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Reviewers: Don Mather, Dick Stafford, Marc Bridle, John Eyles, Ian Lace, Colin Clarke, Jack Ashby



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DJANGO REINHARDT

Volume 3 – Swing Guitars

Classic 1936-1937 recordings by the QUINTETTE DU HOT CLUB DE FRANCE

Naxos Jazz LegendsNAXOS 8.120686

 

1

Limehouse Blues

11

Exactly Like You

2

I Can’t Give You Anything But Love

12

Charleston

3

Oriental Shuffle

13

You’re Driving Me Crazy

4

After You’ve Gone

14

Tears

5

Are You In The Mood

15

Solitude

6

Shine

16

Hot Lips

7

Georgia On My Mind

17

Ain’t Misbehavin’

8

Swing Guitars

18

Rose Room

9

Sweet Chorus

19

Body and Soul

10

Nagasaki

20

When Day Is Done

Here Naxos presents another ‘Jazz Legends’ disc in its series aimed at highlighting the greatest recordings in the history of music. It is the third volume dedicated to ‘swing guitars’ and covers the career of Django Reinhardt and the Quintette du Hot Club De France between May, 1936 and April 1937.

The nucleus of Django, guitar and Stephane Grappelli, violin is supported by a variety of musicians including Django’s brother Joseph. American vocalist Freddy Taylor appears on five tracks. Considering the proliferation of new material available today coupled with the mass of reissues and ‘compilation’ discs being produced it is small wonder that we hear little of this once internationally acclaimed group and their now acclaimed classic jazz. The music featured here spans many of the tunes of the day such as the opener ‘Limehouse Blues’ that highlights exactly why the group were so popular. After the straight melody things really hot up and there are fine solos by Reinhardt and Grappelli. Of the four original pieces composed by the co-leaders I preferred ‘Oriental Shuffle.’ Django’s work on Body and Soul is exceptional but the most attractive track to me was ‘When Day Is Done.’

It is safe to say that all the material presented would already feature in any Django aficionado’s collection. So, the success of the album relies on newcomers to the music and those who wish to ‘fill in the gaps’ in their collections. It deserves popularity but with so much competitive material available I think success could be limited.

Jack Ashby

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