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’