Accessibility links
Django Reinhardt Django Reinhardt artist page: interviews, features and/or performances archived at NPR Music

Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt: 100 Years Of Hot Jazz

Django Reinhardt would play any chance he got. At the height of his fame, he'd stroll into a bistro with his guitar and busk — not for the spare change, but just to play. Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Music Articles

Django Reinhardt: 100 Years Of Hot Jazz

The word "genius" gets thrown around a lot, but when it comes to music, Reinhardt deserves that mantle. With no formal training, the Roma guitarist created a new style of music in the 1930s and '40s that came to be dubbed "gypsy jazz." Saturday marks the centennial of his birth.

Django Reinhardt: 100 Years Of Hot Jazz

Listen · 5:28
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/122865782/122895408" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Concerts

Django Reinhardt Festival: Hot Club Music

WBGO

Exhilarated and a little homesick at the end of a three-week U.S. tour, Dorado Schmitt and his band swing hard and play loose. The air dances at this Django Reinhardt Festival at the Kennedy Center Jazz Club, featuring two French guitarists, a violinist, a squeeze-box man and a bassist.

Django Reinhardt Festival on JazzSet

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/89340274/97802836" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">

Review

Basic Jazz Record Library

Django Reinhardt: 'The Classic Early Recordings'

Django Reinhardt was burned in a fire when he was 18 and lost the use of two fingers. Yet he managed to rise to the top of the jazz world. The Classic Early Recordings allows us to hear Reinhardt in his early years, when his unique gypsy flamenco guitaring was just becoming popular in the United States.

Django Reinhardt: 'The Classic Early Recordings'

  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/4182385/150877296" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
'Django'

Django Reinhardt with his instrument. Courtesy of the artist. hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of the artist.

Music Articles

'Django'

Two very different musical personalities contributed to the timeless jazz standard, dedicated to the giant of gypsy jazz.

'Django'

Listen · 13:00
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/1111907/147872027" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
Django's World: Hot Club Jazz

Django Reinhardt lost two fingers in an accident, but developed a unique style around his disability. William P. Gottlieb/Library of Congress via flickr.com hide caption

toggle caption
William P. Gottlieb/Library of Congress via flickr.com

Take Five: A Jazz Sampler

Django's World: Hot Club Jazz

90.5 WESA

Manouche Jazz, commonly known as "Gypsy Jazz," is a blend of traditional Roma music and swing jazz. Originating in Paris in the early 1930s, it was first popularized by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli. Hear five songs from the genre's founders and modern jazz musicians.

Browse the section archive or