Nuages

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Nuages is an instrumental composition by Django Reinhardt from 1940 , which became a hit in France and then the jazz standard .

Identification of the piece

It is the song of the clouds ( Nuages ​​in French ), which is an image for the actual home of the homeless Sinti and Roma . The composition is based on a chromatically ascending and descending motif, which is changed over 32 bars , and is kept in the song form ABA'B '.

First recordings

A first recording of the piece on October 1, 1940 was initially rejected by Reinhardt (it was only published in 1983). The Reinhardt biographers Schmitz and Maier wrote:

“As far as this first version is concerned, it seems that Django himself was not satisfied with the result of his recording and may have been disappointed that a single clarinet [ Hubert Rostaing ] could not match the orchestral sound of his own performance, and even disrupt it. After all, the guitarist loved large orchestras and tried again and again with his finger technique to transfer the sound structures to the guitar neck through clever vertical construction. "

The arrangement of this “forerunner” version is “modernly dissonant and already shows changes in Django's musical taste - slowly moving away from the wood-carved models of older hot jazz .” According to Reinhardt's biographers, the later version is true “Cleaner, polished, smoother. On the other hand, it again seems as if the original had more spontaneity and movement ”.

After Reinhardt had fine-tuned the arrangement, he went back to the studio on December 13, 1940, this time with two clarinetists - in addition to Hubert Rostaing, this was Alix Combelle - which was then released on the Swing label and which is now the better-known version. After a dissonant staccato-like introduction, the theme is introduced by the clarinets and lead guitar and only accompanied by the band from the second chorus bar. His solo chorus "begins with effective flageolets and increases it to rapid sixteenth-notes, before he finds his way back from the climax to a close-fitting phase." Only then do the clarinets start again; after a recapitulation the piece comes to an end.

Impact history

Django Reinhardt first presented the new piece in the German-occupied Paris in the Salle Pleyel . The French audience was enthusiastic; he had to repeat the song twice that evening. The song with the whistle-like basic theme developed into a hit. More than 100,000 copies of the shellac record have been sold. The piece functioned both as a “prayer in the lost war” and as a “substitute national anthem”. For Reinhardt, the success was the breakthrough as a star; in France he rose to the same level as Maurice Chevalier or Josephine Baker .

The piece consequently developed into Reinhardt's signature tune. He also recorded numerous other versions, for example in 1942 in Brussels with Stan Brenders et Son Grand Orchestra or in 1946 in London with Stéphane Grappelli . "His most spectacular version is from 1950, a virtuoso tour de force of over six minutes that Reinhardt recorded on the solo guitar."

Nuages has been recorded in jazz by numerous guitarists - in North America from Joe Pass (first 1964) to Barney Kessel , Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd to Tal Farlow , Laurindo Almeida and Allan Holdsworth . In Europe the song became a reference piece of gypsy jazz , but not only by Elek Bacsik , Christian Escoudé , Boulou Ferré , Biréli Lagrène or Stochelo Rosenberg , but also by Philip Catherine (also with Larry Coryell 1976) and Pierre Dørge . In the tradition of Stéphane Grappelli, Didier Lockwood , Svend Asmussen and Martin Weiss took up the song. But Oscar Peterson , Peter Appleyard , Phil Woods , Paul Desmond and John Purcell have Nuages improvised.

Nuages is Quincy Jones' favorite .

Versions with text

Various melancholy lyrics were written for the song. The French version ("Lentement dans le soir le train s'en va") was interpreted by Yves Montand and Sacha Distel . English versions are by Spencer Williams and Jon Hendricks (whose version was recorded in 1997 by Manhattan Transfer with instrumentalists Stéphane Grappelli and Stochelo Rosenberg).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Schaal, Jazz-Standards , p. 362
  2. ^ Dregni Gypsy Jazz , p. 86
  3. ↑ a b c Alexander Schmitz, Peter Maier: Django Reinhardt. His life His music His records. Oreos Verlag (Collection Jazz), Gauting-Buchendorf 1985. P. 172 f.
  4. ↑ a b Dregni Gypsy Jazz , p. 87
  5. ↑ Dave Gould: Guitar Pages ( Memento of the original from October 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gould68.freeserve.co.uk
  6. ↑ Schaal, Jazz-Standards , p. 363f.
  7. ↑ During a visit to South Africa, he praised the pianist Tony Schilder for his accordion of the composition. See Chatradari Devroop & Chris Walton Unsung: South African Jazz Musicians under Apartheid Sun Press 2007, p. 82.
  8. ↑ "It's the Bluest kind of Blues", text by Spencer Williams (PDF; 1.4 MB)
  9. ↑ Schaal, Jazz-Standards , p. 364