New wikipedia page for Matelo Ferret

TonyRees

Hi all,

I noticed that Baro, Sarane and Matelo Ferret were somewhat poorly represented on Wikipedia so I have made a start with a page for Matelo (previously that link was just a redirect to Baro under the name "Pierre Ferret", the latter still to fix...). Some of the terminology was "borrowed" from previous content at Baro's page and could probably be improved. Anyway there is a start at a discography (not every track, but the main sessions) and a brief bio. You can take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matelo_Ferret and I am happy to hear of corrections and additions as needed (the latter need to be sourced to meet Wikipedia's guidelines for verifiability). Or if you are already a wikipedia editor (or would like to become one) anyone can also edit the content directly if desired.

(I plan to do a page for Sarane at another time, or someone could do it using my Matelo page as a template).

Happy to have any feedback via this forum,

Regards - Tony Rees

Bob Holo

Thank you Tony! There may come a time when the history of nearly everything is recorded as life plays out, because computers make it easy to do so. If the internet remains free, it will become what the library of Alexandria aimed to be. But we're on the cusp of losing certain things that have never been recorded in digital format, and you're helping to document a very interesting and pivotal figure in this music. Well done!

Teddy Dupont

The Ferret family apparently prefer it to be written Ferré these days including Baro, Sarane and Matelo retrospectively.

TonyRees

HI Teddy, thank you for that information. Retrospectivity is a problem, also whether or not that spelling is in use today by the present weight of scholarship/commentary... For guidance, Wikipedia says simply (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_(people) ) "The page name uses preferably the most commonly used version of the name of that person" which I would take to still be Ferret (also Matelo over Matelot, but by a lesser margin maybe) at this time, although this could change in future maybe.

I can however set up another page under the title Matelo Ferré which redirects to this one, so that whichever entry point is used the information will still be found (also at some future point the information can be moved there if there is a balance of opinion to do so).

Regards - Tony

TonyRees

Now done (Matelo Ferré new entry on wikipedia, redirects to above page)

rgrice

@scot needs to add some info!

Teddy Dupont

I do not beliieve it is reasonable to do it retrospectively even though that is what Elios and Boulou want. It's fair enough for them to change the spelling for themselves during their lifetime as Stephane Grappelli (Grappelly) did but Matelo(t) will always be Ferret to me. Having said that, Sarane and Baro sometimes used the spelling Ferré as in the attached sheet music.

You will also see various spellings of Sarane and in those days, Baro was usually referred to as Pierre and Matelo as Jean. All very confusing and I think that may well have been the objective.

TonyRees

Well of course Romany being primarily a spoken, not written language they possibly did not care too much about spellings in former times, that is if they could even read/write at all (either Romany or French) - the spellings could well have been a phonetic representation by the publisher(s) with no guarantee of consistency. On the other hand we know that Django at least wrote some letters in surprisingly clear French during the 1940s, but perhaps he learned to write with the assistance of Stephane or other. Just speculating here, maybe someone has better information...

TonyRees

Because the "discography" section of the new wikipedia page is somewhat convoluted, I've started a separate thread to develop this further as needed here:

http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/14645/matelo-ferret-discography

Teddy Dupont

TonyRees wrote: »

Well of course Romany being primarily a spoken, not written language they possibly did not care too much about spellings in former times, that is if they could even read/write at all (either Romany or French) - the spellings could well have been a phonetic representation by the publisher(s) with no guarantee of consistency. On the other hand we know that Django at least wrote some letters in surprisingly clear French during the 1940s, but perhaps he learned to write with the assistance of Stephane or other. Just speculating here, maybe someone has better information...

I think Baro certainly tried to keep one step ahead of the police and confusion about his name helped. - Stephane claimed he taught Django to read and write and when they first met, Django could only sign contracts with a cross.