Django Reinhardt

Jean Reinhardt, known universally as Django, was born into a Manouche Romani family in Belgium in 1910 and spent his youth in encampments near Paris, where he first played violin before receiving a banjo-guitar at age twelve. He taught himself by mimicking local virtuosos and was earning a living busking in cafés by fifteen. At seventeen, he married Florine Mayer according to Romani custom, and the following year he made his first recordings on banjo-guitar with accordionists and singers, drawing international attention from bandleader Jack Hylton. Before he could join Hylton’s band, a catastrophic fire in his caravan in November 1928 left him severely burned over half his body. He refused amputation for his damaged leg and, more critically, the fourth and fifth fingers of his left hand were badly burned. During eighteen months of recovery, he retaught himself to play using only his index and middle fingers for melody, employing the injured digits solely for chords, aided by a new steel-string acoustic guitar from his brother. After separating from his wife and their son, he traveled France with a new partner, living hand-to-mouth while rehabilitating his technique. An acquaintance introduced him to American jazz records by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and others, which fundamentally redirected his musical path. In 1934, he formed the Quintette du Hot Club de France with violinist Stéphane Grappelli, a group that pioneered the guitar as a lead jazz instrument. He recorded with visiting American stars like Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and toured the United States with Duke Ellington in 1946. His compositions, including "Minor Swing" and "Nuages," became gypsy jazz standards. He died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage in 1953 at age 43.