Gypsy jazz
Gypsy jazz is a musical idiom inspired by the Romani jazz guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt, in conjunction with the French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli, as expressed by their group the Quintette du Hot Club de France. The style has its origins in France and the Manouche clan of Romanis, and has remained popular amongst this clan. Gypsy jazz is often called by the French name jazz manouche, or alternatively, manouche jazz in English-language sources.
Reinhardt was foremost among a group of gypsy guitarists working in Paris from the 1930s to the 1950s. The group included the brothers Baro, Sarane, and Matelo Ferret and Reinhardt's brother Joseph "Nin-Nin" Reinhardt.
The style was popular in France and, via recordings and appearances by the original Quintette, in other European countries before and immediately after the Second World War. It fell out of favour as the "swing era" came to an end, being replaced in its homeland by bebop, mainstream jazz, and eventually, rock and roll. However, it had a resurgence from the 1970s onwards, among performers and audiences at festivals, etc., in particular the Festival Django Reinhardt which commenced in 1968 at Samois-sur-Seine, France and continues to the present time.
Terminology
The musical style was first named jazz tsigane in the French language, which translates to "gypsy jazz" in English. Some scholars have noted that the name "manouche jazz" began to be used around the late 1990s as a replacement term. The term "gypsy jazz" may be considered offensive, as the word "gypsy" has historically been used as a slur against Romani people.History
The origins of gypsy jazz can be traced to the Manouche gypsy Django Reinhardt. After serving his musical "apprenticeship" playing in musette bands with accordionists and accompanying popular singers of the day, he became acquainted with jazz music and began playing it. After hearing ragtime and Dixieland music, Reinhardt listened to Duke Ellington, Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, and especially Louis Armstrong via the record collection of painter Émile Savitry in Toulon, France, in 1931. After Reinhardt met violinist Stéphane Grappelli, they played dance music at the Hôtel Claridge in Paris, during the summer of 1934. According to an account in a book by Michael Dregni, Grappelli played a chorus, then Reinhardt began to improvise. Sometimes they were accompanied on double bass by Louis Vola, the band's leader, and by Roger Chaput on rhythm guitar. This was the core of Reinhardt's band. The addition of Reinhardt's brother, Joseph, on rhythm guitar made it the Quintette du Hot Club de France.This lineup, with occasional changes in membership on double bass and rhythm guitar, entered the recording studio later that year. They recorded extensively, until the outbreak of war in 1939 when the Quintette was on tour in England. Reinhardt returned to Paris, while Grappelli remained in London for the duration of the war. After the war, they reunited in London and recorded with an English rhythm section. The days of the "hot club" sound were over, as both men had pursued independent musical paths. Reinhardt had moved to an electric guitar sound influenced by bebop. His sons, Lousson and Babik, played in a style influenced by American jazz.
Following Reinhardt's death in 1953 and into the 1960s, Romani players performed mainly upon amplified instruments in a modern, electric style, though with a European "inflection" in which some traces of Reinhardt's influence remained. However, from the 1970s onwards, a new generation of Romani players were interested in the original, hot club style and repertoire; some, such as the older German violinist and bandleader Schnuckenack Reinhardt, had been playing such music earlier, after Reinhardt's model. From the 1970s on, Romani performers such as Fapy Lafertin, Häns'che Weiss, Boulou Ferré, Raphaël Faÿs, Biréli Lagrène, Wawau Adler and Stochelo Rosenberg performed in this style.
At the instigation of guitarist Diz Disley, Grappelli returned to the hot club style with the support of acoustic guitars and double bass. Grappelli's popularity and public appearances helped to rekindle an interest in gypsy jazz among younger listeners. In the 2010s and 2020s, the gypsy jazz style is once again passed on from one generation to the next in Manouche/Sinti communities, children learning from their relatives at an early age, able to master the basics almost before they can hold a normal-sized guitar in their hands.
What is called "gypsy jazz" today was not always played exclusively by Roma, even in its early days: of the original Quintette, only Django and his brother Joseph were Roma, and Django himself played in a non-Roma jazz context on many occasions. In addition, many later Roma guitarists—including Django's own sons Lousson and Babik—did not generally play gypsy jazz in the hot club style, although they were indeed gypsies who were playing jazz. Likewise, a number of today's gypsy jazz exponents are non-gypsies, in addition to the more well known Roma players. Thus, the term has become attached to the style of the music, rather than the ethnicity of the players. Django himself would not have known the term "Manouche jazz"; the Quintette was simply a popular jazz outfit of the day.
Gypsy Jazz is influenced by African-American music. African Americans brought jazz to Paris.
Instrumentation and lineup
The Quintette du Hot Club de France initially played acoustically, without a drummer. After 1940, the group often recorded with a drummer. Guitar and violin are still the main solo instruments, although clarinet, saxophone, mandolin, and accordion are sometimes used. The rhythm guitar is played using a distinct percussive technique, "la pompe", which essentially replaces the drums. Most gypsy jazz guitarists, lead and rhythm, play a version of the Selmer-Maccaferri guitar design favored by Reinhardt. Ensembles aim for an acoustic sound even when playing amplified concerts, and informal jam sessions in small venues such as the annual Django Reinhardt festival at Samois-sur-Seine are part of the scene.Reinhardt and his band used a range of guitar models available in France, but dominant among them was the Selmer guitar designed and signed by Mario Maccaferri; Maccaferri parted company with Selmer in 1933 and later models were just known as "Selmer". These guitars were originally made in two versions, the earliest with a large, D-shaped sound hole, and later models with a smaller, O-shaped sound hole. The later models are considered most suited to lead guitar playing. In the 2010s, designs based on this model were marketed as "gypsy jazz guitars" and are the guitars of choice for most practitioners of the style on account of their responsiveness and particular tonal characteristics.
The double bass is the low-pitched instrument in gypsy jazz. The bass is mostly used for a rhythm section and accompaniment, playing walking basslines, "two-feel" parts where the root and the fifth are played as quarter notes on the first and third beats, respectively, and for ballads, a mix of whole notes and half notes. It is mostly plucked with the fingers, but on some songs, the bow is used, either for staccato roots and fifths in "two-feel" or, on a ballad, for sustained low notes. On some songs, bass players may be given an improvised solo. Some gypsy jazz bass players strike the fingerboard with the fingers between plucked notes, creating a percussive style called slap bass.
In Eastern European gypsy music, the rhythm section is most likely covered by one or two cymbaloms, or a cymbalom and/or drums and an acoustic guitar. A double bass fills out these ensembles.
Techniques
Rhythm
In gypsy jazz, the rhythm guitar uses a special form of strumming known as "la pompe", i.e. "the pump". This form of percussive rhythm is similar to the "boom-chick" in bluegrass styles; it is what gives the music its fast swinging feeling, and it most often emphasizes beats two and four, a vital feature of swing. The strumming hand, which never touches the top of the guitar, must make a quick up-down strum followed by a down strum. The up-down part of la pompe must be done extremely fast, regardless of the tempo of the music. It is very similar to a grace note in classical music, albeit with an entire chord is use. This pattern is usually played in unison by two or more guitarists in the rhythm section.Harmony
Another aspect of the style is based on the chord shapes Reinhardt was forced to use due to his injury. Standard barre chords are not as common in gypsy jazz. Standard major and minor chords are almost never played, and are replaced by major 7th chords, major 6th chords, and 6/9 chords. Reharmonisation is often aimed at giving a minor feel, even where a song is in a major key; for instance, the substitution of a minor 6th chord for a dominant seventh. Dominant seventh chords are also altered by lowering the 9th and 13th scale degree. Gypsy jazz songs use half-diminished chords to precede dominant seventh chords in minor keys.Lead
Lead playing in this style has been summarised as ornamented or decorated arpeggio.Arpeggios on the guitar are typically executed as patterns running diagonally from the lower frets on the lower strings to the upper frets on the upper strings. Such patterns tend to have no more than two stopped notes per string, relating to the fact that Django could only articulate two fingers on his fretting hand.
Commonly used scales, in addition to arpeggios, include the chromatic scale, melodic minor scale, Dorian mode, and diminished scale.
Chromatic runs are often executed very quickly over more than one octave. A particularly characteristic technique is the glissando, in which the guitar player slides a finger along a string, with a precisely timed tremolo picking out individual notes, in order to get a fast, virtuosic sound. Diminished runs, in which the shape of a diminished seventh chord is played in all inversions, one after the other, is another widespread gypsy jazz technique. Diminished 7th arpeggios are also used over dominant 7th chords. Guitarists often intersperse melodic playing with flamenco-esque percussive series of chords to create a varied solo.
The plectrum technique of gypsy jazz has been described as similar to economy picking. Notes on the same string are played alternately, but when moving from string to string, the traditional technique is to use a down stroke. For instance, on switching from the G to the B string, the plectrum will move in the same direction and come to rest on the E string. The down stroke is preferred because of volume and tone. While this technique of doubling down strokes varies among players, Stochelo Rosenberg's technique is a prime example.