Rex Stewart with Django

[gslade]

In Gunther Schuller's The Swing Era, he refers to a quartet of sides recorded in Paris of April of 1939 by Django Reinhardt,Rex Stewart, Barney Bigard and Bill Taylor. Noted by Schuller (pg 834) is that these four sides were recorded under Rex Stewart's leadership by a French Swing label and released in the U.S. in the early forties on the HRS label as by Rex Stewart's Big Four. He also notes that three of the original titles-Montmarte, Finesse, and Solid Old Man-were changed on the HRS reissues to-Django's Jump, Night Wind, and Solid Rock-, respectively and the fourth title is Low Cotton.

Does anybody know if these sides have every been reissued on CD?

[medjuck]

I think I have them on both a European Django cd and a capital US cd. (I'm not home so I"ll have to check later.)

[MartyJazz]

In Gunther Schuller's The Swing Era, he refers to a quartet of sides recorded in Paris of April of 1939 by Django Reinhardt,Rex Stewart, Barney Bigard and Bill Taylor.  Noted by Schuller (pg 834) is that these four sides were recorded under Rex Stewart's leadership by a French Swing label and released in the U.S. in the early forties on the HRS label as by Rex Stewart's Big Four.  He also notes that three of the original titles-Montmarte, Finesse, and Solid Old Man-were changed on the HRS reissues to-Django's Jump, Night Wind, and Solid Rock-, respectively and the fourth title is Low Cotton.

Does anybody know if these sides have every been reissued on CD?

I have them on a French Vogue LP. However, I'm sure that I've seen them on CD because I remember the temptation I resisted to have duplicates of these musical gems on CD.

I'm certain that the tracks, as is the LP I own, have been reissued under Django's name, not Rex's.

Edited April 26, 2004 by MartyJazz

[Pete C]

5/4/39 - Paris - Rex Stewart ©, Barney Bigard (cl,d), Django Reinhardt (g),Billy Taylor (B)

OSW 63-1 Monmartre

Fremeaux FA 309, Affinity AFS 1003, Classics 793, EMI 780671-2, Jazz Time 790560-2, Blue Note CDP 7243837138-2

OSW 64-1 Low Cotton

Fremeaux FA 309, Affinity AFS 1003, Classics 793, EMI 780671-2

OSW 65-1 Finesse (Night Wind )

Fremeaux FA 309, Affinity AFS 1003, Classics 793, EMI 780671-2

OSW 66-1 I Know That You Know

Fremeaux FA 309, Affinity AFS 1003, Classics 793

OSW 67-1 Solid Old Man

Fremeaux FA 309, Affinity AFS 1003, Classics 793, EMI 780671-2

http://www.gould68.freeserve.co.uk/django4.htm

[Dr. Rat]

Yeah. these recording are all over the place. I'd recommend the recent 2-cd set on Iris (Crazy Rhythm) as a good place to get this and a lot of other good Django.

But I hear there are later Stewart/Django recordings as well. Anyone know of these?

--eric

[medjuck]

The Capital Cd is called Django Reinhardt: All-Star Sessions. You can get it on Amazon for $11.98. It also includes the Benny Carter- Coleman Hawkins sessions. (I think I have that session on more cds than anythng except maybe Bean's version of Body and Soul.

[gslade]

Thanks for the quick replies

[brownie]

Yeah. these recording are all over the place. I'd recommend the recent 2-cd set on Iris (Crazy Rhythm) as a good place to get this and a lot of other good Django.

But I hear there are later Stewart/Django recordings as well. Anyone know of these?

--eric

Rex Stewart and Django Reinhardt reunited in December 1947 in Paris for a Blue Star record session that produced two sides only: 'Night And Day' and 'Confessin''.

Hubert Rostaing was on alto sax on these. They are on the Django Reinhardt 'Swing 48' album of the Jazz in Paris series.

[Dr. Rat]

Thanks, Brownie.

--eric

[tatifan]

The Capitol CD is very well transferred, by the way -- I was also turned on to these sides by the Schuller book, and they're probably my favorite Django right now! Nice musical examples in the Schuller -- these recordings are a great example of jazz as great individual improvization AND great listening and reacting among the players -- jazz as chamber music as much as Miles Davis 2nd quintet (in a completely different style, of course).