Jeff Beck on Django

[Michael Bauer]

I'm not sure what category this fits in, but I just saw a copy of "Guitar Legends" magazine (published by Guitar World) with a joint interview with Jeff beck and Jimmy Page. Being a die hard Yardbirds fan, I had to grab it. To my amazement, Django came up as Beck's most admired guitarist. I thought some of you might enjoy reading it.

Interviwer: "Jeff, what other guitarists do you admire."

Jeff Beck: "By far the most astonishing guitar player ever has got to be Django Reinhardt. I'm sort of a newcomer to his work, although I was always aware of him. Django was quite superhuman. There's nothing normal about him, as a person or a player.

His electric palying in the forties is just humiliating. His lead lick--whew! I slow them down, and I still can't grasp what he's doing. Recently I acquired some rare scratchy black-and-white film of Django playing. It's the most glorious, but tantalizing short footage, but he is playing like crazy. I've been studying it in slow motion, and all you can see are these two grubby fingers going like lightening up and down the fretboard."

[Michael Horowitz]

His electric palying in the forties is just humiliating. His lead lick--whew! I slow them down, and I still can't grasp what he's doing. Recently I acquired some rare scratchy black-and-white film of Django playing. It's the most glorious, but tantalizing short footage, but he is playing like crazy. I've been studying it in slow motion, and all you can see are these two grubby fingers going like lightening up and down the fretboard."

Sounds like Jeff needs a copy of Gypsy Picking...anyone have his address?

[Michael Bauer]

Funny...I had exactly the same thought. Learning Django might even be enough to get him to play with a pick again.

[Blue Drag]

A friend of mine owned a small record/cd shop in the S.F. Bay Area, just south of the Airport. One of his employees came up to him and said "Doesn't that dude over there look like Jeff Beck"? My friend said "Holy S__T ! That IS Jeff Beck (Jeff was playing the local amphitheater that night). Friend approaches Beck, introduces himself, and asks if he might help him find anything. Mr. Beck replied that he was looking for "Django Reinhardt and Dean Martin". Very cool, I thought.

[Stackabones]

Mr. Beck replied that he was looking for "Django Reinhardt and Dean Martin".

You mean, they did a session together? Man, I gotta find that recording.