Table of Contents

Prologue
Chapter 1: The Guitar with a Human Voice; In Search of Django Reinhardt
Chapter 2: The Boy With the Banjo; Into a Zigzag Paradise
Chapter 3: Bals Musette; Music from the Dark Side of the City of Light
Chapter 4: Jazz Modernistique; Revisiting the Babylon of Gypsy Jazz
Chapter 5: Songs of One Thousand and One Nights; Django Reinhardt, Schnuckenack Reinhardt, and Gypsy Jazz Under the Nazis
Chapter 6: Gypsy Bebop; From Dizzy and Bird to Django and the Gibson Generation
Chapter 7: Les Guitares à Moustache; Revolutionary Jazz Guitars for a Jazz Revolution
Chapter 8: Crossroads; On the Road to Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
Chapter 9: Dynasty ;Les Frères Ferret and their Musical Clan
Chapter 10: La Dernière Valse des Niglos ; Saints and Sinners of the Malha Clan
Chapter 11: Au Son des Guitares; On the Trail of Patotte Bousquet
Chapter 12: The Unsung Master of the Gypsy Waltz; Tracing the Legacy of Tchan Tchou
Chapter 13: The Lost; The Secret History of Lousson Baumgartner and the "Other" Family
Chapter 14: Minstrel; Bamboula Ferret and the Travels of a Romany Troubadour
Chapter 15: Resurrection; The New Elegance of Biréli Lagrène, Stochelo Rosenberg, Angelo Debarre, and Ninine Garcia
Chapter 16: The Music Thieves; Into America with Danny Fender, Johnny Guitar, John Adomono, and Julio Bella Chapter 17: Gypsy Jazz Rap; Syntax and the Search for "Le Meilleur Chemin"
Chapter 18: The Most Dangerous Guitar Lesson; Jamming with David Reinhardt
Epilogue: Latcho Drom - The Long Road
Recommended Listening
Notes
Recommended Reading
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

About the Author

Michael Dregni is a columnist, reviewer, and feature writer for Vintage Guitar magazine, and author of Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend (OUP, 2004).

Reviews

Reviews of the hardback edition:
"Dregni's passion for Django Reinhardt and the enduring overlap of gypsy music and jazz leads to a picaresque journey from the US, across modern Europe and back again. The music itself is the wandering hero as Dregni gracefully weaves together historical research, personal insights, and conversations with colorful, music-making characters. Generous, musical storytelling at its best!"-- Ashley Kahn, author of A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's
Signature Album
"Dregni writes as Django played: lyrical, inventive, engaging and often undeniably brilliant. With Gypsy Jazz he shines light upon the 'holes in history' that have so long obscured this most celebrated yet mysterious arena of Romany music. An astonishing text."--Garth Cartwright, author of Princes Amongst Men: Journeys With Gypsy Musicians
"In this fascinating picaresque adventure into European gipsy culture, Michael Dregni not only discovers much hitherto undocumented information about the background to the great manouche guitarist Django Reinhardt, but also about his musical and social forbears, contemporaries and heirs. Dregni's sparky prose and fervent enthusiasm enliven his search, which always comes back to the music itself, in which he finds, alongside the influence of American jazz, a
timeless romani wistfulness, the lingering melancholy of an itinerant people."--Alyn Shipton, Jazz critic of The Times, London, and author of A New History of Jazz
"A highly original book that's part history, part detective story and part travelogue...
Dregi does a beautiful job tracking down the details and making the people and music come alive. Gypsy Jazz is an important and delightful addition to the ongoing story of Gypsy jazz, and provides an essential bridge to this fascinating people and their culture." --All About Jazz