page_title: Django Reinhardt
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Django Reinhardt / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: 30th edition of the Django Reinhardt Festival in Samois-sur-Seine (Seine-et-Marne, France), 2009. On stage: Kamlo quintet. Français&#160;: 30e édition du festival Django Reinhardt à Samois-sur-Seine (Seine-et-Marne, France) en 2009. Sur scène&#160;: Kamlo quintet.
context_page_description: Jean Reinhardt, known to all by his Romani nickname Django, was a Belgian-born Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was the first major jazz talent to emerge from Europe and remains the most significant.
  With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Reinhardt formed the Paris-based Quintette du Hot Club de France in 1934. The group was among the first to play jazz that featured the guitar as a lead instrument. Reinhardt recorded in France with many visiting American musicians, including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and briefly toured the United States with Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1946. He died suddenly of a stroke at the age of 43.
  Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become standards within gypsy jazz, including "Minor Swing", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages". Jazz guitarist Frank Vignola claims that nearly every major popular-music guitarist in the world has been influenced by Reinhardt. Over the last few decades, annual Django festivals have been held throughout Europe and the U.S., and a biography has been written about his life.
context_section_description: Reinhardt is regarded as one of the greatest guitar players of all time, and the first important European jazz musician to make a major contribution with jazz guitar. During his career he wrote nearly 100 songs, according to jazz guitarist Frank Vignola.
  Using a Selmer Guitar in the mid-1930s, his style took on new volume and expressiveness. Despite his physical disability, he played mainly using his index and middle fingers, and invented a distinctive style of jazz guitar.
  For about a decade after Reinhardt's death, interest in his musical style was minimal. In the fifties, bebop superseded swing in jazz, rock and roll took off, and electric instruments became dominant in popular music. Since the mid-sixties, there has been a revival of interest in Reinhardt's music, a revival that has extended into the 21st century, with annual festivals and periodic tribute concerts. His devotees included classical guitarist Julian Bream and country guitarist Chet Atkins, who considered him one of the ten greatest guitarists of the twentieth century.
  The Allman Brothers Band song "Jessica" was written by Dickey Betts in tribute to Reinhardt. Woody Allen's 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown, the story of a Django Reinhardt-like character, mentions Reinhardt and includes actual recordings in the film.
  Jazz guitarists in the U.S., such as Charlie Byrd and Wes Montgomery, were influenced by his style. In fact, Byrd, who lived from 1925 to 1999, said that Reinhardt was his primary influence. Guitarist Mike Peters notes that "the word 'genius' is bantered about too much. But in jazz, Louis Armstrong was a genius, Duke Ellington was another one, and Reinhardt was also." Grisman adds, "As far as I'm concerned, no one since has come anywhere close to Django Reinhardt as an improviser or technician."
  The popularity of gypsy jazz has generated an increasing number of festivals, such as the Festival Django Reinhardt held every last weekend of June since 1983 in Samois-sur-Seine (France), the various DjangoFests held throughout Europe and the US, and Django in June, an annual camp for Gypsy jazz musicians and aficionados.
caption: Festival Django Reinhardt in France
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