.

I am django reinhardt's mute lover; 

his fingers finesse the chords in my heart, 

touching lightly here, bending there, 

sliding up and down the strings of my soul... 

wordlessly creating the melody 

that holds me close to him. 

he as wordless in his way as I, 

lost in the music he always hears; 

finds himself on odd occasion 

sharing his singular solitude in 

tactile solidarity, the rare moments 

he remembers that I'm here too. 

if I could speak he would only place 

his fingers on my lips... then my hips; 

he likes his love sweet and low down, 

selfless and silent and at a distance. 

he likes his lovers mute. 

though even with his written words, 

he is more mute than I could ever be. 

29Dec07

wiki

"Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt (January 23, 1910 - May 16, 1953) was a Belgian Sinto Gypsy jazz guitarist. He was ... one of the most renowned jazz guitarists of all time. His most renowned tunes include "My Sweet", "Minor Swing", "Tears", "Belleville", "Djangology" and "Nuages" (French, meaning "Clouds")...

... After returning to France, Django spent the remainder of his days re-immersed in gypsy life, having found it difficult to adjust to the modern world...  Reinhardt was known by his band, fans, and managers to be extremely unpredictable. He would often skip sold-out concerts to simply "walk to the beach" or "smell the dew". However, he did continue to compose and is regarded as among the most advanced guitar players of jazz music..."

.

Ralph Deeds has a wonderful Django Reinhardt hub here.

.

...I have substituted Django Reinhardt for the fictional Emmet Ray of "Sweet and Lowdown".

In the way that sometimes the fictional and the factual can combine to create a deeper and truer personal insight, I thought the poetic license was justified.

.

.

I first became interested in Django Reinhardt after seeing the film "Sweet and Lowdown" directed by Woody Allen and starring Sean Penn as the (fictional) Emmett Ray, possibly the world's best guitarist locked in mortal combat with his artistic rival, (non-fictional) Django Reinhardt.

It was a superb film with well-developed charcters and the acting was extraordinary. Technically classified as a "mockumentary", I fell in love with the romance side of the story, in all it's mundane glory.

Good Reviews here:

SWEET AND LOWDOWN

" As a musician, Emmett is a magical blend of precision and free-flowing passion, and the music is a wonderful and wild paean to the jazz and swing guitar. As viewers, our repulsion for Emmett's drunkenness and insulting womanizing is thrown against the wall of complete awe for his talent. Can we reconcile the two? Can we even forgive one because of the other? Should we try to?

... When he meets Hattie (Samantha Morton), an adorable, but mute laundry woman, he is cruel and unsympathetic to her disability, but he is quick to enjoy her sexually. What was to be a one-night stand during his Florida tour becomes a long-term domestic relationship. In many ways, Hattie is like a devoted puppy. She adores Emmett, but he is so absorbed in worshipping himself and his music that he fails to realize that Hattie is the only woman who has truly and completely loved him because of the music. She endures his insults, and his cheating, and the trips to the dump to shoot the rats because all of that comes with the man who creates such an incredible sound..."

Sweet and Lowdown

"In the 1930s, fictional jazz guitarist Emmet Ray idolizes Django Reinhardt, faces gangsters and falls in love with a mute."

"A comedic biopic focused on the life of fictional jazz guitarist Emmett Ray. Ray was an irresponsible, free-spending, arrogant, obnoxious, alcohol-abusing, miserable human being, who was also arguably the best guitarist in the world. We follow Ray's life: bouts of getting drunk, his bizzare hobbies of shooting rats and watching passing trains, his dreams of fame and fortune, his strange obsession with the better-known guitarist Django Reinhardt, and of course, playing his beautiful music."

Sweet And Lowdown

"...The nostalgic delight of this movie is due partly to Santo Loquasto's production design and Laura Cunningham Bauer's costumes, both of which are outstanding. The heart and soul of Ray's creation and the world he inhabits comes from Allen's knowledge and love of jazz.

Penn is inspirational, unrecognisable, untouchable. As an actor, he has never stuck to a groove, nor courted the star system. With this performance, he leaps into the Robert De Niro class, where only the likes of Robert Duvall are allowed through the door. Those who suffered Hurly Burly know how great he can be. Those who didn't, should give themselves a treat and check out the Emmet Ray experience."

.