It would be nice to think that up there somewhere, Django Reinhardt is looking down and smiling.
The Belgian jazz guitarist was known as much for his eccentricities as he was for his groundbreaking fretwork during the 1930s and 40s. It was said that if you were a club manager and you booked him, you'd better keep your fingers crossed. Sometimes he'd turn up. And sometimes he'd go off to 'smell the dew', as he liked to say.
He would apparently give a nod to his gypsy heritage when quizzed about this attitude, saying it was part of his nature.
Reinhardt would have been pleased, then, to know that some 50 years after his death, his spirit is alive and kicking in a French outfit named Poum Tchack.
The six-piece, formed in Marseille in 2000, cite Reinhardt as their chief influence and say their wild brand of music has its roots firmly planted in the style of jazz that the Belgian made his own.
'For us, first of all, there's Django Reinhardt and his guitar,' says Poum Tchack's guitarist, Oliver Dambezat. 'I don't know if he's famous in Hong Kong, but he's a real god to us. He's the one who invented gypsy swing. The way he introduced his gypsy culture into American jazz is the signature of an unquestionable genius.'
