OTHER SPECIAL EFFECTS Other noteworthy “Djangoisms” include the mandolin-like tremolo and gliss (slide) on the first string in bar sixteen; the bluesy string-bending throughout the tune; and the two-bar “descending trill” lick in bars 4-5 of the last sixteen bars, which Jeff Beck would quote thirty-five years later, while backing up Stevie Wonder. “Rose Room” was written in 1919 as a tango by Art Hickman, the pioneering band leader who was first to use a saxophone section in a big band. % Rootd XRege Roemk- ksSCALES Like Eddie Lang, Reinhardt played single-note licks that were based on moveable scales, and the scales were based on moveable chord formations. In addition to the moveable scales Lang played in “Dinah,” Reinhardt used these chord-based scales: Bb Major Scale (Ft) F Major Scale (B4.) PLAYING A LICK OVER SEVERAL CHORD CHANGES Some of Reinhardt's more ingenious ad-lib licks lasted several bars and were played over a series of chords: * At the end of the first 32-bar bars of "Rose Room,” he played an “A formation’ lick at the 10th fret that lasted six bars, and kept changing slightly, while the tune went through half a dozen chord changes. + Similarly, at the beginning of the last 16 bars, his amazingly rapid, up-the-neck, triplet lick stretched over a G7 and C7. * Again, in the last four bars of his solo, a string-stretching lick continued over a series of chords. Decades later, Chuck Berry would use a very similar lick in many of his famous rock solos. Other long licks in “Rose Room” are notable because they ended “in the middle of the next bar,” cre- ating syncopation and rhythmic variety. D} vieraro Arad« AA Throughout “Rose Room,” Reinhardt emphasized and sustained certain notes (such as the G halt- note at the beginning of the fourth bar) by playing them with vibrato. To get this wavering effect, you pluck a fretted string and shake your fretting hand, from the wrist. The slight pitch changes caused by this shaking simulate the vibrato of a singing voice when it sustains a note. " Roots X Rode Room -3Flourishes: 9 slide up FO Ne 9) inch nuh ) Fi CHORDS Here are the backup chords used in “Rose Room,” and the chord “formations” ('¥.”) on which some of the soloing licks were based: a E Poe OT Bb6 = Bbmé6 Am? DT, CHKROT) RE Re Riek et ee ee FD Dp Ey, 37, 6 F6 Dt ta TF 1 eae Ree 8 THE BASIC PROGRESSION This is the basic progression to “Rose Room,” in the key of F: le |» | ow | xzle | zyo|lr | xz] If you compare this simple progression to Reinhardt’s Quintet version, below, you'll notice the rhythm guitarist added many passing chords “inbetween” chords that help you get from point A to point B). Sometimes a chord is added to the original arrangement to add flavor, and sometimes the rhythm guitarist moves a chord shape up or down a few frets to get to the next chord change. For example, to get from F to G7, the backup guitarist played: mor og oO) Ji) )\) 0) 7) ARPEGGIOS Reinhardt played many arpeggios, using the above moveable chord formations: Trade 40 Bb Arpegaio (Ft) Bb Arpeagio (Ot) G9 Arpengio (B9t.) or——— ROSE ROOM = DJANGO REINHARDT Django Reinhardt's musical disciples are not only jazz guitarists. He inspired blues players like B.B, King, classical guitarist Julian Bream, country pickers Chet Atkins, Grady Martin and Willie Nelson, and rockers like Carlos Santana. He could not read music and could barely write his own name, and he often failed to show at scheduled appearances (even at Camegie Hall). Yet, nearly half a century alter his death, Reinhardt's recordings sell, and his legend continues to grow. Born January 23, 1910 in a gypsy caravan in Belgium, near the French border, Jean Baptiste Reinhardt taught himself guitar and banjo and was playing in Paris dance halls at the age of thir- teen. At the age of eighteen his left hand was so badly burned in a fire at the caravan that his ring finger and little finger were left barely usable; yet he became the fastest single-note guitarist of his time. In 1930, when he was playing in pop bands, Reinhardt was deeply affected by recordings of the Lang/Venuti duets, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. A few years later, he was playing jazz in Paris with his Quintet of the Hot Club of France, performing standards and original instrumentals. Reinhardt gained international fame with this band. in the Quintet, he was backed by two other acoustic guitars, a bass and the extraordinary violinist Stephane Grappelli. The guitarists played the oddly-shaped Maccaferri instrument with a single cut- away. During the war, when Grappelli was in England, the group included jazz clarinetist Hubert Rostaing. Reinhardt, the premiere jazz artist of Europe, also recorded with American jazz stars ‘Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and had opportunities to jam with Armstrong, Ellington and others. His reputation spread, and when the war was over, he toured in the United States. Reinhardt continued to perform and record until his death in 1953. In his later years he switched to electric guitar and incorporated bebop sounds into his music, but he is most remembered for his acoustic playing with the Quintet. His ad-lib soloing featured long single-note lines, string-bending, percussive octaves and chords, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of jazz ideas. Standing on Eddie Lang's shoulders, he took the guitar to new heights as a soloing instrument PERFORMANCE NOTES “Rose Room,” the song with which Benny Goodman failed to stump Charlie Christian in 1939 (see the Honeysuckle Rose chapter), is a 32-bar tune consisting of a 16-bar melody that is repeated with different ending. Reinhardt’s solo, which he played with the Hot Club Quintet in 1937, takes us around the tune twice. The first time around, he played and embellished the melody; the second 16 bars are filled with brilliant, improvised, Djangoesque jazz ideas. These are worth looking at in detail, since Reinhardt blazed a trail for single-note soloists. His distinctive backup is also noteworthy. SWING BACKUP TECHNIQUE Reinhardt usually employed two of his guitarist brothers in the Quintet to aggressively strum backup chords, four beats to the bar, while he soloed. During violin or clarinet solos, he joined them, and then there ware three gypsies fiercely strumming Maccaferri guitars. Like Eddie Lang, they played four downstrokes per bar, but they included more incidental upstrokes and occasional chord flourish- es than Lang: Basic Backup Patter or Or TD) TA Tras, & . Raat a x Rode Roam 4Roote Dinah )