Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt, real name Jean Baptiste Reinhardt (1910-53). Belgian gypsy jazz guitarist. A French-speaker, Reinhardt spent his youth in gypsy caravans in northern France. He taught himself the guitar and violin at an early age but remained illiterate to the end of his life. Despite incurring severe injuries to his left hand in a fire when he was 18, Reinhardt developed a virtuoso technique. In 1934 he formed the Quintette du Hot Club de Paris with the violinist Stephane Grapelli. The ensemble became internationally famous and made numerous recordings. Reinhardt’s own com-positions include the popular hit ‘Nuages’. After World War II he switched to the electric guitar and played with US jazz greats including Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie,
