Jean Reinhardt, known by his Romani nickname Django, was a Belgian-born Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.
Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis of the off–beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, known as the swing era. The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong groove or drive. Musicians of the swing era include Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw and Django Reinhardt.
The Hot Club of Cowtown is an American Western swing trio that formed in 1997.
Biréli Lagrène is a French jazz guitarist who came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt–influenced style. He often performs in swing, jazz fusion, and post-bop styles.
Gypsy jazz is a style of small-group jazz originating from the Romani guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt (1910–53), in conjunction with the French swing violinist Stéphane Grappelli (1908–97), as expressed in their group the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Because its origins are in France, Reinhardt was from the Manouche clan, and the style has remained popular amongst the Manouche, gypsy jazz is often called by the French name "jazz manouche", or alternatively, "manouche jazz" in English language sources. Some scholars have noted that the style was not named manouche until the late 1960s; the name "gypsy jazz" began to be used around the late 1990s.
Tim Kliphuis is a Dutch violinist renowned for mixing gypsy jazz with classical and folk music.
The Festival Django Reinhardt is a Gypsy jazz music festival held during late June or early July at Samois-sur-Seine, France. It began as a single evening festival in 1968, but in 1983, became an annual week-long event commemorating Django Reinhardt and his music.
Christian Escoudé is a French Gypsy jazz guitarist.
Jean-Jacques "Babik" Reinhardt was a French guitarist and the younger son of gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt by Django's second wife, Naguine. His elder half-brother Lousson, who was Django's son by his first wife, Bella, was also a guitarist, but the two grew up in different families and rarely met. He was christened Jean-Jacques but generally known by his family nickname, Babik.
George Cole is an American music producer, composer, lyricist, vocalist, session musician, and guitarist. He fronts his own Gypsy jazz/Uptown Swing band and since early 2014 has been the guitarist for the David Grisman Quintet. Before his acoustic music endeavors, he played electric guitar for the pop rock band Beatnik Beatch and Big Blue Hearts. He played on Chris Isaak's platinum Forever Blue album. Cole is also a teacher, and his students include Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt of Green Day; Ethan Roberts, and Danny Jones.
The John Jorgenson Quintet is an American gypsy jazz band led by guitarist John Jorgenson, a pioneer of the American gypsy jazz movement. The band was formed in 2004 for the release of Franco-American Swing.
Beryl Davis was a vocalist who sang with British and American big bands, as well as being an occasional featured vocalist at a very young age with the Quintette du Hot Club de France between 1936 and 1939. She was still performing into the 2000s, possibly the last surviving and performing singer of the generation of popular entertainers from the 1930s and wartime years. Her younger sister is Lisa Davis Waltz, a teen actress in the 1950s and 1960s and later, the voice of Anita in Disney's 101 Dalmatians.
Stéphane Wrembel is a French jazz guitarist. Wrembel performs Gypsy jazz but is also influenced by world music.
Étienne "Sarane" Ferret (1912–1970) was a French musette and gypsy jazz guitarist and composer, a contemporary and musical associate of Django Reinhardt, and the brother of noted Gitan (gypsy) guitar players Baro and Matelo Ferret. He recorded with his own quintet in Paris in the 1940s and continued performing there, with occasional recording sessions, until his death in 1970.
Jean Pierre "Matelo" Ferret was a French musette and gypsy jazz guitarist and composer. He was an associate of Django Reinhardt and the youngest brother of guitarists Baro and Sarane Ferret. He recorded with his own sextet in Paris in the 1940s and continued performing there, with occasional recording sessions, until his death in 1989. He was noted for a musical style that incorporated Russian and Hungarian influences and lived long enough to see a resurgence of interest in gypsy jazz in which he was recognised as one of the great surviving players of the genre. Two of his sons, Boulou and Elios Ferré, continue to play a more modern and individualistic form of gypsy jazz-based guitar music in Paris.
Pierre Joseph "Baro" Ferret (1908–1976) was a gypsy jazz guitarist and composer. He was known by his gypsy nickname "Baro," which meant "Big One" or even "King" in Romany. Through his brother Jean "Matelo" Ferret, Baro met Django Reinhardt, and the two men became both friends and rivals. From 1931, the Ferret brothers, along with their third brother Etienne "Sarane" Ferret, and cousin René "Challain" Ferret, were favorite sidemen of Reinhardt. Baro recorded around 80 sides with Reinhardt. The Ferret brothers played with musicians including Didi Duprat.
Henri Baumgartner (1929–1992), known professionally as Lousson Reinhardt, was a French gypsy jazz guitarist and the first son of Django Reinhardt by his first wife, Florine "Bella" Mayer.
Paulus Schäfer is a guitarist, composer, and arranger from the Netherlands. A member of the Dutch Sinti-Romani, he considers Django Reinhardt his idol. He has worked with Stochelo Rosenberg, Fapy Lafertin, Tim Kliphuis, Jimmy Rosenberg, Dominique Paats, Biréli Lagrène, and Andreas Öberg.
David Michael Richey, known professionally as Slim Richey, was an American jazz guitarist, fiddle player, bandleader, and publisher.
Ian Cruickshank was an English electric and acoustic guitarist most associated with the blues-rock and gypsy jazz genres, also well known in the U.K. as an educator, author and columnist, record producer and record label owner, festival organiser and promoter of artists in the gypsy jazz world. He achieved some success in the 1960s in the Keef Hartley Band playing electric guitar under the pseudonym Spit James before becoming enamoured of the gypsy jazz style originated by Django Reinhardt in the 1930s and devoting almost all of his energies to educating, performing and promoting activities in this area up till his death in 2017. He published several influential books on gypsy jazz, was producer and music co-ordinator for the TV Documentary Django Legacy, was the owner of the Fret Records record label, and organised the UK Gypsy Jazz Guitar Festival annually from 1997 to 2000.
