Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival

This summer Dave B went to the world famous Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival in France.

"In June, I visited Samois-sur-Seine, just outside Paris, to see the annual Django Reinhardt Festival. The atmosphere was incredible; the festival contained just onebig stage that held many different Gypsy Jazz acts over the weekend.

The people there all shared the same love - Music! In the food area, there were groups of people sat around laughing, talking and playing music. I strongly encourage anyone with an interest in guitar music to visit Samois and see the place where Django Reinhardt lived."

Django Reinhardt (pronounced 'jango raynhart'), born to a family of Manouche gypsies, was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique (sometimes called 'hot' jazz guitar) that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture, and an internationally loved musical genre!

In 1968, on the 15th anniversary of Django’s death, the Samois Festival first came into being.This was a tribute to his memory organised by the so-called “Association des Amis de Samois”. A few years later the Django Reinhardt Festival Association had become a permanent fixture... 

This year fetured the likes of George Benson and Goran Bregovic so look forward to next years line-up and go visit this amazing festival!