Interesting Django Recordings and Lost Footage?

spatzo

I think it should have been a good idea to publish Freddy Taylor's version of Blue Drag even without Django as for sure Django has "learned" the tune when playing in that orchestra. It is then very interesting to observe Django's arrangement compared to Taylor's one.

Svanis1337

Spatzo, is it possible that this clip the "very famous guitarist" referring to is the Den Haag footage from 1937? The tune is obviously "Swing Guitar(s)" since "Swing 42" didn't exist until 1941, but if someone who saw it didn't know, it could easily be mistaken for Swing 42. If not, then we're in for a treat if someone finds it.

Another interesting Django recording is the 1937 "Blues" with Stéphane Grappelli on Celeste (Celesta) which is a rare and expensive orchestral instrument. It's a small upright piano with bells instead of strings, made famous by compositions such as "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" From act II of "The Nutcracker's Suite".

The most modern example I can think of is the Theme from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.


Django doing the "Peace Sign" with his left hand sometime in the 40's. (1946 American fans from his US tour?)



Django in one of Pierre "Baro" Ferret's bars?

Teddy Dupont

Svanis1337 wrote:

Spatzo, is it possible that this clip the "very famous guitarist" referring to is the Den Haag footage from 1937? The tune is obviously "Swing Guitar(s)" since "Swing 42" didn't exist until 1941, but if someone who saw it didn't know, it could easily be mistaken for Swing 42. If not, then we're in for a treat if someone finds it.

:? You've lost me on this one!

Svanis1337 wrote:

Django doing the "Peace Sign" with his left hand sometime in the 40's. (1946 American fans from his US tour?)

That's Jimmy and Marian McPartland both famous jazz musicians, Chicago, 1946.

Svanis1337

What I'm saying is if the chap who said there was footage of django playing swing 42 might have mistaken swing guitars for swing 42 since they have similar chord progressions. If it is however a different clip we might get the chance to see it in the near future. Hopefully.

Teddy Dupont

Svanis1337 wrote:

What I'm saying is if the chap who said there was footage of django playing swing 42 might have mistaken swing guitars for swing 42 since they have similar chord progressions. If it is however a different clip we might get the chance to see it in the near future. Hopefully.

If a "famous guitarist" can't tell the difference between "Swing Guitars" and "Swing 42", he probably isn't worth taking any notice of. I don't want to sound negative but these sort of claims have been around for years. I have lost track of the number of people who have told me how they once had or have seen or they know somebody who has or has seen some rare footage of Django which has subsequently somehow disappeared. Sadly, I cannot actually remember any of these specific claims ever coming to fruition. The stuff that appears seems to come quite unexpectedly from nowhere.

You are quite right though. People often confuse rare footage with known footage because either it is some time since they have seen it or it is presented in a different form which can give the impression it is new.

But keep searching. The next rare reel of film could be in a flea market near you. Many of the "new" Django photos have been found in exactly those places. Here is one:-

Steveareno

Great thread. Thanks guys for sharing the wonderful images and clips. On a sidebar: is it my imagination or is the head in Blue Drag the same as Put the Blame On Mame? (apparently written in '46)?
Swang on

spatzo

No Svanis the guitarist effectively spoke of "swing 42" and he was not speaking of the Den Haag 1937 footage.

Dear Teddy remember "Clair de Lune" and the beautiful surprise it was after years to see it...

I think that it is always interesting to have some hints on what can be searched in my case it has been several times very usefull for exemple for "Rivage de Paris" I would never have searched for a film if I didn't know that Django had recorded Nuages and Belleville on a video support.

I think the easiest to find can be the two bonus tunes from the Jazz Hot film as Delaunay clearly indicated their existence in his book "Django mon frere". I have some perplexity on their existence when I observe the construction of the BBC (?) clip - orchestra playing "J'attendrai" and then QHCF playing it. Even the choice of "J'attendrai" is in a way a strange one. I sometimes wonder who could have really had the necessity to advertise the Quintet (as it is told before the tournée of 1938) in such a form and how such a promotional film has really been used. I do think the way to find them is to examine who was organising the UK tour for the QHCF investigating more in depth on the russian born english impresario Lew Grade and on his partner the established agent Joe Collins (father of Jackie and Joan Collins [born in 1933]).

The second inquiry should be the "Stars in your eyes" program even if my first investigations indicate that in those years the recording of a broadcasted TV program was difficult to perform and by the way was not the rule. As far as I know they did indirect video recording by filming aTV set. But as BBC has some video.

Craig Bumgarner

Teddy Dupont wrote:

That's Jimmy and Marian McPartland both famous jazz musicians, Chicago, 1946.

Those outside the US might not know that British born Marian McPartland is now in her 90s and still hosts a long running weekly show on National Public Radio called Piano Jazz. Wonderful show; each week Marian interviews and accompanies great jazz players. Mostly piano, but also other instruments as well. It is all recorded live and both the guest and Marian get a lot of playing time in between the interviews, both individually and together and there is a fair amount of improvisation in the process. Marian plays astoundingly well regardless of her age, strong and lyrical, very tasteful.

Archives of the shows, all of them I believe, are available through the link above.

CB

spatzo

Yes great McPartland! well both of them on piano and trumpet. For sure she knew well Django and certainly had many occasions to play with him...

On BBC I just wanted to precise that they have some recordings of TV broadcasts from 1938 so everything is possible. :shock:

Of course it should be easier for english gentlemen to contact BBC - specially people living in London - to meet people and find the Graal but who knows many be one day we will find the right guy 8)

The first interesting question should be to ask if all the available has been published on the BBC Archives site.

Teddy Dupont

spatzo wrote:

Dear Teddy remember "Clair de Lune" and the beautiful surprise it was after years to see it...

Agreed but it came as a total surprised. We all believed it had been destroyed or never even been completed and nobody had ever claimed to have seen it. We did, however, know it once existed unlike some of the other claims we hear.

spatzo wrote:

I think the easiest to find can be the two bonus tunes from the Jazz Hot film as Delaunay clearly indicated their existence in his book "Django mon frere". I have some perplexity on their existence when I observe the construction of the BBC (?) clip - orchestra playing "J'attendrai" and then QHCF playing it. Even the choice of "J'attendrai" is in a way a strange one. I sometimes wonder who could have really had the necessity to advertise the Quintet (as it is told before the tournée of 1938) in such a form and how such a promotional film has really been used. I do think the way to find them is to examine who was organising the UK tour for the QHCF investigating more in depth on the russian born english impresario Lew Grade and on his partner the established agent Joe Collins (father of Jackie and Joan Collins [born in 1933]).

You are right. This film is a real enigma. If it was a promotional film, where was it shown? In cinemas? Why? Was this a normal thing to do for a group like the Quintette on a tour of the Music Halls in the UK? As you say, the tour was organised by Lew Grade who, in those days, had the reputation of being very tight with his money. I am therefore surprised he would be prepared to fund such a film. He was interviewed many times about Django and I cannot recall him ever mentioning this film but perhaps he was not asked the right questions. Clearly there was more to the footage than we see as after a very structured start, it fades to nothing at the end.

I also agree that the choice of "J'Attendrai" is very odd. Why not something that the Quintette was famous for? Was the footage of the Orchestra put together especially for the film (expensive?!) or did it already exist so they just bolted the Quintette on which is why "J'Attendrai" was chosen.

When asked, Grappelli said he did not remember anything about it. Odd since I am not aware that any other films were made of the Quintette in the thirties and you would have thought it a special moment for them.

Spatzo I think you need to get over to the UK and get into those BBC vaults to find the complete "Stars in you Eyes" footage which has been laying there untouched for years.