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.
Honey Suckle Rose
Django Reinhardt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When they see you out with me.
Goodness knows
You're my honeysuckle rose
When you're passin' by flowers droop and sigh,
And I know the reason why.
Goodness knows
You're my honeysuckle rose
Don't buy sugar,
You just have to touch my cup.
You're my sugar.
It's sweeter when you stir it up.
When I'm taking sips from your tasty lips
Seems the honey fairly drips.
Goodness knows
You're my honeysuckle rose
Goodness knows
You're my honeysuckle rose
Don't buy sugar,
You just have to touch my cup.
You're my sugar.
It's sweeter when you stir it up.
When I'm taking sips from your tasty lips
Seems the honey fairly drips.
Goodness knows
You're my honeysuckle rose
The lyrics of Django Reinhardt's "Honeysuckle Rose" describe a person who is enchanted by their romantic partner. The author of the song uses a metaphor with honey and honey bees to depict the jealousy felt by others when they see the singer and their partner together. The lyrics suggest that the partner is something sweet and desired, embodied by the honeysuckle plant. The song's romantic tone intensifies as the author claims their partner is like sugar. When they are together, the sweetness spreads, and the result is a feeling that the honey drips from their lips. The poet is smitten with the person they are singing to and praises their attributes throughout the song.
On the surface, the metaphor is a very literal comparison to flowers and bees. However, the lyrics are much more than that because it's the passion that stands out. The writer of the song uses honey as a metaphor for love to describe this person's beauty, sweetness, and charm. The song is a clear depiction of their feelings and admiration towards their partner. Through the chord progressions and melody, the song conveys a happy and upbeat tone that emphasizes the joy and happiness brought about by the subject of the song.
Line by Line Meaning
Every honey bee fills with jealousy
When other people see us together, they get envious and wish they were in my place
When they see you out with me.
This feeling of jealousy comes from the fact that I am with you, and they are not
Goodness knows
It is an expression of admiration and appreciation, and an emphasis on the truth of the following statement
You're my honeysuckle rose
You are the sweetest and most beautiful thing in my life, given the symbolic meaning of a honeysuckle rose
When you're passin' by flowers droop and sigh,
Your beauty and grace have an impact on the environment around you, as seen in the visual expression of flowers drooping and sighing
And I know the reason why.
The reason for this impact is obvious to me, as I am the one who is experiencing it
Don't buy sugar,
There is no need to purchase anything fancy for me, as all I need is you
You just have to touch my cup.
Even a simple gesture like touching my cup is enough to make me feel loved and cared for
You're my sugar.
You are my source of sweetness and happiness in life, just like sugar in food
It's sweeter when you stir it up.
Things become even more enjoyable with you by my side, just like stirring sugar into a drink makes it even sweeter
When I'm taking sips from your tasty lips
When I am kissing you or even just tasting your lips, it is like I am enjoying a delicious drink
Seems the honey fairly drips.
Your sweetness is so intense that it feels like honey is literally oozing out of my lips
Goodness knows
Once again, an expression of admiration and appreciation, and an emphasis on the truth of the following statement
You're my honeysuckle rose
As seen earlier, a complement and term of endearment given to the person being addressed in this song
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Peter Friedman
There are some extraordinary features that stand out just as much as the things which first prompted me to post the YouTube clip here, many months ago.
The first thing that strikes you is that Django has done much more with the sustain derived from amplification than merely to just let the notes resonate for longer.
He has essentially ditched the high speed Banjo-style (his instrument prior to guitar) right hand aspect of his traditional Gypsy guitar technique of which he is still the undisputed master.
His spectacularly dexterous outpouring of that impossibly rapid but tonally attenuated 'ping' is suddenly conspicuous by its almost complete absence in this piece and something infinitely more expressive (complete with a characteristically playful assortment of growling and barking effects) bearing little, if any resemblance to his acoustic sound is there in its place.
Unfortunately, to my jaded ear, until I first reflected upon the extraordinary transition that this recording represents, the style initially sounded far too pedestrian to me for me to endure, let alone admire.
It seemed too consistent with a certain kind of smoothness which I have always found irritating: the soundtrack of fifties and early sixties movies and TV that my seventies musical sensibilities found to be too conventional to be worthy of anything but derision.
Now I know that this initial impression was, in this particular case, utterly unrepresentative.
What you are listening to here was not just extraordinarily new and different at the time: it set precedents for what was to come.
It was what rock and roll guitar playing would eventually take to its very heart only a few years later, from a musician who never lived long enough to see this happen. His discoveries of the possibilities opened up by the electric guitar blossomed into the vital instrumental underpinnings of a vibrant new genre, one which was as eager as he was to both break with and yet still incorporate the conventions of its predecessors.
51Merc
My first guitar teacher used Django to inspire me when I got frustrated. He'd say, "Listen to this man play... When you use technique to drive the soul in your playing, it's ok... But when you use soul to drive the technique in your playing, it's magical." And for a long time, I didn't know where he was actually coming from, as I had no knowledge of Django's finger injury... I think he kept it from me deliberately so I would discover it one day and be astounded even more.
Your Guitar Workshop
I love this: "When you use technique to drive the soul in your playing, it's ok... But when you use soul to drive the technique in your playing, it's magical."
Michele 'HemlokHex' White
❤❤❤
jazztom86
what he does here is just unbelievable... delay, outside lines, octaves... and all this 12 years before Wes' first recording... incredibly modern...
Mike Boulevard
Django had so many of these techniques we consider “common” down pat before it was even invented. He is the blueprint
LRN_News
Barney Kessel sounded pretty advanced in 1940s as well.
Dan S
Much love to Django and Wes, but Charlie Christian was doing alot of similar stuff around the same time, which is where Wes got alot of his sound from
Todd Perkins
For some reason I hadn't heard this before. His tone and attack are really different on electric, but I think in many ways it's even better than the early recordings! And this pairing with Ellington is really beautiful. He was just getting started into the next step in his evolution...I wish he'd had more time on the planet.
DevilsAdvocate
Just watched Gibson's recent video of Tony iommi and he said Djangos music is what got him to keep playing after he lost his 2 fingers. Crazy to me lol
Catperson1013
Beautiful sound! I am just beginning to learn about Django Reinhardt's music. This past summer, I read a biography of Django. After that, I was determined to hear his music. I was amazed to find a double CDset of his recordings with the Hot Club Quintet. Now, this recording on You Tube is my first introduction to Django's playing an electric guitar. What a gifted artist he was!