Reinhardt, Django
Three Fingered Lightning
Gypsy guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt, was in many ways the founding father of European jazz and his band, the Quintette du Hot Club de France, was the most innovative of its day. The tracks found here are taken from six sessions, spanning 1936-1949, and while most of the tracks-like "Djangology" or "Nuages"-have become jazz standards in their own right, the songs recorded in 1940 and 1941 (in Nazi occupied Paris) are perhaps the most historically significant. Despite jazz music being officially banned by the Nazi party (and most gypsies being sent to concentration camps), many Nazi officers secretly loved jazz and protected their favorite musicians. Songs like "Sweet Sue" and "Swing 41" take on new meaning when one considers that Django, the most popular jazz musician in Paris during this period, was only able to keep his life in exchange for entertaining the very people responsible for sending his friends and family to their deaths. SIDE A: 1. Mabel 2. Swing 41 3. Nuages 4. Sweet Sue, Just You 5. Dark Eyes 6. Swing 42 7. Limehouse Blues. SIDE B: 1. Daphne 2. Djangology 3. Place de Brouckère 4. Body And Soul 5. Lover Come Back To Me 6. I Got Rhythm 7. My Melancholy Baby.