Of all the styles of jazz to emerge in the twentieth century, none is more passionate, more exhilaratingly up-tempo, or more steeped in an outsider tradition than Gypsy Jazz. And there is no one more qualified to write about Gypsy Jazz than Michael Dregni, author of the acclaimed biography, Django. A vagabond music, Gypsy Jazz is played today in French Gypsy bars, Romany encampments, on religious pilgrimages--and increasingly on the world's greatest concert stages. Yet its story has never been told, in part because much of ...
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Of all the styles of jazz to emerge in the twentieth century, none is more passionate, more exhilaratingly up-tempo, or more steeped in an outsider tradition than Gypsy Jazz. And there is no one more qualified to write about Gypsy Jazz than Michael Dregni, author of the acclaimed biography, Django. A vagabond music, Gypsy Jazz is played today in French Gypsy bars, Romany encampments, on religious pilgrimages--and increasingly on the world's greatest concert stages. Yet its story has never been told, in part because much of its history is undocumented, either in written form or often even in recorded music. Beginning with Django Reinhardt, whose dazzling Gypsy Jazz became the toast of 1930s Paris in the heady days of Josephine Baker, Picasso, and Hemingway, Dregni follows the music as it courses through caravans on the edge of Paris, where today's young French Gypsies learn Gypsy Jazz as a rite of passage, along the Gypsy pilgrimage route to Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer where the Romany play around their campfires, and finally to the new era of international Gypsy stars such as Bireli Lagrene, Boulou Ferre, Dorado Schmitt, and Django's own grandchildren, David Reinhardt and Dallas Baumgartner. Interspersed with Dregni's vivid narrative are the words of the musicians themselves, many of whom have never been interviewed for the American press before, as they describe what the music means to them. Gypsy Jazz also includes a chapter devoted entirely to American Gypsy musicians who remain largely unknown outside their hidden community. Blending travelogue, detective story, and personal narrative, Gypsy Jazz is music history at its best, capturing the history and culture of this elusive music--and the soul that makes it swing.
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Add this copy of Gypsy Jazz: in Search of Django Reinhardt and the Soul to cart. $18.00, very good condition, Sold by Archer's Used & Rare Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Kent, OH, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by Oxford University Press.
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Very Good Condition. Quantity Available: 1. Category: Music; Jazz; ISBN/EAN: 9780199756254. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 2624.
Add this copy of Gypsy Jazz: In Search of Django Reinhardt and the Soul to cart. $45.04, new condition, Sold by GreatBookPrices rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Columbia, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by Oxford University Press.
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New. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 352 p. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
Dregni's book is fascinating in many ways. There is the story of Django Reinhardt. Then there are the tales of his compatriots, the Ferret brothers. The chapter on the Nazis and the Gypsy jazz men will leave you shaking your head...and the other stories of the other great guitarists following in Django's footsteps will make you want to track their work down. And finally, the city of Paris becomes a character without whom all of this may have happened very differently.
Get this book, read it, re-read it almost immediately, and start growing that mustache...or think about asking your significant other to grow one.
