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The Otherworldly Django Reinhardt

rickegeesays...

At the age of 18 Reinhardt was injured in a fire that ravaged the caravan he shared with Bella, his first wife. They were very poor. When the fire happened, they lost everything. She made imitation flowers out of celluloid and paper for her living. Consequently, their home was full of this highly flammable material. Returning from a performance late one night, Django apparently knocked over a candle on his way to bed. While his family and neighbors were quick to pull him to safety, he received first- and second-degree burns over half his body. His right leg was paralyzed and his left hand was badly burnt. Doctors believed that he would never play guitar again and intended to amputate the leg. But he left the hospital after a short time and within a year could walk with use of a cane.

His brother Joseph Reinhardt, an accomplished guitarist in his own right, bought Django a new guitar. With painful rehabilatation and practice Django relearned his craft in a completely new way, even as his third and fourth fingers remained partially paralyzed. He was still able to use these two fingers for playing chords, but was unable to use them for playing solos.

From Wikipedia

rustybrookssays...

I was literally going to post this today. I've had this (as an mpeg) for years. I wish there were more video clips of django, his style is visually amazing to guitarists.

Many django enthusiasts have tried taping their fingers back to imitate the sound. His skill came despite his deformity though, not because of it.

He has a HUGE catalogue of music, maybe 30 or so albums. Couldn't read or write, couldn't read music.

I suggest that if this interests you, you check out the movie "Sweet and Lowdown" which is a pseudo-documentary about a Django-like character (played by Sean Penn) who ironically has sort of a complex about Django (because of Django he is obliged to call himself the 2nd best in the world)

siftbotsays...

Tags for this video have been changed from 'guitar, two finger, hot hot jazz, violin' to 'guitar, two finger, hot club of france, jazz, violin, bass, stephan grappelli' - edited by fissionchips

siftbotsays...

This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by kulpims.

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