Bireli Lagrčne (another well-known Manouche guitarist
from France), it's the same. Ris father was a musician, and his father again.
With the Rosenbergs as well. It's the tr1ition. But it began after the war.
I
Did people learn from listening to recordings, or
directly from watching Django and the Ferret Brothers?
Both listening and watcbing. Django didn't listen to
records that much. There's an anecdote that Django was listening to a record
and remarked that the guitarist on the record played very well. It turned out
it was Django himself who was playing! So, he recorded but never listened to
bis records afterwards. In generaI the tradition is to learn within the family
in the caravan. With Django, because he made recordings, young kids can try to
replicate bis works with his records. But not at the time.
Its a difficult style to reproduce. How do you go
about it?
It is known that Django played with only two fingers
(due to a fire wbich damaged bis third and fouth fingers ). So one must learn
with two fingers. It's as simple as that. There are music schools, but one
can't leam this style in schools like that. One can learn a little, but for the
genuine style, it is necessary to be born a Gypsy and live and grow up with a
falnily to understand, because it's the esprit, the spirit, wbich is
most important.
At what age did you start playing ?
Two, or three. Because my father was in music, so with
the caravan, with Django, you grow up with music ail around. When you are two,
three, or four, you can aIready sing the rhythms with the voice. My daughter
plays the guitar, and before playing the notes she could already sing them.
After that, it is easy to play an instrument. That's why it is important to
live in the milieu to understand the music. You don't know when it is
you leam this music. You enter your lifewith this music. It's already there in
the mother's belly. I knew Django Reinhardt in my head before I learned it on
the guitar. The solos, who was playing with whom, and later when my father
taught me with my fingers on the guitar, it was easy. Because the most
difficult thing in music is in the voice there [pointing to his head]. The rest
is just technique, practice.
Is your familyfrom here in Toulouse ?
No. By tradition, we traveled in the caravans as
itinerants. But did you stop at the same places year after year?
Yes. Now, in France, there are parks specifically for
the travelers, the
tziganes. Before, you could find the tziganes anywhere.
There is one side of my family that stilllives in caravans and one side that
lives in houses. I lived in a caravan up till age twenty.
Fiddler
Magazine