Introduction to Bolero with Xiomara Vidal
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] The day after first meeting trovadora Xiomara Vidal, my new Cuban guitar teacher, I arrive at the Casa del Queso for my first lesson. I’m nervous…
Tag: Django Reinhardt
Legendary guitarist of the 1930s, he was the first hugely influential jazz figure to emerge from Europe, pioneering the ‘Manouche-Jazz’ genre also known as ‘Gypsy Jazz’.
A disastrous caravan fire in 1928 badly burned his left hand, depriving him of the use of the fourth and fifth fingers, but the resourceful Reinhardt figured out a novel fingering system to get around the problem, which accounts for some of the originality of his approach and resulting style.
He came up with a unique way of propelling the humble acoustic guitar into the front line of a jazz combo in the days before amplification became widespread.
taken from All Music’s ‘Biography of Django’