[143.2] MANOUCHE MATTERS

Today at 17:45 Alyn Shipton (whose shamefully scuppered night-time jazz round up on the BBC World Service was always worth catching, too) introduces ‘Django’s People’, a fine documentary on the roots of Gypsy guitar legend Django Reinhardt [see NFE 139.1]. It looks especially at his kin, the Manouche, “eastern European itinerants who settled in northern France in the late 19th century and kept their traditional music alive while combining it with contemporary influences.” Shipton, who himself played with Belgian travellers for a while in the ‘70s, meets Reinhardt descendents in Paris who combine free jazz, bebop and post-bop with their Manouche heritage. Delight and outrage all round, I’m sure.