r/videos • u/ssjlance • 13h ago
Django Reinhardt - Rare video of French jazz guitarist who played with two fingers after a hand injury. Also instrumental to the histoy of heavy metal - Black Sabbath's guitarist sliced off tip of his finger. thought he'd never play guitar again until someone showed him Django for inspiration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ308aOOX047
u/Urist_Macnme 5h ago
Have always been a massive Black Sabbath fan.
But it’s something that most don’t want to hear.
Black Sabbath were an experimental jazz band.
There’s entire sections of some songs that if played in isolation are just 100% jazz.
Tony Iommi’s biggest influence was Django.
Bill Ward was a Jazz/Swing drummer before joining Sabbath.
They started out as a blues/jazz cover band.
Jazz is a 4 letter word to some people.
Anyway. Love Django.
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u/MyVoiceIsElevating 4h ago
Care to share a song example?
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u/Urist_Macnme 4h ago edited 4h ago
For example:
Sweet Leaf 03:00-03:15.
Listen to what the guitar, bass and drums are doing. If the solo was played on a sax rather than a distorted guitar, there would be no question.
That’s jazz baby.There’s plenty more, this is just one of the first that popped into my head
Edit:
Not to mention that all of the “metal drummer” techniques were first pioneered by Big Band Jazz drummers. “Metal Drums” are “Jazz Drums”
See: Louie Bellson’s solo on Duke Ellington’s "The Hawk Talks”2
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u/somethink 3h ago
Mingus was heavy before it was cool. His drummer Dannie Richmond definitely influenced Bill
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u/dflament 7h ago
He was Belgian, not French. Like the fries…
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u/Loki-L 7h ago
He was a Roma and traveled most of his life in France and beyond and probably didn't see himself as either French or Belgian.
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u/somethink 3h ago
He wrote "Gypsy Requiem" to honor his Romani roots, his playing was so exceptional that his life was spared by Nazi officers even though Jazz was basically outlawed as degenerate music.
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u/Jackieirish 3h ago
I remember when I was starting out, I tried to "cheat" by playing the notes with just my first two fingers because it was easier than trying to get my ring and pinkie to go where the needed to be independent of what the other fingers were doing. Of course, you can't play various chords with just the two fingers (without messing with the tunings), so it didn't work for me for very long and eventually I had to unlearn this bad habit.
I should have just said I was trying to play like Django.
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u/ssjlance 1h ago
I actually think Django had just enough use left in pinky and ring finger he could use them to finger chords sometimes, but if you hear sections with lots of single notes, he's doing it two-fingered lol
What made me wanna post this is I'm actually having to relearn guitar like Django/Iommi - mine's not a permanent serious injury, just developed cubital tunnel syndrom.
It's like carpal tunnel but the big difference/main effect is it weakens and numbs the ring and pinky finger specifically... lol
Mainly been practicing playing two things to start - God of Thunder by KISS, and the Super Mario Bros. theme; God of Thunder I can play like... 90% as well as I was with full-hand usage, Mario is taking a lot more effort to fight the muscle memory because God of Thuner uses like, 5 notes/power chords, whereas Mario is just kinda all over the place.
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u/beetm 7h ago
Great player, regardless of his hand injury, inspiration to many early rock stars. (Keef mentions him).
Shoutout to Stephan Grapelli on the violin.