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.
Stardust
Django Reinhardt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Steals across the meadows of my heart
High up in the sky the little stars climb
Always reminding me that we're apart
You wander down the lane and far away
Leaving me a song that will not die
Love is now the stardust of yesterday
The music of the years gone by.
Sometimes I wonder, how I spend
The lonely nights
Dreaming of a song
The melody
Haunts my reverie
And I am once again with you
When our love was new
And each kiss an inspiration
But that was long ago
And now my consolation is in the stardust of a song
Besides the garden wall, when stars are bright
You are in my arms
The nightingale
Tells his fairytale
Of paradise, where roses grew
Though I dream in vain
In my heart it will remain
My stardust melody
The memory of love's refrain.
The song Stardust, written by Hoagy Carmichael in 1927, tells the story of a love that has ended and left the singer longing for the past when he and his lover were together. The opening lines of the song, "And now the purple dusk of twilight time steals across the meadows of my heart," sets the scene for the rest of the song, as it describes the singer's heartache and loneliness. The little stars that climb high into the sky remind him that he and his lover are apart, and the memory of their love is now just stardust from yesterday.
As the song progresses, the singer reflects on the past and wonders how he spends his lonely nights, dreaming of a song that reminds him of his lost love. He longs for the days when their love was new and each kiss was an inspiration, and the melody of the song haunts his reverie as he dreams of being together again. The singer's heart is filled with the memory of love's refrain, but he knows he is now left with the stardust of the song as his only consolation.
The final verse of the song describes a moment of hope when the singer imagines himself holding his lover in his arms and listening to the nightingale's fairytale of paradise where roses grew. Though this moment is only a dream, the stardust of the song remains in his heart and keeps the memory of their love alive.
Line by Line Meaning
And now the purple dusk of twilight time
As the daytime turns to night, a sense of longing and sadness descends upon me.
Steals across the meadows of my heart
This feeling permeates throughout my entire being.
High up in the sky the little stars climb
Despite the sadness, the beauty of the night sky still brings me comfort.
Always reminding me that we're apart
Yet every star reminds me of the one I love who is no longer with me.
You wander down the lane and far away
The one I love has gone away, and I am left alone.
Leaving me a song that will not die
But the memories of our love and the happiness we shared still live on in my mind.
Love is now the stardust of yesterday
Our love has become a distant memory, and all that remains is the residue of what we once had.
The music of the years gone by.
The passage of time has not erased the memories of the love we shared.
Sometimes I wonder, how I spend
From time to time, I question how I pass the long, lonely nights.
The lonely nights
Nights spent without the one I love.
Dreaming of a song
My mind often wanders into the realms of nostalgia, as I reminisce about our romantic past.
The melody
The tune that was the soundtrack of our love.
Haunts my reverie
The memory of that melody lingers on, torturing me with regret and nostalgia.
And I am once again with you
In my memories, I am transported back to the time we were together.
When our love was new
Those early days when our love was still fresh and filled with hope.
And each kiss an inspiration
Each kiss was a promise of a future filled with love and happiness.
But that was long ago
But those memories are just a remnant of something that was lost long ago.
And now my consolation is in the stardust of a song
Now my only solace is in the memories attached to the song that was once our lovers' anthem.
Besides the garden wall, when stars are bright
In my imagination, I find myself standing beside a garden wall under a starry sky.
You are in my arms
And in my mind, I am holding the one I love close to me.
The nightingale
The bird that sings the sweetest of songs.
Tells his fairytale
It seems to be narrating the sweetest love story.
Of paradise, where roses grew
It talks about how love used to blossom effortlessly and how everything seemed perfect in our paradise.
Though I dream in vain
Yet I know that my dreams are in vain because what is gone can never be retrieved.
In my heart it will remain
But the memories of our love will always linger on inside me.
My stardust melody
The song that holds the memories of our love.
The memory of love's refrain.
The melody that will forever remind me of the love I once had and lost.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: CHRISTOPHER GENTRY, JOHN HUTCHINSON DEAN, MATTHEW EVERITT, SIMON IAN WHITE, STUART BLACK
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
David Walker
Django always knows exactly what tone to set for his solo's and they are always perfect for whoever he is playing with. No guitarist has ever been as good at hitting the right vibe
Marjie Page
His music will live forever. Such joy to listen to this.
Autumn Leaves
Gorgeous meeting of Django Reinhardt and Coleman Hawkins. Superb. Django died so young, but thankfully he recorded a huge amount for us all to enjoy decades later. Would love to go back in time and hear him play live.
Jill hanley
AleGilmour
Chris Corman
Alex Gilmour I close my eyes and imagine it
Bruce Brodinsky
The equally great Coleman Hawkins on sax. What I wouldn't give to be transported back in time to see these 2 together!
yuh
until the war breaks out and ur in paris with them
czgibson
I hadn't heard this before but recognised his sound straight away.
Warm, mellow, insinuating, harmonically rich. The Hawk talks.
theyapsta
Django's solo... utterly sublime as always.... never heard this one. Thanks.
Tomas Sepulveda
A marvellous song, for cold nights, in the middle of dreams :)