Quintette du Hot Club de France

     Finding information about jazz in the streets of Paris was quite limited because the prominent people of influence was Django Reinhart and Stephane Grappelli.

     

     Quintette Du Hot Club took its name from a famous Parisian club/café. According to historians, this prominent mini institution was hailed as the greatest European jazz band. The Quintette consisted of the well known Django Reinhart (guitarist), his brothers Joseph (guitarist) and Roger Chaput (guitarist), Sephane Grappelli (violinist), and Louis Vola (double bass).

     Some people tend to forget that Django is not of French descent. He is from a gypsy background, and this was quite a remarkable achievement for him to receive so much praise from the French. His gypsy background influenced his style of playing as he fused elements of swing and American jazz.

Django’s career changed after a fire accident which caused his hand to be badly injured. In spite of his limited ability, he was able to overcome his handicap by developing a new technique for his guitar playing.

     Grappelli however was from a French descent and he is a native Parisian. He pursued heavily on becoming a violinist. Once he discover jazz, he did not regret digressing into this wonderful new area of music, jazz.

     In my opinion, having natives and a non-natives working together is tremendously beneficial. Back then, when equality was not much of an importance as it is today, it was an advantage that a native was in the band because this created a natural bridge to flow across the French audience. Having a non-native, although may be difficult to advance in the French society (particularly Roma), Django’s unique background contributed to the group that was something new and exotic that was against the grain of society.

     For example, one of the prominent excerpts ‘j’attendrai’ (I will wait) was an experimentation that lead to swing. His acoustical influence from the Roma culture has been fused with the swing music, which became popular. I am not a gypsy myself, but I would not be surprised if some of his native folk music happened to be sown in his pieces.

     The swing characteristic was due to the emphasis on the weaker pulse and has a unique musical momentum that sways from side to side, hence the name swing.  The main melody (guitar and violin) sounds like an improvisation over the chord progressions that supersedes over the rest of the musicians. However, ‘j’attendrai’ had a special acoustical entrance because they ensemble progressed into ‘swing’ mode. The transition was not immediate, but rather smooth and discreet.