This Django Reinhardt 1938 photo shows the guitarist alongside jazz advocate Charles Delaunay during a peak period for the Quintette du Hot Club de France.
Text From The Django Reinhardt 1938 Scan Plus Krupa And Roy Eldridge News
Django Reinhardt (right), the colossal French guitarist. (Note little fingers of left hand-they remain like that all the time.) With Reinhardt is Charles Delaunay, author of “Discography” and French jazz critic.
KRUPA’S NEW DRUM BOOK TO BE FOR SALE SOON
Gene Krupa’s new book on the “Rudiments of Swing Drumming” is expected to be out the latter part of next month. From all reports on the book there will be a mad scramble for copies of same.
Further information on this book can be had by writing Gene at the Pennsylvania Hotel, New York City. The Goodman band returned to the Penn March 5th.
PUBLISHERS AFTER ROY ELDRIDGE TUNES
Chicago, Ill. -Two major song publishers have contacted Roy Eldridge in regard to publishing a series of Roy’s hot swing tunes.
Roy’s consistent plugging of his own tunes over the air from the Three Deuces has brought the numbers to the attention of these publishers.
More On Django And Charles Delaunay
The Facts on Charles Delaunay:
Role: Manager of the Quintette du Hot Club de France and co-founder of the Hot Club de France.
Journalism: Co-founder and director of the magazine Le Jazz Hot.
Discography: Author of the Hot Discography (1936), the first systematic attempt to catalog jazz recordings by session and personnel.
Record Labels: Founder of the Swing record label, the first label dedicated exclusively to jazz.
U.S. Awareness Of Django Reinhardt 1938
Media Presence: By March 1938, DownBeat and Metronome magazines were regularly reporting on Reinhardt’s recordings.
Record Sales: The Quintette’s records were being pressed and distributed in the U.S. by Decca and Victor.
Professional Standing: While Reinhardt would not visit the U.S. until 1946, he was already established among American musicians and critics as a leading figure in the genre.
Significance:
This Django Reinhardt 1938 piece in DownBeat marked the formal recognition of European jazz by one of the primary American jazz trade journals of the Swing Era. It documents the transition of jazz from a strictly American product to an international movement. By March 1938, American guitarists like Charlie Christian were already hearing Django’s records. This DownBeat scan gave most US musicians and the general public their first look at the man behind the music. It confirmed that even with his famous hand injury, he was leading the way for jazz guitar on an international scale.
Biographical data via the Charles Delaunay Archives
You can hear Django Reinhardt and the Quintet Of The Hot Club Of France on our live Big Band Era radio stream and explore more in our Swing Era Magazine Scan Archive.