Comments on: Robert Armstrong's painted Django Guitar

By: Nancy J Gill

Nancy J Gill — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:06:00 +0000

But his left hand looks practically normal – it was much more distorted than that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Django_Reinhardt_%28Gottlieb_07301%29.jpg

By: BabsonTask

BabsonTask — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:20:00 +0000

I scanned this as “Robert Armstrong’s patented Django’s Guitar” and I arrived here in a state of high dudgeon. Pleasantly surprised.

By: Michael John Simmons

Michael John Simmons — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:13:00 +0000

Here’s a wonderful clip that show’s Django’s left hand very clearly. You can see he sometimes uses his burned fingers for chords, just as danimagoo says. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzz6fAdFFis&feature=related

By: danimagoo

danimagoo — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:02:00 +0000

Apparently he was able to use the last two fingers for chords, just nothing else.

By: Michael John Simmons

Michael John Simmons — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:55:00 +0000

The ring finger and the pinkie on Django’s left hand were burned in the fire but he did have very limited use of them. They were sort of permanently semi-curled but he could do some limited fretting with them. There’s a good close-up of his hand here: http://ajisabaki.com/music/mountain/jazz/Django_Reinhardt/

By: SedanChair

SedanChair — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:53:00 +0000

Looks right to me.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_le2ky947JK1qc8yyuo1_1280.jpg

By: joeposts

joeposts — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:47:00 +0000

I thought so too, but remember he didn’t lose the fingers, they were just kind of useless and withered. Maybe that’s why the burned fingers (ring and pinky) look so much smaller and aren’t chording.

Or maybe I’m overanalyzing.

By: petr

petr — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:42:00 +0000

you beat me to it.. Shouldn’t he be missing some fingers?

By: telaquapacky

telaquapacky — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:18:00 +0000

Django’s left hand isn’t quite right. There was a fire in the Reinhardt family trailer and Django terribly burned his left hand rescuing his son. He was left with the use of only a couple of fingers to do all those amazing riffs. It’s a monumental testimony to the music in the man’s soul that it managed to get out still in spite of his having a gimped-up left hand.

By: noah django

noah django — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:29:00 +0000

this pleases me