I've been summoned by my brother @jaydr to spread the vibe, so I am going to react to the vibe that he has spread here, a great post about music, medicine, rhythm and many more things!
One video particularly touched me, it's the band Spectacular Band, from Nigeria:
You can find it here
I found the bass player really amazing, he doesn't have fingers, play like a god, and the whole band was just so good! Once again, it reminded of the birth of modern jazz chords and that will be my vibe for today!
Django Reinhardt
Destiny has a strange way to present itself, and it happened on the night of 2 November 1928, when the young guitar prodigy injured himself permanently, an incident that will shape the rest of his life and change jazz history for the better.
Who could have thought, that one movement, one step on the right, and his life would have unfolded differently, creating a new time line in the space continuum?
You see, 17 years old Django was living with his newly wed wife Florine "Bella" Mayer in their caravan, like it's tradition for Romani "Manouche". They had a good life, the young guitar player excelling as musician, performing with local musicians Jean "Poulette" Castro and Auguste "Gusti" Malha, showing promising skills, a life ahead of him.
As the light fades and the night creeps on the settlement, Django kisses his wife good night, and steps one step on the right, accidentally bumping into a candle with his left hand, which will cause a chain reaction starting a fire on the very, very flammable celluloid that Florine was using for her artificial flowers.
The flames are engulfing the caravan instantly, Florine cannot hear the scream of her young husband through the roaring fire, she manages to get herself out of here, she waits for a second.
Django isn't coming out...
The seconds seem like minutes now, she is asking herself if she should get inside the wagon, try to find him. She can now hear him screaming, she pray the gipsy gods to bring her Django back, a second later her prayers are answered by a flaming body falling, inert in front of her.
The couple escaped death, but at what cost?
Django spent the next 18 months in a hospital bed, recovering from massive burning injuries. Half of his body was now covered with blisters, the pain was...Unsurmountable.
The young man quickly lost track of time, the days looked very similar, resting, healing the skin, regaining motricity, speaking to the doctors:
Django, we need to amputate your leg.
Stubborn, the young guitarist refused to listen to them, and decided to chance it without them, eventually regained the ability to walk with the aid of a cane, against all odds...
Fiercely, Django (meaning "I Awake" in Romani) or Jean was once again in charge of his destiny, and through sheer will power, lived his life once more.
There were another challenge for him, regarding his left hand: Two of his fingers, the 4th and the 5th finger, were now permanently damaged, the doctors were once again clear about it:
You will never be able to play the guitar again.
With time, Django had learnt that doctors don't have all the answers, and that nobody, could tell him what he could or couldn't do.
If he wanted to become the best musician in the world, he would do it, even if it means, finding new ways to play his instrument.
After a long journey that consisted first in "delearning" what he already knew, and creating new neuronal pathways, new time lines, he changed himself, to the core.
Cannot play the major 7 chords in a traditional way?
No problem, I will create chord inversions, having the root note as an octave, it will create interesting voice leadings.
I will just focus my strength on the 2nd and 3rd finger, then I can always position my "dead" 4th and 5th fingers in a certain way, and do the solo with my 2 "good" fingers.
Here are the type of thoughts that Django had to have, to convince himself, that this tragedy created a beautiful opportunity to change the way he perceived chords.
Eventually Bella and him separated right after the birth of their first child Henri. Maybe the pain of that night was still lingering, nobody but her and Django know why they parted ways.
As he was now learning how to live on his own, something else changed his life for the better, the discovery of Jazz.
Emile Savitry was photographer and painter during the "Surrealist" era. Him and Django were hanging out in the same clubs; the guitarist was often seen experimenting with the instrument his brother Joseph gave him for rehabilitating his fingers, and one night Emile changed Django's life by showing him American Jazz.
It was a new sound, coming from New Orleans, he heard the music of Louis Amstrong, Duke Ellington, Eddie Lang. It's like he heard music for the first time ever, everything that he knew prior to that moment didn't even matter anymore.
His mind expanded with new possibilities, he could feel his thoughts firing on all cylinders, he now knew what he was supposed to do with his existence:
I will be the greatest Gypsy Jazzman
And he did.
There is a moral to this story. People will always try to put you into boxes, limit your possibilities.
It's just a natural, human emotion to bring someone else's down, people do it for a simple matter:
Survival.
If you are better than them at something you are now becoming a threat, and this is why you should never wait for someone else's approval, to embrace your destiny. You saw how many times Django's fate was tested, and you saw how he got the upper hand?
Adapting, it's what we do, there will always be highs and lows, it's up to you to use the lows to your advantage, and ride the highs to gain momentum.
Your cracks, your mistakes, your "disadvantages" are what made you the artist that you are.
I will not hear the music the same way I did not have "ear impairment" in my right ear, I hear only low frequencies from this one, and I've learnt how to live with it, and feel music differently, same goes for the natural nodules in my voice, they might be imperfections to some, they are what makes me who I am, these "disabilities" create texture and depth to my craft.
I am nominating my buddy @shookriya, bass player and amazing artist, singer. I hope I played the game correctly, I think it's like the "Cadavre Exquis" (Exquisite Corpse), I answer back to someone else stream of thought, and it creates its own tangent.
So Shook, I think now you must react to what I posted, and tell me what it reminds you off, talk about a track that you particular like linked to what has been spoken about.
I know, one day passed from your post, and just now my comment is coming here. But this article deserves more attention, without any doubt! You made an extra effort here to bring the life story of a man, which can be seen as tragic, but which worked like a miracle. Like you said in similar words, we can take advantage of our troubles to grow, as individuals, and as professionals. I think the example of Django is spot on! Also, it is amazing to see other musicians overcoming disabilities like blindness (a lot of pianists, singers around) or just look at Beethoven's example, getting deaf and composing the late masterpieces when he was completely deaf! Also, Robert Schumann and his hand injury, which I mention so many times, but yeah, he could not manage so well his situation.
This is the paragraph that summarises perfectly Django's life, but not just that, it is a great lesson to all of us. We have our lows, true. We do sometimes need them, but staying there for too long time is not always good. Then just a click come and we are heading towards high and exceptional things. He certainly was that stubborn that could overcome the lows, the "disabilities" became abilities and made him shine in a different light. Very very good that you brought his example @edprivat (yeah, sorry for the tag 😂 ) and connected to @jaydr's article in that way. Super connection, super spreading of the vibes!! I hope your friend @shookriya will catch the vibes and spread them (I see he is not active for some time, but the invite is here forever ;)) )
Anyway, the invite also includes everyone who reads this post and can relate to it, or have a story to share around it!! Hm, me getting ideas for a new post right now hahahaha. Thank you for the inspiration EdPrivat and for joining the Spread The Vibes series. And welcome to this small corner QSounds too 🙌
Yeah Beethoven is still a wonder..
Thats music beyond the ears for you there.
I ll look up Schumann later.
The vibe is spreading ....😁
Omg I am so happy you enjoyed it, there were some pressure on my shoulder after 2 amazing posts by you and @jaydr, it's ok if SHook takes his time to answer, to each their rhythm!
Aaaaah? Nah I am curious haha, tell me more!
Thanks again for the words of encouragement, and the support, what a great concept!
Hahaha, dont know when I will carry out it, but you will know it... thanks hive for the tagging option ;D
Edit: I just realized I wrote before a word that didn't match what I wanted to say...
She's always so kind, her words came in very needful for me to have finished my article.
Ha! I know now why some wings started to grow on my back 😂😂😂
Practically speaking..
You are an angel.. 😀😀😂😂
Excellent use of insurmountable.
Before continuing I'd already began constructing a Django joke based on Jamie Fox's character and it would've began with 'comin in hot!' Upon further reading however I've decided it's insurmountably inappropriate.
Haha sorry it was a little bit on the nose of course.
Making a Django joke, yeah it would have been too much haha! Thanks for passing by!
Great post about Gypsy French guitarist Django Reinhardt, thank you. It's quite unusual to find content about jazz musicians in this platform, let alone of this quality.
and the brotherhood between all human beings regardless of their gender, beliefs or skin color.
You're invited to visit my blog, where you'll find more than 2,000 posts about this kind of music, mainly biographies and tracks from YouTube.
Happy Sunday! 😀
Hey man , yes I know you, I was already following you!
That's an impressive list of artists that you've covered, I am happy you enjoyed my post!
Cheers buddy!
That's a really inspiring g story with a great message at the end. Django sounds like quite the man with an interesting story of perseverance.
Cool man. I see why he is such an inspiration to you. Thanks for sharing!
It's a pleasure!
Not just an inspiration for me, he changed the way musicians perceived chords that we thought needed 4 fingers (not counting the thumb here), and proved you could do it with only 2 valid ones.
If I can compare it to something, it's like if someone realised you could only drive with one wheel instead of 2, and create a monocycle.
Man, I believe that adversity creates greatness, thanks for passing by!
Imperfections made everyone unique!😄
Exactly dear!! I hope you're doing well, thanks for passing by!
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Thanks so much! Amazing really!
Wow.. Thanks @edprivat for this lovely vibe, and it thrown a lot of light and meaning to why we all need to love ourselves and see limitations as stepping stones.
The spectacular band, still amazes me how he overcame that limitation tho, I m working on finding out more about him.
Thanks so much for spreading this lovely vibe, I ll tag @mipiano to read this too. And I can't wait to see @shookriya 's ripple of thoughts from this vibe.
What's up my brother! Thanks again for making me meditate with your post!
There is no such thing as limit, in music! Only possibilities!
Very true.
Have a great weekend.
You too buddy!