John Jorgenson unplugged - Billet Doux (Django Reinhardt)

Here's a snippet of the John Jorgenson Quintet playing the Django Reinhardt / Stephane Grappelli classic "Billet Doux" (Love Letters) acousticly and without any amplification.

Watch the intro with two fingers - just like Django ...

I had the pleasure of watching these fantastic musicians performs at an intimate venue, the Café Esperanza in Wuppertal / Germany, on May 8th, 2010.

The Quintet are:
John Jorgenson - guitar, bouzouki, vocals, clarinet
Jason Anick - violin
Doug Martin - rhythm guitar
Simon Planting - bass
Rick Reed - drums, percussion

Tania and Sandra Differding from Luxemburg joined them on trombones.

For the photographers: Filmed with a Nikon D90 and a 70-300 VR Nikkor handheld. Still trying to figure out how to get it going, but it's fun to play with ...!

What a night!

[burgie]

I can't believe how talented John Jorgenson is -- he leaves me in awe -- absolutely amazing

[bathizargupta]

Staying true to Django's two finger

[SwingfromParis]

Great tune, not many people play this one.

[marktaylor]

saw him this summer and the band was great. fantastic musisians

[guitarman]

Saw John at Samois a few years back - AWESOME !!

[alexplorer]

You notice for the first minute in a half that he's only using his "Django fingers."

[martydibergi]

John Jorgenson a gifted hard working genius so diverse listen to all the great Nashville hits he helped create and the Hellecasters this Elton John Pam Tillis Carlene Carter John Prine Mary Chapin Carpenter and the list is so beautifully long. Please come back to sportsman tavern soon you are a gift

[TheStrataminor]

Wow...John appears to be using his Chinese made Gitane!! Wow...how down to earth...I like him even more for that!!

[johnfair]

DAMN HE IS GOOD. I want to play like that..I'm hitting the wood shed for the next ten years...

[johnfair]

Does any one have tabs for this so I can spend the rest of my life learning.

[chetmortenson]

I have literally that same exact guitar he’s playing and mine doesn’t seem to sound as good. The sounds from the high e seem a little dampened & buzzy in some of the higher frets. Maybe it needs a new fret alignment on the high 10 under the e and b strings. I’ll get it sorted out and adjusted so it sounds best.

[CiscoDuck]

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY plays Django Reinhardt as well as John Jorgenson! He smokes all the so called Reinhardt relatives, the Rosenbergs, and hosts of imitators plus all these Gypsy Jazz specialists who play all the so-called Django festivals who just do not understand what Django played that was waaaay beyond his Gypsy traditions musically speaking and well beyond confines of the limited trappings of the Musette style. Django left that approach to music when he heard American Jazz artists Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins and other luminary Jazz & Swing musicians who had fled America for a better living in Europe - particularly in Paris & London during the early 30's where they stayed until WWII broke out. The reason John Jorgenson gets it is because he is an accomplished reed player who is not only a reading musician but he is also an uncredible improvisational soloist with the clarinet as well as tenor and alto sax who understands Jazz, Swing & Bebop of the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and beyond. John studied what attracted Django to play beyond his Gypsy music roots. John understands Classical music such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and others. He is like a sponge musicially. I've personally seen him play Django for 32 bars, then play an eerie impersonation of Jimmy Bryant before ripping into one of those blazing Hellecasters originals replete with all the blues rock, jazz fusion, country funk queezed into a 3 minute song. The man is an incredible guitarist and musician!

[demef]

Too bad the guy shooting the video didn't pay his electric bill this month ...