Django Reinhardt (French pronunciation: ​[dʒɑ̃ɡo ʁenɑʁt]; 23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953) was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer.

Django Reinhardt is often regarded as one of the greatest guitar players of all time and regarded as the first important European jazz musician who made major contributions to the development of the idiom. Reinhardt invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique (sometimes called 'hot' jazz guitar) that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture. With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, he co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France, described by critic Thom Jurek as "one of the most original bands in the history of recorded jazz."^[1] Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become jazz standards, including "Minor Swing", "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages".

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The Injury:

At the age of 18, Reinhardt was injured in a fire that ravaged the caravan he shared with Florine "Bella" Mayer, his first wife.^[6] They were very poor, and to supplement their income Bella made imitation flowers out of celluloid and paper. Consequently, their home was rich in highly flammable material. Returning from a performance late one night, Reinhardt apparently knocked over a candle on his way to bed. While his family and neighbours were quick to pull him to safety, he received first- and second-degree burns over half his body. His right leg was paralysed and the third and fourth fingers of his left hand were badly burned. Doctors believed that he would never play guitar again and intended to amputate one of his legs.^[7] Reinhardt refused to have the surgery and left the hospital after a short time; he was able to walk within a year with the aid of a cane.

His brother Joseph Reinhardt, an accomplished guitarist himself, bought Django a new guitar. With rehabilitation and practice he relearned his craft in a completely new way, even as his third and fourth fingers remained partially paralysed. He played all of his guitar solos with only two fingers, and used the two injured digits only for chord work.^[8]

In 1929, Reinhardt's estranged wife Florine gave birth to a son named Henri "Lousson" Reinhardt (aka Lousson Baumgartner).^[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Django_Reinhardt

Comment on Django Reinhardt & the Virgo horoscope for the week of Jan. 9, 2013.

I know this is going to be a very good year. A beautiful year. Rain or shine. Live or die. There will be Love. There will be Light & Life no matter. Look at the Sun. If you want to worship anything –besides Woman—there it is. The Luminous God. The Aton. Our Creator & Preserver. One day it will also be our Destroyer. But all things return. So they say. Die at the right time. Return the same way by the same route. Just saying…Maybe that’s as much delusion as any other hope  (& they who live on hope die fasting or was it farting? according to Dr. Ben Franklin), but what’s so bad about delusions some of the time. Dreams fictions delusions. As long as they’re not problematic. As long as they don’t cause you to drive over a cliff…

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Even though you may know exactly what you want, its sometimes crucial  for you not to accomplish it too fast. It may be that you need to mature more before you’re ready to handle your success. It could be that if you got all of your hearts’s desire too quickly & easily, you wouldn’t develop the vigorous willpower that the quest was meant to help you forge. The importance of good timing can’t be underestimated, either.  In order for you to take full advantage of your dream-come-true, many other factors in your life have to be in place & arranged just so. With those thoughts in mind, Virgo, I offer you this prediction for 2013: A benevolent version of a perfect storm is headed your way. [from Free Will Astrology by Bob Brezsny, week of Jan. 9, 2013: "Metro" Jan. 9-15 vol. 28 no. 43, Silicon Valley CA.]

Not that I’ve much confidence in old “sciences” like astrology (or reading the entrails of owls…although with the way this world seems sometimes to be going that might come back who knows…?)

Speaking of which:

Listening to Django Reinhardt stuff. (Putting myself thru the short-course…) Pretty damn GREAT for two fingers.

And of course hanging with his bud  violinist Stephane Grappelli couldn’t hurt…

Paris Jazz! Le Jazz Hot…!

Doing prep for posting on the Old Gypsy at my Newsvine site.  Background. Details. Riff off that.

He "lived fast, died young(ish) and left a formidable legacy: the Gypsy Flash is the original guitar  hero, iconic and timeless like few others..." [ http://thegypsychronicles.net/django-reinhardt-swing ]

Django definitely was something else. First off he’d the balls to get up there & do it his own way. Broke every rule in the book & thanks to the Sun-god for it.