Django Reinhardt: Nuages
Musicians:
Django Reinhardt (guitar), Stéphane Grappelli (violin),
, Jack Llewellyn, Alan Hodgkins (guitar), Coleridge Goode (bass)
.Composed by Django Reinhardt
.Recorded: London, February 1, 1946
Rating: 96/100 (learn more)
One of Debussy's Nocturnes (1899) is subtitled "Nuages" (French for clouds), but this composition is unrelated. The track does, however, reunite Grappelli & Reinhardt, who had separately survived World War II—Stéphane in Britain, Django in Paris (a rare European gypsy to avoid Nazi extermination, thanks to his jazz-loving Luftwaffe patron). Joined in London by two English guitarists and a Jamaican bassist, Grappelli & Reinhardt rekindle their prewar friendship with more sweetness than swing, which is especially poignant considering the recent horrors. Indeed, their melancholy strikes just the right tone. Nuages de guerre had passed, but the world's skies were anything but clear.
Reviewer: Alan Kurtz
Tags: 1940s · france · guitar · gypsy jazz · weather
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