Born in Liberchies, Pont-à-Celles, Belgium into a family of Manouche Gypsies, Jean Reinhardt learned to play several instruments such as the banjo, violin and guitar from an early age; he spent most of his youth in Gypsy encampments close to Paris. His family made a living from crafting furniture, but included several amateur musicians who inspired Reinhardt. Eventually, Reinhardt was given a banjo-guitar, at which point he stopped playing the violin. During this period, he was inspired by two older Gypsy musicians, Gusti Mahla and Jean Castro. Able to make a living from his music from his teen years onwards playing in bal-musette halls in Paris, Reinhardt received little formal education until his adult life; he was taught the rudiments of literacy by fellow band member Stéphane Grappelli.
At the age of eighteen, Reinhardt was injured in a fire that ravaged the caravan he shared with Florine "Bella" Mayer, his first wife. They were very poor, and to supplement their income Bella made imitation flowers out of celluloid and paper; consequently, their home was full of this highly inflammable material. Returning from a performance late one night, Django apparently knocked over a candle on his way to bed. While his family and neighbors were quick to pull him to safety, he received first- and second-degree burns over half his body. His right leg was paralyzed and the third and fourth fingers of his left hand were badly burnt. Doctors believed that he would never play guitar again and intended to amputate one of his legs. Reinhardt refused to have the surgery and left the hospital after a short time; he was able to walk within a year with the aid of a cane.
His brother Joseph Reinhardt, an accomplished guitarist himself, bought Django a new guitar. With painful rehabilitation and practice, Reinhardt relearned his craft in a completely new way, even as his third and fourth fingers remained partially paralyzed. Hence, he played all of his guitar solos with only two fingers, and managed to use the two injured digits only for chord work. After regaining his ability to play, Reinhardt resumed his career playing Parisian cafes. According to one story, during his period of recovery, Reinhardt was introduced to the aesthetics of American jazz when he purchased a 78rpm disc of "Dallas Blues" by Louis Armstrong at an Orléans flea market.
In 1934, Reinhardt and Parisian violinist Stéphane Grappelli were approached by hot club chief Pierre Nourry with the idea of forming a forming a new hot club group. Thus, the Quintette du Hot Club de France was formed, with Reinhardt's brother Joseph and Roger Chaput on guitar, and Louis Vola on double bass. Occasionally, Chaput was replaced by Reinhardt's best friend and fellow Gypsy Pierre "Baro" Ferret. As the group had no true percussion section, percussion was instead provided by the group's guitarists; the Quintette du Hot Club de France thus became one of the few well-known jazz ensembles composed only of string instruments.
Jean Sablon was the first singer to record with the Quintette, resulting in more than thirty collaborations from 1933 onwards. Vocalist Freddy Taylor participated on a few songs, such as "Georgia on My Mind" and "Nagasaki". A long line of recordings for Decca, HMV and Ultraphone ensured long-lasting international success for the Quintette.
As a composer, Reinhardt wrote several influential, highly original tunes recorded by the Quintette, ranging from the dulcet ballads "Daphne", "Nuages", and "Manoir de mes rêves", to mad swingers such as "Minor Swing" and the ode to his record label of the 1930s, "Stomping at Decca". With the passing of time, many of his songs became jazz standards in their own right.
Reinhardt also experimented with recordings outside the "comfort zone" of the Quintette; in March 1933 Reinhardt recorded two takes each of "Parce que je vous aime" and "Si, j'aime Suzy", vocal numbers with lots of guitar fills and great guitar support, using three guitarists along with an accordion lead, violin, and bass. In August of the following year, recordings were also made with more than one guitar (Joseph Reinhardt, Roger Chaput, and Django), including the first recording by the Quintette. In both years, it should be noted, the great majority of recordings featured a wide variety of horns, often in multiples, piano, etc.
Throughout his career, Reinhardt played and recorded with many American jazz legends such as Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Rex Stewart (who later stayed in Paris), and a led a jam-session and radio performance with Louis Armstrong. Later in his career, he performed with Dizzy Gillespie in France.
The outbreak of war in 1939 broke up the Quintette, with Grappelli remaining in London where the group was playing and Reinhardt returning to France. During the war years he led a big band, another quintet with clarinettist Hubert Rostaing in place of Grappelli, and after the liberation of Paris, recorded with such visiting American jazz artists as Mel Powell, Peanuts Hucko, and Ray McKinley. In 1946, Reinhardt took up the electric guitar and toured America as a soloist with the Duke Ellington Band, but his appearances were poorly received.
Some of his recordings on electric guitar late in his life are bop escapades where his playing sounds frantic and jagged, a world apart from the jubilant swing of old. However, starting in January 1946, Reinhardt and Grappelli held several sporadic reunions where the bop influences were more subtly integrated into the old swing format of the glory days of the Quintette. In the 1950s, Reinhardt became more reclusive, remaining in Europe, playing and recording sporadically until his death from a stroke on 16 May 1953 in Fontainebleau, France.
All of Me
Django Reinhardt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You taught me how to care
Am I to be just the remnant of a one-sided love affair?
All you took, I gladly gave
There's nothing left for me to save
All of me why not take all of me
Can't you see I'm no good without you
Take my arms I'll never use them
Your good bye left me with eyes that cry
How can I go on dear without you
You took the part that once was my heart
So why not take all of me
The lyrics to Django Reinhardt's song "All of Me" revolve around the theme of a one-sided love affair. The singer expresses how their lover took everything from them, including their kisses and their love, and taught them how to care. The singer is left wondering if they are only the remnant of the love affair and if there is anything left for them to hold on to. The singer acknowledges that everything they had, they gave willingly, and there is nothing left for them to save. The chorus is a plea for their lover to take all of them, as they feel incomplete and lost without them. They want to lose their lips and arms, and they cry when they think about life without their lover. The singer concludes by saying that their lover had taken the part that once was their heart, so why not take all of them.
The lyrics of "All of Me" portray a level of vulnerability and emotional rawness that is characteristic of jazz music. The singer's plea to their lover to take all of them shows how invested they were in the love affair and how dependent they are on their lover. The song's melody and Reinhardt's remarkable guitar playing skills create a hauntingly beautiful and melancholic atmosphere that effectively captures the song's emotion.
Line by Line Meaning
You took my kisses and you took my love
You received all my love and affection.
You taught me how to care
You made me realize the importance of being emotionally invested in someone.
Am I to be just the remnant of a one-sided love affair?
My love for you was not reciprocated and now I feel like a leftover remnant of that unrequited love.
All you took, I gladly gave
I gave you everything I had willingly and without hesitation.
There's nothing left for me to save
I have nothing left to keep for myself. I have given you everything.
All of me why not take all of me
I am willing to give you my entire being, mind, body, and soul.
Can't you see I'm no good without you
I am incomplete without you.
Take my lips I want to lose them
I don't care about anything without you, even losing my own identity.
Take my arms I'll never use them
Even my arms feel useless without you.
Your good bye left me with eyes that cry
Your farewell resulted in me feeling sad, hopeless and crying.
How can I go on dear without you
I can't live without you. I have lost all hope and I am lost.
You took the part that once was my heart
You have my heart, my love, and my emotions, and they have all become a part of you now.
So why not take all of me
If you already have my heart, why not just take everything else too?
Lyrics © Kanjian Music, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Capitol CMG Publishing, Cloud9, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Gerald Marks, Seymour Simons
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Ben Gilson
Absolute perfection. Shout out to Alix Combelle on the tenor, he plays some of the best lines on this track.
Joe Carbery
Thanks for identifying Combelle. I was very taken with his playing. Lovely tone on tenor.
Dana Ribe
Beauty, and clarity. Any beginning or intermediate student of jazz, especially guitarists of course, would do well to learn all of the solos here by heart. So many basics, beautifully executed. Pay particular attention to the flat ninths/diminished chords that help make it so awesome!
David Watkins
No no no, learning all of the solos by heart is the last thing a student should do, it is far more important to learn the "equation" learn to come up with similar phrases in order to become proficient in that style and on any other song. Get real.
Simple Simon
Exactly. Learning solos by heart is the exact opposite of what a jazz student should be doing.
Patrick Forester
@David Watkins Well said.
Rowan Kodratoff
Couldn't agree more. Learning to produce the sounds that are in your head is more important than almost anything else. I'll definitely be transcribing these solos.
Dante T
Yessss those diminished chords!!! I really like the chromatic phrases too.
Jerry Staley
One of the most refined solo section ever in a jazz song. The trio of the clarinet, the violin and the guitar is bedazzling. I would go as far to call it the first recorded usage of the "trade-off solo" style. Just marvelous.
Carls Lobato
This is truly one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. Puts you there at the time when art was at its top.