Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli -1943 pressing
$
49
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Description
ULTRA RARE
1943- Decca # 334- Django Reinhardt & Stephane Grappelly (notice the mispell on the cover). This includes the booklet giving details of each number. In fact the booklet mentions the Reinhardt is "seriously ill" and these performances will enhance his lore.
Django collectors know what this album contains:
Record 1
- Direct Appeal (Apel Direct)
- My Melancholy Baby
Record 2
- Swing Them Eyes
- Swing 39
Record 3
- The Japanese Sandman
- Love Letter (Billets Doux)
Record 4
- Twefth Year
- Three Little Words
WIKI: There are several versions of how the band was formed. The most generally accepted version amongst modern jazz historians is that the group evolved from a series of backstage jams led by Django Reinhardt, with Stephane Grappelli. However, bassist Louis Vola said in an interview that he found the Reinhardt brothers playing on a beach at Toulon. He invited them to jam with his own band, which included Grappelli and guitarist Roger Chaput.
After a series of informal jam sessions at the Hotel Claridge, concert promoters Pierre Nourry and Charles Delaunay ( leaders of the "Hot Club de France", a society chaired by Hugue Panassié devoted to the appreciation of jazz) urged the formation of a full time group. With the addition of Reinhardt's brother Joseph on second rhythm guitar, the quintet popularized the gypsy jazz style. A series of European tours were very successful, with the group enjoying particular popularity in the UK. Several bassists and rhythm guitarists rotated in and out of the group, with Django and Grappelli remaining the sole constants.
As World War II broke out in September 1939, the Quintette was on a concert tour of England. Reinhardt, who spoke virtually no English, immediately returned to France, where he thought he would feel safer than in the UK. Grappelli, meanwhile, stayed in England.
Django continued using the Quintette name with a different group, featuring Hubert Rostaing as the first of several clarinetists backed by a more conventional rhythm section with drums, bass and a rhythm guitar played by Django's son Lousson Reinhardt, or his brother Joseph. This version of the Quintette often featured six, not five, players, and was usually billed as "Django et le Quintette du Hot Club de France", or sometimes as Django's "Nouveau Quintette". Due to wartime shortages of material, this version of the Quintette did not issue many recordings, although they did issue the first recording of the Django Reinhardt composition Nuages, later to become a jazz standard.
Overall condition of the discs is remarkable. Shiny black shellac on each record. If forced to put a grade on these (and I am not an authority on 78's) I would state visually they are conservatively VG to VG++ They are a little dusty, even having remained in their sleeves all these years. These discs have been handled very gently. I did not want to clean them, leaving this to a person that knows how to handle 78 RPM's of this vintage. There is minor scuffing but no major scratches and no chips. Labels are bright and clean. No writing anywhere on the discs or jacket. The original booklet is with the collection. The album is in very nice condition with the only flaws being a bit of wear on the front side (see photo) and the back side having a minimum of damage along the bottom edge possibly due to bugs having a meal at some point before I purchased it.. (see closeup photo of bottom edge of album and also bottom edge of booklet)
I have owned this collection for 30 years. This will be shipped with extreme care.
