Who Was Django Reinhardt?

Gypsy jazz guitar extraordinaire Django Reinhardt (1910-1953) was the star of the remarkable Quintet of the Hot Club of France (1934-39), the most original European contribution in the history of jazz. Reinhardt led a colorful life: he survived a devastating fire to become the first Romani jazz star, survived the Nazi occupation of France, and toured the United States with some of the biggest names in jazz. A supremely gifted composer and innovative guitar player, Django revolutionized the role of the guitar in jazz, transformed it into a primary instrument, and invented the sub-genre of “gypsy jazz” in the process.

Jean Reinhardt, better known as “Django”, was born in Liberches, Belgium to a Romani-French “Manouche” family. He was raised in a Romani settlement close to Paris and began to absorb traditional Romani music from an early age. He spent his youth honing his musical skills on the violin and banjo guitar and stealing chickens – he showed great talent in both endeavors. 

With no formal education, Django turned to music to sustain himself. He busked as a teenager before getting his big break in 1928, playing banjo guitar for the popular accordionist Jean Vaissade. That same year catastrophe struck. 

After narrowly avoiding death after his caravan caught fire, he suffered severe burns, was hospitalized for 18 months, and sustained extensive damage to the ring and pinky fingers of his left hand. Django was told by doctors that he would never play guitar again. Yet, remarkably, over many months of rehabilitation, he re-taught himself to play with just two fingers and a thumb.  

The Birth of Gypsy Jazz

Following an intense period of rehabilitation, in which he indefinitely shifted his focus from the banjo guitar to the guitar, Django reinvented the way he played. After discovering American jazz through the record collection of a friend, he set his sights on becoming a professional jazz musician. 

Relocation to Paris in the early 1930s, he joined forces with the gifted violinist Stephane Grapelli, and formed one of the first all-string jazz bands, the “Quintette du Hot Club de France.” Django possessed remarkable ability on the guitar: his trademark “gypsy swing” rhythm, unconventional chord voicings, blistering arpeggios, and dazzling solos became the trademarks of his distinctive style. 

As part of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, Django, Grapelli, guitarists Rodger Chaput, and Django’s brother Joseph, alongside Louis Vola on bass, unleashed a mesmerizing fusion of American jazz and Romani rhythms that took France – and then the world – by storm. 

Following the outbreak of WW2 the Quintet split. Django miraculously survived Nazi-occupied France, evading arrest and the fate suffered by many of his fellow Romani in the concentration camps. Under Nazi rule jazz was condemned as degenerate art associated with Blacks and Jews. Django’s ability to perform and make a living was seriously curtailed. However, his beautiful composition “Nuages” (Clouds) became a war-time bestseller and the unofficial anthem of occupied France. 

After the war, Django toured the United States as a guest soloist with Duke Ellington’s Orchestra, earning him great acclaim and fulfilling a personal ambition. Upon his return to France, Django struggled to adjust to postwar life. He continued to perform and briefly reunited with Grapelli, and experimented with the electric guitar, but ultimately lost momentum. Django swiftly developed a reputation for skipping performances and in the early 1950s went into semi-retirement. In 1953, aged 43, he suffered a major stroke and died.

Django’s Legacy

In 1930s France, jazz found its place within the fit into pre-established patterns of avant-garde intellectualism, alongside the Dadaists, the Surrealists, the Expressionists, etc. Esteemed French jazz critics contributed their musings to Jean-Paul Sartre’s Les Temps Moderns (Hobsbawm, 2014, p. 212).

Yet even amidst this rich cultural scene, the gypsy-jazz style emerged to be France’s crowning contribution to jazz. Django Reinhardt was its greatest visionary and talent. In later life, Django experimented with the new jazz vocabulary of Bebop, yet his enduring legacy rests in gypsy jazz and his masterful compositions, such as “Nuages” and “Minor Swing.”

Today, Django Reinhardt’s music lives on – gypsy jazz remains a much-loved style among music lovers worldwide. Gypsy jazz bands have blossomed across the globe, alongside an abundance of “Django” festivals, conventions, and guitar workshops. His music continues to resonate and serves as a wellspring of inspiration for aspiring guitarists, over seven decades after his untimely death.