YouTube Gold: Django Reinhardts Night And Day

Portrait of Django Reinhardt, Aquarium, New York, N.Y., ca. Nov. 1946.Jazz, which started in New Orleans before spreading across America in the late 19th and early 20th century, took some interesting twists as it developed, notably in Europe.

In Europe, and especially in France, it naturally drew on local traditions and the greatest of these became known as Gypsy Jazz. And the greatest figure in Gypsy Jazz, and the greatest guitarists in the history of jazz by most accounts, was Django Rheinhardt. Here’s what writer and musician Ian Cruikshank said about him, which sums his genius up pretty well:

“It wasn’t until 1938, and the Quintet’s first tour of England, that guitarists [in the U.K.]…