Excerpt from “Django Reinhardt in Italy”

FabioLossani

ciao Spatzo come stai?
Sorry but I don't have more informations on Livornes. he was Mazzoletti's friend and died in France or Belgium.
A presto Spatzlin mandami una mail con info su di te.
Fabio

Teddy Dupont

I don't know how close that translation is to the original Italian Spatzo but it makes much more sense. Well done. :clap:

Jazzaferri

The first is a fun read though

Karlo

Is the rest of the book like that? So dense, felt like reading Kerouac's Dr. Sax or some other introspective prose like that. With no knowledge of the Italian original - it could be as challenging as the translation as far as I'm concerned - I still gotta say I pretty much love it. Thanks!

I have El manisero (The peanuts vendor) playing. Listening to the rest of those takes while reading ought to make it exceedingly exciting, I suppose.

Karlo

Thank you for explaining, stuart. I'll surely keep it in mind if I attempt transcribing Django's solo on any of those particular takes.

Svanis1337

Here is the Franco Cerri and Django photo. Unfortunately it's very small, but you can see Stéphane. It's from Franco Cerri's website.

I thought it was a very good read. Very interesting. It's a shame so little is known about the recording sessions for RAI.

swing68

FabioLossani wrote: »

1. send me an email ( [email protected] )
2. I will send you the italian text
3. so you can show us your perfect way of translation

Done.

I remain a man of my word, so feel free to send over that Italian original whenever you want.

I should be able to finish it over the Christmas period.

One question: the setlists - are they accompanied in the original text by images? Currently they bear no relation to the rest of the text.

Finally - please accept any criticism in the spirit it was intended, and, furthermore, in the manner in which it actually was conveyed. It's a normal thing in the translation/publishing process, and understood by writers and publishers alike to be very necessary. You don't need me to tell you how solipsistic a pursuit writing can be: checks and balances are essential.

Best, swing68

PS Spatzo's contribution isn't part of the published text. Nice addendum, though. Thanks!

spatzo

The Astoria picture is interesting because we can identificate everybody: Franco Cerri on the left with Django's Selmer, Ubaldo Beduschi on double bass, Stéphane Grappelli on violin, and on the far right Piero Visani.

spatzo

We can also identificate going downstairs Antonietta Tognini and her husband violinist and singer Alberto Rabagliati...

spatzo

Here's a picture of Rabagliati (born in 1906 in Milan) a very well-known singer and violinist in Italy in those prewar and postwar years. He is easily recognizable with that big comma on the right cheek.