Members EvilTwin Posted January 23, 2004 Members Share Posted January 23, 2004 http://www.about-django.com/news/videos/videos.php Wes Powell posted this over in Guitar Jam. I thought you guys would appreciate this, too. Simply amazing to watch the guy play. Stick it in your favorites and play it whenever you need to be humbled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JohnnyD Posted January 23, 2004 Members Share Posted January 23, 2004 nice one! i'm trying to learn jazz guitar at the moment, and django has to be one of my favorite guitarists, so thanks for the link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members S~R~O Posted January 23, 2004 Members Share Posted January 23, 2004 Great videos and excellent web site ........Thank You Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LittleBrother Posted January 23, 2004 Members Share Posted January 23, 2004 GOD that is what it's all about. Two Fingers sound better than all four of mine ever will. Truly inspirational. I never tire of watching this stuff ! Thanks for posting this. I just watched Michael Dunn playing this stuff at the Luthiers Consortium. I sat and listened for hours like a kid in a toy store. That is the coolest music of all times IMO. This post made my morning ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JohnnyD Posted January 23, 2004 Members Share Posted January 23, 2004 Originally posted by LittleBrother GOD that is what it's all about. ...That is the coolest music of all times IMO. i have to agree. when i hear him and stephan grapelli play together it's indescribably good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members buddyboy Posted January 24, 2004 Members Share Posted January 24, 2004 LB - my thoughts exactly. Eviltwin - I sent this to everyone I know. The concensus is, "If he can do that with two, I am worse than everyone tells me". Great Post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EvilTwin Posted January 24, 2004 Author Members Share Posted January 24, 2004 Originally posted by LittleBrother That is the coolest music of all times IMO. Heh, funnily enough, I really agree with that statement. Just the feeling of gypsy jazz is so amazing. It's got such a relaxed feel, but so much passion goes into it. Even the image of the guys playing it looks so right. I get mesmerized by looking at a Selmer, and then blown away by the sounds that come out of 'em. Then you have to put the music into perspective. This swinging jazz was a soundtrack to rebellion in Europe during WWII. Imagine...this music used to be both a statement to, and an escape from the most depressing of times. I'm glad you guys enjoyed the links. Thank WP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lespaul Posted January 25, 2004 Members Share Posted January 25, 2004 Wow!!! This is amazing!!!! I watched all of the videos, and I'm blown away!!! The further down the page it goes the better it gets. Shure Django is amazing (especially with 2 fingers, btw he didnt use other two fingers because he couldn't (disability), or he just didnt wanted to??), but those yunger guys down the page were just mind blowing!!!! I also want to know what kind of guitars they are using, allmost all of them had big jumbo with cutaway, litle soundhole and long (across the body) and thin bridge - what is it??? I newer saw that guitar before, sounds great!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EvilTwin Posted January 25, 2004 Author Members Share Posted January 25, 2004 Originally posted by lespaul Wow!!! This is amazing!!!! I watched all of the videos, and I'm blown away!!! The further down the page it goes the better it gets. Shure Django is amazing (especially with 2 fingers, btw he didnt use other two fingers because he couldn't (disability), or he just didnt wanted to??), but those yunger guys down the page were just mind blowing!!!! I also want to know what kind of guitars they are using, allmost all of them had big jumbo with cutaway, litle soundhole and long (across the body) and thin bridge - what is it??? I newer saw that guitar before, sounds great!!! Django's hand was burnt in an accident in his gypsy caravan. He also had some damage done to one of his legs. Doctors wanted to amputate the leg, Django refused, and after a few months, he regained use of it. That's one part of the story everyone forgets. As for the hand, the fingers were knarled and partially fused from the fire. He worked really hard with what he had, and after months of resting up and healing, he played better than ever. But he never regained full use of his ring and pinky. Stephane Grapelli, the violin player in those clips, said that Django was able to use the ring finger to fret the B string and the pinky finger to fret the high E to fill out chord voicings, but that was it. Those guitars are Selmer Maccaferri acoustics. In their day, they were state-of-the-art. Maccaferri was, if I remember correctly, an Italian luthier who convinced Selmer, a French company, to manufacture the guitars. Very few were ever made, but you can find great custom ones today, as well as the new Gitane's, which for under a grand, aren't bad at all. The "grande bouche" (or "big mouth") model had the large, "D"-shaped soundhole. Django used that for awhile. That was the one Maccaferri designed, I think. He left the company, and Selmer continued to make the guitars, but modified. The scale length was made longer and the soundhole was changed. This was the "petite bouche" guitar with the small oval soundhole, which was Django's favored model that he mainly used for the rest of his career. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JohnnyD Posted January 27, 2004 Members Share Posted January 27, 2004 is there any way of saving those videos to disk so i can take them home from work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fretwizard4hire Posted January 27, 2004 Members Share Posted January 27, 2004 i have another video with stochelo rosenburg on it, and i think he was even better than django, but then again he had four fingers to use. imo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EvilTwin Posted January 27, 2004 Author Members Share Posted January 27, 2004 Originally posted by fretwizard4hire i have another video with stochelo rosenburg on it, and i think he was even better than django, but then again he had four fingers to use. imo I'll agree there are gypsy jazzers out there who are able to play more demanding things by virtue of having use of all four of their fingers (I have a CD that is incredible...I think the guy's name is Angelo DeBarre, and he just has amazing speed and precision). But there was something about Django's playing. Even on that page I linked, there are guys on there (the cat wearing the baseball cap in the last clip comes to mind) who are hell-bent on impressing an audience on speed alone, and how many non-harmonic notes can be fit in. Django never seemed to have that problem. He could develop a solo and use speed and those trills as great points of emphasis. That's just me, though, and to be fair, I really prefer pre-1940's jazz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.