Author: Azazzell

Rare clip of Django Reinhardt performing live (1945)

~ Azazzell

Rare footage of Django Reinhardt playing solo.

At age 18, already a famous musician on the Parisian scene, Django accidentally knocked over a candle in his caravan trailer, which set fire to celluloid flowers his wife had made. He was severely burned and doctors wanted to amputate his left hand. But Django refused despite the fact that his ring finger and pinky on that hand were permanently welded together in a useless lump of flesh. He managed to devise a technique of guitar playing using only two fingers of his left hand to produce dazzling fast runs up and down the fingerboard, playing with such speed and accuracy that it left other guitarists in the dust.