This is number twelve in a series released on the French label Fremaux.
This series under the direction of Daniel Nevers will become the definitive Django collection, incorporating many rare and previously unreleased tracks, including radio performances and out takes.

This Double Cd also comes with a 40 page booklet in English and French containing many interesting photos. If your seriously interested in Django or are looking for a particular track this is the series for you.

The new Quintet of the Hot Club of France which Django Reinhardt had so strongly desired to found when he returned to Paris in summer 1940, was not to have the same life-span, regularity or originality as the pre-war set-up when Stephane Grappelli faultlessly answered the most brilliant of jazz guitarists. However it rapidly became more successful due to the context of the times.
Its beginnings were remarkable, giving birth to an impressive amount of master-pieces (see volumes 10 and 11) including Nuages which is probably the composer's most celebrated piece.
Yet after a year his interest in this new off-spring seemed to dwindle. Naturally, his situation had been modified over the past year. Without the Americans and with the 'national revolution' ideology reigning in France, he was considered as the headman of European jazz which was intended to offset the influence of the 'Judeo-Negro' jazz from over the Atlantic. Django took advantage of the situation, leading a large orchestra in 1941 - a dream he had nurtured for a long while. The audience in the Salle Pleyel was appreciative so the experience was repeated quite frequently from 1941 to 1945 in France and Belgium, in the company of French and Belgians and also with Americans from the ATC Band when Liberation arrived. The musician also being a proven composer began working on several ambitious works, including a Symphonie and a Messe intended for Romanies. His timetable was loaded, distancing him from the Quintet. Moreover he was now an eminent personage, earning far more than previously (though as a gambler his pay was quickly squandered) and he became increasingly capricious. As his old friends pointed out, he was not a bad person but fame went to his head.