- Daphne
- Limehouse Blues
- Tears
- At The Jimmy’s bar
- Rythme futur
- Blues
- Swing 41
- Nuages
- Pour Vous (Exactly Like You)
- Fantaisie sur une danse norvegienne
- Vendredi
- Liebsfreud
- Mabel
- Petits mensonges (Little White Lies)
- Les yeux noirs (Dark Eyes)
- Sweet Sue, Just you
- Swing de Paris
- Oiseaux des Iles
- All of Me
- Stockholm
- Festival Swing
When the outbreak of World
War II occurred the Quintet du Hot Club de
France were in London. Stephane Grappelli
decided to stay in the UK, but his partner
in leading the group, Django Reinhartdt decided
to return to France. This did not turn out
to be too good a move because within a few
months France was under Nazi rule for four
years!
It did not however stop Reinhardt
from recording some very fine music. As Grappelli
was virtually irreplaceable at the time, he
chose as his partners either Hubert Rostaing
or Alix Combelle and sometimes both of them.
Each is a fine musician and an excellent foil
for Reinhartdt very musical acoustic guitar
playing. He was probably the best in the world
at that time as the young Charlie Christian
in the USA was only just getting started.
Quite a few of the tracks
are Reinhardt originals, some were written
in partnership with Grappelli, all are worthy
of revisiting, but the haunting Nuages is
for me the favourite. Some of the tracks feature
a larger ensemble, but to my mind they are
less successful than the Quintet, with the
Clarinet replacing the Violin.
I must confess hat these
tracks were unknown to me before hearing this
record and NAXOS have done their customary
job in noise reduction and sound enhancement.
At this time Paris was one
of the top venues for jazz in the world and
it produced many fine jazz musicians. No doubt
the influx of many black American musicians
who found the less racial attitude of Europeans
towards them refreshing.
This is an album that I recommend,
because it puts into place a piece of jazz
history that is unknown to many and too good
to be ignored.
CD Reviews
NAXOS JAZZ LEGENDS 8.120726
