django whirligirl hey Brad! what's your opinion on this guy? i heard about him in my gypsy class. 000721 ... Brad Django Reinhardt, the beligan gypsy guitarist with full use of only two fingers. His music is really dated now, but he was a major inspiration to me when i first started playing guitar. He really started a lot of things for the guitar and was good at the four to the bar jazz 'rhythm' guitar sound and was a good soloist too, for the times. The Quintette du hot club du france recordings are great. Really really great. His tune "Nuages" is classic and was one of the first tunes that really inspired me. In his day he was a great artist but sadly now he is really dated and his music is mainly nostalgic more than artistic. I would refer to him as the Louis Armstrong of the guitar, with some notable differences... he was slightly more artistic-minded than Pops. He did write some great tunes back when he was living and was the main inspiration for later masters such as Joe Pass. And he inspired Modern Jazz Quartet's "Django" which is one of my favorite albums recorded in the 50s. I think he died in the 40s or 50s or somewhere thereabouts. He was a really quirky fella known to do things like sell all his guitars the day of a gig. For a while he switched to plastic guitars. He was always known for using crappy cheap instruments. Once he gave up guitar altogether to paint, and then took up guitar again about a year later. All in all, I really like Django. Thank you, whirligirl for asking. I like you! you are nice. 000721 ... MollyGoLightly legend has it that emmet ray fainted every time he saw django rheinardt in person. also, he cried like a baby when he listened to django rheinhardt records. what a neurotic sillyhead. 000721 ... whirligirl thanks Brad and Molly! Brad, you are now my jazz consultant. 000723 ... whirligirl i heard that he used to play to the people who couldn't afford tickets, in a crowd outside the venue, instead of actually playing the show. 000723 ... eric dolphy stephane grapelli was a great musician too and should be remembered! 001021 what's it to you? who go blather from