More crucial to his music, the fourth finger (ring finger) and fifth finger (little) of Reinhardt's left hand were badly burned. Reinhardt refused the surgery and was eventually able to walk with the aid of a cane. During his 18-month hospitalization, doctors recommended amputation of his badly damaged right leg. The couple escaped, but Reinhardt suffered extensive burns over half his body. The wagon was quickly engulfed in flames. He knocked over a candle, which ignited the extremely flammable celluloid that his wife used to make artificial flowers. On the night of 2 November 1928, Reinhardt was going to bed in the wagon that he and his wife shared in the caravan. : 10īefore he had a chance to start with the band, however, Reinhardt nearly died. : 10 Hylton offered him a job on the spot, and Reinhardt accepted. His name was now drawing international attention, such as from British bandleader Jack Hylton, who came to France just to hear him play. : 9 On these recordings, made in 1928, Reinhardt plays the 'banjo' (actually the banjo-guitar) accompanying the accordionists Maurice Alexander, Jean Vaissade and Victor Marceau, and the singer Maurice Chaumel. : 9 The following year he recorded for the first time. : 13 Marriage and injury Īt the age of 17, Reinhardt married Florine 'Bella' Mayer, a girl from the same Romani settlement, according to Romani custom (although not an official marriage under French law). He received little formal education and acquired the rudiments of literacy only in adult life. At this time, he had not started playing jazz, although he had probably heard and had been intrigued by the version of jazz played by American expatriate bands like Billy Arnold's. : 28 Reinhardt was able to make a living playing music by the time he was 15, busking in cafés, often with his brother Joseph. He quickly learned to play, mimicking the fingerings of musicians he watched, who would have included local virtuoso players of the day such as Jean 'Poulette' Castro and Auguste 'Gusti' Malha, as well as from his uncle Guiligou, who played violin, banjo and guitar. At the age of 12 he received a banjo-guitar as a gift. Reinhardt was attracted to music at an early age, first playing the violin.

: 5 : 14 His father reportedly played music in a family band comprising himself and seven brothers a surviving photograph shows this band including his father on piano. Reinhardt spent most of his youth in Romani encampments close to Paris, where he started playing the violin, banjo and guitar. Ī number of authors have repeated the claim that Reinhardt's nickname, Django, is Romani for 'I awake' : 4–5 however, it may also simply have been a diminutive, or local Walloon version, of 'Jean'.

The birth certificate refers to 'Jean Reinhart, son of Jean Baptiste Reinhart, artist, and Laurence Reinhart, housewife, domiciled in Paris'. His mother, Laurence Reinhardt, was a dancer. His French, Alsacian father, Jean Eugene Weiss, domiciled in Paris with his wife, went by Jean-Baptiste Reinhardt, his wife's surname, to avoid French military conscription. Reinhardt was born on 23 January 1910 in Liberchies, Pont-à-Celles, Belgium, into a French/Belgian family of Manouche Romani descent. In February 2017, the Berlin International Film Festival held the world premiere of the French film Django. Over the last few decades, annual Django festivals have been held throughout Europe and the U.S., and a biography has been written about his life. Jazz guitarist Frank Vignola says that nearly every major popular-music guitarist in the world has been influenced by Reinhardt. Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become standards within gypsy jazz, including ' Minor Swing', 'Daphne', 'Belleville', 'Djangology', 'Swing '42', and ' Nuages'. He died suddenly of a stroke in 1953 at the age of 43. Reinhardt recorded in France with many visiting American musicians, including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and briefly toured the United States with Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1946. The group was among the first to play jazz that featured the guitar as a lead instrument.

With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, Reinhardt formed the Paris-based Quintette du Hot Club de France in 1934. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents. Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – ), known by his Romani nickname Django ( French: or ), was a Romani-Belgian jazz guitarist and composer.

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