Quintette du Hot Club de France
From The Gypsy Jazz Encyclopedia
These two musicians were brought together by Charles Delaunay and Hugues Panassié in 1934 who ran the first Swing Jazz club of the same name. Both were converts to the new sound coming from America.
The group was remarkable for it's time an all stringed instrument group with the original linup of Roger Chaput on Rhythm guitar, Louis Vola Double Bass, Django on Guitar and Stephane Grappelli on violin. It soon became a Quintette with the addition of Joseph Reinhardt, Django's brother, as a second rhythm guitarist when Django complained that when Stephane took a solo he had two guitars to accompany him, while Django only had the one.
They soon became a great success which owed much to the virtuosity of it's two leading players who remained the only constant members of the group until 1939. The rhythm guitarists over this period included: Joseph Reinhardt, Roger Chaput, Baro Ferret, Eugène Vées, Marcel Bianchi, Gusti Malha and the bass players: Louis Vola, Eugène d'Hellemmes, Lucien Simoens, Roger Grasset and Emmanuel Soudieux.
Whilst touring the UK in 1939, war was declared and Django returned to France leaving Grappelli in England where he stayed throughout the conflict. Reinhardt took the opportunity of Grappelli's departure to reform the Quintet into a more conventional jazz-orientated combination by replacing the violin with a clarinet and one of the rhythm guitars with drums. This group had a much more fluid structure than the string quintet with Django being the only common factor. The musicians included:-
- Clarinet: Hubert Rostaing, Alix Combelle, Gérard Lévêque, André Lluis, André Ekyan.
- Rhythm guitar: Joseph Reinhardt, Eugène Vées, Lousson Reinhardt.
- Drums: Pierre Fouad, André Jourdan, Gaston Lèonard, Arthur Motta.
The string quintet with Grappelli was re-formed in 1946 and played and recorded together intermittently until 1948 but although their performances were often quite brilliant, their popularity was gone. New members included:-
- Rhythm guitar: Jack Llewellyn, Allan Hodgkiss, Malcolm Mitchell, Alan Mindel, Challain Ferret.
- Bass: Coleridge Goode, Teddy Wadmore.
The first recordings of Le Quintette du Hot Club de France were made on 28th December, 1934 in Paris and the final recordings of a group with that name were made in May, 1950 in Rome with the very different personnel of Django (el gtr), André Ekyan (as,cl), Ralph Schécroun (p), Alf Masselier (b) and Roger Paraboschi (dm). The music, as well as the personnel of the quintet had fundamentally changed over those 16 years but it remains the most successful European jazz group ever.
Discography
All the recordings of Le Quintette du Hot Club de France can be found on Volumes 2 to 20 of the Fremeaux Intégrale Django Reinhardt series.
