The Best of Django Reinhardt

Rating:
Summary: Helpful, but a few reservations
Review: To begin with, these are not new transcriptions, but repackaged transcriptions from another Hal Leonard publication, "The Definitive Django Reinhardt." The author, Joe Charupakorn, appears merely to have contributed the musical "analysis"--which is okay, but not particularly illuminating for an intermediate to advanced player. There are some definite mistakes--for instance, Django would never have used his thumb to play octaves, that is a Wes Montgomery technique. So far as the transcriptions are concerned, there are a few mistakes, and I am not at all sure the chord voicings are always right when the rhythm parts are notated. Nor am I sure about the fingerings--and Django and the Gypsy players have a very specific approach to fingering. The CD is quite good and helpful. The playing is skilled, but again, is not articulated in the Gypsy style, as elaborated in Michael Horowitz's excellent book "Gypsy Picking." Still this is a useful book.