Django's Blues - Django Reinhardt

Advantages: Easy listening, nice to relax to
Disadvantages: Some may find the style of music very dated

...Say the name Django Reinhardt to someone and you'll most likely get one of two responses: either they'll smile at you and say "You've heard of him? Excellent!" or they'll simply stare blankly at you as if you're speaking a foreign language. For anyone who doesn't know, Django Reinhardt was a jazz guitarist popular through particularly the 1930's. Born to a family of Gypsies, he spent his early life travelling and was playing guitar from a very early age. The most impressive thing about Django's guitar playing is he actually lost the use of two of his fingers on his left hand (the hand most guitarists' uses to fret with, form chords, etc.) during a fire at the age of eighteen. With such a disability, many guitarists would have called it a day, but not so Django. Instead, he adapted his parts to suit his abilities and even pushed... Read review

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Advantages: Great Trad Jazz
Disadvantages: None

...Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt was one of the first important jazz musicians to be born in Europe. He spent most of his youth in the gypsy encampments close to Paris, France, playing banjo, guitar and violin. At an early age he started playing professionally at dance halls in Paris. When he was 18, he was injured in a fire in his caravan loosing the use of his 3rd and 4th fingers on his left hand. After this he focused on the guitar and developed an original style of playing that emphasized his undamaged fingers. The man is nothing short of the original guitar god influencing everyone from the Beatles, Tony Immoni, B. B. King, Willie Nelson, and myself. I lost the use of my left forefinger due to an accident. I decided that if Django could do it with 2 fingers then I could do it with 3 fingers!!!!!! Stéphane Grappelli is quite... Read review

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Advantages: A fast-paced, imaginative and immaculately-produced work
Disadvantages: Perhaps a little too 'poppy' for the purists. Some pointless extra tracks

...and Francophone extraordinaire - mumbles artfully in his mother tongue about a crazy student, backed by an atmospheric synthesised dreaminess. The song is actually quite enjoyable, but silly just the same. JJ was so enamoured by La Folie that he persuaded the others to agree to it being released as a single. A big mistake. Extra tracks added to the 2001 CD release 12. Cruel Garden - A breezy and forgettable song with a Django Reinhardt Gypsy-guitar sound. A piece of fluff that was the B-side to Strange Little Girl (see below). 13. Cocktail Nubiles - Bring on the Nubiles was an obscene track that featured on the band's second album, No More Heroes (1977). The band had recorded it as a joke, keen to find out just how much they could get away with in that hot punk summer. Quite a lot, it seemed! This is just an easy... Read review

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