kids (film)
Swing Kids is a film produced in 1993, directed by Thomas Carter and starring Christian Bale, Robert Sean Leonard and Kenneth Branagh. The runtime is approximately 112 minutes. The film is considered as being part of the Lindy Hop revival of the 1980s and 1990s...
, where the character's left hand is smashed by a member of the Hitler Jugend, but is inspired by Reinhardt's example to keep playing. Similarly, in real life, Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
guitarist Tony Iommi suffered an industrial accident at 17, where the tips of his right middle and ring fingers were amputated on the last day of his job at a sheet metal factory. His boss, in an effort to encourage Iommi to follow his dream of being a professional guitarist, played a Django Reinhardt record for him for inspiration.
Reinhardt's music has been used in the soundtrack of many films, including in The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
; Rhythm Futur, Daltry Calhoun, Metroland, Chocolat, The Aviator, Alex and the Gypsy, Kate and Leopold and Gattaca
Gattaca
Gattaca is a 1997 science fiction film written and directed by Andrew Niccol. It stars Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law with supporting roles played by Loren Dean, Ernest Borgnine, Gore Vidal and Alan Arkin....
; the score for Louis Malle
Louis Malle
Louis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. His films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud , Atlantic City , and Au revoir, les enfants .- Early years in France :Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries,...
's 1974 movie, Lacombe Lucien
Lacombe Lucien
Lacombe Lucien is a 1974 French film that tells the story of a teenage boy during the German occupation of France in World War II. It is based in part on director Louis Malle's own experiences.-Plot:...
; the background for the Steve Martin
Steve Martin
Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer....
movie L.A. Story
L.A. Story
L.A. Story is a 1991 American romantic comedy film, written by and starring Steve Martin. Set in Los Angeles, California, it relates a series of episodes in the romantic life of an L.A. TV weatherman. It includes surreal sequences in which he is offered romantic advice flashed to him by a freeway...
; and the background for a number of Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
movies, including Stardust Memories
Stardust Memories
Stardust Memories is a 1980 film written and directed by Woody Allen, who considers this to be one of his best films in addition to The Purple Rose of Cairo and Match Point. The film is shot in black-and-white, particularly reminiscent of Federico Fellini's 8½ , which it parodies...
. (MnHe also appeared as a character in Allen's Sweet and Lowdown
Sweet and Lowdown
Sweet and Lowdown is a 1999 American comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen which tells the story of a fictional arrogant, obnoxious, alcoholic jazz guitarist named Emmet Ray who regards himself as perhaps the best guitarist in the world, or second best, after his idol, Django Reinhardt...
. Reinhardt's music has also been featured in the soundtracks of several video games, such as the 2002 game Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
Mafia is a third-person shooter video game initially made for Microsoft Windows in . It was developed by Czech company Illusion Softworks and published by Gathering of Developers...
, Mafia II
Mafia II
Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game, the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks, and is published by 2K Games...
and several times in the 2007 game BioShock
Bioshock
BioShock is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Boston and designed by Ken Levine. It was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on August 21, 2007 in North America, and three days later in Europe and Australia. It became available on Steam on August 21, 2007...
. Notably, not only was Reinhardt's music used in the 1978 film King of the Gypsies
King of the Gypsies
The title King of the Gypsies has been claimed or given over the centuries to many different people. It is both culturally and geographically specific. It may be inherited, acquired by acclamation or action, or simply claimed. The extent of the power associated with the title varied; it might be...
, his long-time friend and violinist Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....
appeared in the film in a cameo performing as part of one of the gypsy bands.
In the Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
film, Hugo
Hugo
Hugo may refer to:* Hugo , a surname and a male given name -Places:* Hugo, Alabama* Hugo, Colorado* Hugo, Minnesota* Hugo, Oklahoma* Hugo, Oregon* 2106 Hugo, an asteroid named after Victor Hugo-Characters:...
, 2011, a character who appears to be Reinhardt plays guitar in a combo in the station cafe and a closeup shows him making chords without the use of his 3rd and 4th fingers. Other Paris artistic notables of the day are depicted as well.
Reinhardt has been the subject of several songs, most notably "Django" (1954), a gypsy-flavoured piece that jazz pianist John Lewis
John Lewis (pianist)
John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist and composer best known as the musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.- Early life:...
of the Modern Jazz Quartet
Modern Jazz Quartet
The Modern Jazz Quartet was established in 1952 by Milt Jackson , John Lewis , Percy Heath , and Kenny Clarke . Connie Kay replaced Clarke in 1955...
wrote in honour of Reinhardt; numerous versions of the song have been recorded, including one on the 1973 Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Adams Buckingham is an American guitarist, singer, composer and producer, most notable for being the guitarist and male lead singer of the musical group Fleetwood Mac. Aside from his tenure with Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham has also released six solo albums and a live album...
/Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
self-titled debut album; it also appears on Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa is an American blues rock guitarist and singer.-Early life:Bonamassa was born and raised in New Hartford, United States. His parents owned and ran a guitar shop. He is a fourth-generation musician...
's 2006 LP You & Me. The lyrics of the Norwegian song "Tanta til Beate" by Lillebjørn Nilsen
Lillebjørn Nilsen
Bjørn "Lillebjørn" Falk Nilsen is a prominent Norwegian singer-songwriter and folk musician. He is also considered somewhat the leading "voice of Oslo" thanks to numerous classic songs about the city from the 1970s and up....
mentions Reinhardt several times.
He is mentioned in Jump Little Children's song "Mexico": "I won't let you leave, not with all my Django, Emmylou
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
and Steve
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....
".
In the novel Century Rain
Century Rain
Century Rain is a 2004 noir science fiction alternate history mystery novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds .- Plot summary :...
by Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in dark hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland...
, the characters Wendell Floyd and André Custine mention having played music with Reinhardt.
At the end of the 2009 NCIS episode "Hide and Seek," Dr. Mallard mentions that Agent McGee's prized autographed Django Reinhardt album "Crazy Rhythm" was mysteriously destroyed.
In 2010 the French and Belgian Google homepages displayed a logo commemorating the centenary of his birthday on 23 January 2010.
