Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life |
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Sunday, June 28, 2009
Notes of Note: You got your Django in my concerto!
I was on my way to work and flipping through the channels when I hit KALW (or more likely, KCSM) and heard something incredible. I stopped and listened as not only was it amazingly cool, but I thought I recognized the piece. It was, once upon a time, a Bach concerto, but this was nothing like ol' J.S. ever imagined. It jumped. It swung. It laughed. Naturally, I had to find out what the piece was and who the artist was. Turns out there was a group live in-studio promoting DjangoFest SF and the piece I'd heard was done by Django Reinhart himself with Eddie South. Now, I'd never heard of Django Reinhart, but that one piece was enough to get me hooked. I looked up the piece -- Interpretation swing sur le premier mouvement du Concerto en re mineur de J. S. Bach -- and ordered the album. While the Interpretation is easily the best piece on the album, the whole disc is fantastic. Django Reinhart, I learned, is a French gypsy guitarist from the early to middle 20th century. He started early, but injuries stemming from a fire left him able to move but two fingers on his left hand. Undaunted, Django taught himself to play all over again and he went on to make a lot of great music. Although I have but the one album so far, I will certainly be looking for others. |
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