Gypsy jazz
[4] The style was popular in France and, via recordings and appearances by the original Quintette, in other European countries before and immediately after the Second World War.
It fell out of favour as the "swing era" came to an end, being replaced in its homeland by bebop, mainstream jazz, and eventually, rock and roll.
After hearing ragtime and Dixieland music, Reinhardt listened to Duke Ellington, Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, and especially Louis Armstrong via the record collection of painter Émile Savitry in Toulon, France, in 1931.
[8] After Reinhardt met violinist Stéphane Grappelli, they played dance music at the Hôtel Claridge in Paris, during the summer of 1934.
The addition of Reinhardt's brother, Joseph, on rhythm guitar made it the Quintette du Hot Club de France.
[9] This lineup, with occasional changes in membership on double bass and rhythm guitar, entered the recording studio later that year.
At the instigation of guitarist Diz Disley, Grappelli returned to the hot club style with the support of acoustic guitars and double bass.
In the 2010s and 2020s, the gypsy jazz style is once again passed on from one generation to the next in Manouche/Sinti communities, children learning from their relatives at an early age, able to master the basics almost before they can hold a normal-sized guitar in their hands.
Most gypsy jazz guitarists, lead and rhythm, play a version of the Selmer-Maccaferri guitar design favored by Reinhardt.
Ensembles aim for an acoustic sound even when playing amplified concerts, and informal jam sessions in small venues such as the annual Django Reinhardt festival at Samois-sur-Seine are part of the scene.
It is mostly plucked with the fingers, but on some songs, the bow is used, either for staccato roots and fifths in "two-feel" or, on a ballad, for sustained low notes.
Such patterns tend to have no more than two stopped notes per string, relating to the fact that Django could only articulate two fingers on his fretting hand.
A particularly characteristic technique is the glissando, in which the guitar player slides a finger along a string, with a precisely timed tremolo picking out individual notes, in order to get a fast, virtuosic sound.
The first generations of gypsy jazz musicians learned the style by the "gypsy method," involving intense practice, direct imitation of older musicians (often family members) and playing and learning "by ear" with little formal musical study (or, indeed, formal education of any kind).
Since the late 1970s, study materials of a more conventional kind such as workshops, etude and method books and videos have become available, allowing musicians worldwide to learn the style and its idiomatic ornaments and musical language.
Prominent gypsy-style guitarists who are not ethnically Roma include John Jorgenson, Andreas Öberg, Frank Vignola and George Cole.
Players who have written study guides include Martin Norgaard, Tim Kliphuis, Andreas Öberg, Ian Cruickshank, Robin Nolan, Denis Chang, Michael Horowitz, Daniel Givone and Patrick "Romane" Leguidcoq.
[19] Contemporary gypsy jazz musicians include Gonzalo Bergara, George Cole, Angelo Debarre, Pearl Django, John Jorgenson, Tim Kliphuis, Biréli Lagrène, Robin Nolan, Stochelo Rosenberg, Paulus Schäfer, Joscho Stephan, and Frank Vignola.
[20] The British guitarist Hank Marvin, who now lives in Perth, Western Australia, has toured and recorded gypsy jazz in a quartet featuring a rhythm guitar, bandoleon, and double bass.
Violinist George Curmi l-Puse along with accordionist Yuri Charyguine, guitarists Joshua Bray and Steve Delia d-Delli, and bassist Anthony Saliba l-Fesu created the Hot Club Of Valletta in 2014.
Gypsy jazz came into prominence in Romania around 1980 by means of the pop-folk subgenre known as muzică bănăţeană (i.e. music in the Banat style), still practised to date.
Throughout the years, muzica bănăţeană has gradually become fond of the manea rhythm, which sounds more like the twist when played in the Banat style; however the swung sârbă was not abandoned.
[37] After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, numerous musicians who were not previously permitted to record on the national record label Electrecord, saw their debuts released; but that eclectic characteristic of Romanian gypsy music changed into what is now called "manele" – a music that is not entirely from gypsy folk origin, nor is it jazz or another defined genre.
Since the 2010s, Gypsy Jazz has been growing very fast in Spain with guitarists as Biel Ballester, Albert Bello and David Regueiro.
Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts offers a gypsy jazz ensemble instructed by Jason Anick, the leader of the Rhythm Future Quartet.
DjangoFest NW is held each September at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley, Washington, which typically features such performers as John Jorgenson, The Rosenberg Trio, Dan Hicks, and Pearl Django.
George Cole and his group Vive Le Jazz have been touring nationally, most recently playing at Carnegie Hall in 2008.
In Brooklyn, New York, musicians from France including vocalist Tatiana Eva-Marie of the Avalon Jazz Band and violinist Adrien Chevalier have been performing a gypsy-jazz mixed with American swing.
