THE CROSSROADS Django Reinhardt Blues

For this month's feature, John Wheatcroft shows us what the legendary gypsy jazz guitarist has to offer the blues player of today- and a lot more besides.

Django Reinhardt was a true guitarist's guitarist. As George Benson states, "Django stretched the guitar imagination to its limit. He was the fastest, the most creative, he had great rhythm, and he was a good composer too." BB King had a similar take on the Belgian virtuoso, "Django was one of my idols. His guitar seemed to talk. He played music that was sophisticated, but a layman like myself could still understand it." The list of devoted Django enthusiasts goes on and on, and for extremely good reason. Simply put, he was a musical genius, and guitarist extraordinaire.