French Gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt spent most of his life in Paris, but he never took the Metro because he couldn't read -- words or music -- and didn't want to get off at the wrong stop.
During World War II, when Parisians were humming his melancholy hit "Clouds" and he always had a wad of francs in his pocket, Django rode in flashy new cars or hired limos. Just as often, he was broke and had to hoof it around Paris, followed by his brother, Joseph "Nin-Nin" Reinhardt, who toted his guitar.
To many jazz lovers the name Django is pure magic, evoking the master's inimitable style and musicianship. Together with French violinist Stephane Grappelli, he adapted brassy American jazz to strings, creating a lilting, soulful sound.
Recently I roamed the streets of Paris carrying "Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend," a new biography by Michael Dregni. It was my guidebook to a city the great musician knew like the neck of his guitar, from the seedy, smoke-filled dives of Pigalle to the fancy, cafe-society quarter around the Etoile.
Most of the clubs he haunted -- La Roulotte, Casanova, La Java -- the flophouses where he stayed in bed if he didn't feel like making a gig, the tabacs that kept him in cafe noir and the billiard parlors where he demonstrated his other expertise are long gone. But with a little imagination, Django cultists can still feel his presence in the City of Light.
He was born in the winter of 1910 in a gypsy caravan on the border between France and Belgium, near Liberchies. He died in the spring of 1953 in Samois-sur-Seine, after a disappointing U.S. tour and just as bebop was replacing swing jazz for strings. (Samois-sur-Seine, in Fontainebleau Forest about 50 miles southeast of Paris, is the scene of the annual Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival, scheduled June 20 to 26 this year.)
In Paris a handful of clubs -- La Taverne de Cluny in the Latin Quarter, Hotel du Nord on the Canal St. Martin, Le Petit Journal in Montparnasse -- often feature contemporary artists who play in the Django tradition: Angelo Debarre, Serge Krief, Rene Mailhes and Stochelo Rosenberg.
Cite de la Musique, one of Paris' preeminent music centers, is a little off the beaten track but required for Django enthusiasts. It's in the Parc de la Villette on the northeast side of the city and took shape as an urban redevelopment project in the 1980s and '90s.
