John Lewis, music · Written in memory of Django Reinhardt · First recorded by the Modern Jazz Quartet, 1954
Django
John Lewis wrote Django in 1954 as a tribute to guitarist Django Reinhardt, who died the year before. Its slow, mournful theme returns at the end, with room for long solos in between. Hear it from the Modern Jazz Quartet, Joe Pass, Bill Evans and Wynton Marsalis.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the Modern Jazz Quartet's original, then follows the piece through a piano trio, a Miles Davis arrangement, a live concert, two guitar versions, a piano and bass duet and a version with strings.
John Lewis wrote Django in 1954 in memory of his friend Django Reinhardt, who died the year before. The quartet recorded it on December 23, 1954, and it came out on a 1955 ten-inch record and then on the 1956 album named for it.
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A slow, mournful theme opens the piece and comes back at the end. Vibes, piano, bass and drums share the music for just over seven minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the opening theme as , one chord per bar: , , , Fm. Take it slowly, and if you can play the melody, add it over those chords.
Ray Bryant's trio recorded Django on April 5, 1957, at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey. The date was for Prestige, the label that had issued the Modern Jazz Quartet's version.
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Only piano, bass and drums play, and the piano leads. At 5:02 it runs about two minutes shorter than the quartet's original.
Try it on your instrument
Play the . Hold a low F in the bass and alternate and above it, one per bar. In bar 7 the chart splits the bar between F7♭9 and .
Arranger Michel Legrand made Legrand Jazz in New York in 1958. He recorded Django on June 25, 1958, with Miles Davis on trumpet and Bill Evans on piano.
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Miles Davis plays trumpet in a small band that adds harp and vibes to the piano, bass and drums. The track lasts 4:16, so each part is brief.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 to 8 of the opening theme as , one per bar: , , , . Then join them to the four bars you learned in step 1.
The quartet played Django in Gothenburg, Sweden, on April 12, 1960. It is the first track of the live album European Concert, recorded in Stockholm and Gothenburg.
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The four players are the same as in 1954 except on drums, where Connie Kay replaces Kenny Clarke. At 5:32 it runs about a minute and a half shorter than the studio original.
Try it on your instrument
Loop the from the solo : , , , , G7♭9, then C7♭9. Most bars hold two , so count slowly.
Grant Green recorded Idle Moments in November 1963, and Blue Note released it in February 1965. The title piece ran nearly 15 minutes, so Django was re-recorded in a shorter version for the LP.
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Green's guitar leads a sextet that also has Bobby Hutcherson on vibes and Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone. At 8:44 it runs about a minute and forty seconds longer than the 1954 original.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last eight of the : for two bars, for two, G♭7 for two, D♭7 for one, then . Repeat a short bass pattern of your own underneath. The chart has the four bars before it for a longer version.
Joe Pass made For Django in October 1964, an album of pieces played by or written for Django Reinhardt. It opens with Lewis's Django.
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Joe Pass leads on guitar, with bass and drums behind him and a second guitarist, John Pisano, credited on the album. At about three and a half minutes it is the shortest version on this path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the bass notes of opening-theme 9 to 12 on any instrument: D♭, G, F, E. Then add the over them: , , , .
Bill Evans and bassist Eddie Gómez played Django at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 20, 1975. It sits on Montreux III beside Milano, another John Lewis piece from 1954.
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Only piano and bass play, so the theme and the bass line are easy to follow. The track runs 6:12.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole opening theme as . Take 1 to 16 of the chart, one chord per bar, then play bars 13 to 16 again to make the 20 bars.
Wynton Marsalis recorded Django for Hot House Flowers on May 30 and 31, 1984, in an arrangement by Robert Freedman. The album came out on December 18, 1984.
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Marsalis plays trumpet with piano, bass and drums and a string section behind them. At 4:54 it is one of the shorter versions on this path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole shape: the opening theme, one 32-bar (A 6 bars, A 6, B 8, C 12), then the opening theme again. For a smaller version, play only the eight-bar on and .
John Lewis writes Django in memory of Django Reinhardt, and the Modern Jazz Quartet records it in 1954. Ray Bryant's trio and Michel Legrand's band with Miles Davis follow within four years.
1960s
The Modern Jazz Quartet plays it live in Sweden in 1960, and Grant Green records it with vibes and tenor saxophone in 1963. Joe Pass puts it on an album for Django Reinhardt in 1964.
1970s
The Modern Jazz Quartet plays it at Avery Fisher Hall in 1974, in the concert released as The Last Concert. A year later Bill Evans and bassist Eddie Gómez play it as a duet at Montreux.
1980s
Milt Jackson, the original quartet's vibraphonist, plays it in London in 1982, and Chet Baker, Jim Hall and Hubert Laws record it for CTI the same year. Wynton Marsalis adds strings in 1984.
More great versions
6 more, from 1959 to 1982. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sGil Evans1959 · Big band
1960sThe Jazztet and John Lewis1960 · Hard bop
The Oscar Peterson Trio1965
1970sThe Modern Jazz Quartet1974
1980sChet Baker, Jim Hall, Hubert Laws1982 · Fusion
Gil Evans arranged Django for an orchestra featuring Johnny Coles, Steve Lacy and Curtis Fuller, early in 1959. It runs 8:06 on the album Great Jazz Standards.
John Lewis arranged Django for the Jazztet, the group led by Art Farmer and Benny Golson. It was recorded in New York at Nola's Penthouse and released on Argo in 1961.
Oscar Peterson Trio Live at the Tivoli Gardens, May 29th 1965 [Restauración 2023]
Oscar Peterson's trio played Django in Copenhagen on May 29, 1965, with Ray Brown on bass and Ed Thigpen on drums. This restored concert recording came out in 2023.
“Django (Live at Lincoln Center)”, The Complete Last Concert
The quartet recorded Django live at Avery Fisher Hall in New York on November 25, 1974. The concert was released as The Last Concert and later in full as The Complete Last Concert.
Chet Baker, Jim Hall and Hubert Laws recorded Django for the CTI album Studio Trieste in March and April 1982, in an arrangement by Don Sebesky. It runs just over ten minutes.
“Django (Live at Ronnie Scott's Club, London)”, Memories of Thelonious Sphere Monk
Milt Jackson, the vibraphonist from the Modern Jazz Quartet's original lineup, played Django with his own quartet at Ronnie Scott's club in London on April 28, 1982. It runs 10:43.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
F minorusual key
32 barsA · A · B · C form
F minorkey centers
A6 bars
A6 bars
B8 bars
C12 bars
F m
A slow theme opens and closes the piece. It starts , , , Fm, then , B♭m, , , , , , , and the last four bars come round twice. Between the theme statements, soloists take a 32-bar in four parts: A twice at 6 bars, B at 8 and C at 12. Each A runs , C7♭9, F7♭9 and , then G7♭9 and C7♭9 the first time, or D♭7 C7♭9 and the second. B holds a low F in the bass while F7♭9 and alternate. C opens B♭m7 , C7♭9 F7♭9, , A♭7 D♭7, then rocks between and D♭7 over a repeating bass figure and ends on C7♭9. Double-time interludes taken from the opening theme separate the solos.