''Django'' is an album by the

Modern Jazz Quartet The Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) was a jazz combo established in 1952 that played music influenced by classical, cool jazz, blues and bebop. For most of its history the Quartet consisted of John Lewis (piano), Milt Jackson (vibraphone), Percy H ...

, first released on 12-inch LP in 1956.

Overview

The actual sessions had taken place in June 1953, December 1954, and January 1955, and (as

Prestige Records Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musi ...

had yet to enter the 12-inch LP era) were first released on two 10-inch albums, entitled ''Modern Jazz Quartet'' (PRLP 160, 1953, whose second side contained "The Queen's Fancy", "Delauney's Dilemma", " Autumn In New York" and " But Not For Me") and ''The Modern Jazz Quartet, Vol. 2'' (PRLP 170, 1955, containing "

Django Django may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Django'' (1966 film), a 1966 Italian Western by Sergio Corbucci which had a particular influence on the Spaghetti Western genre and a number of unofficial prequels and sequels ** ''Django, Prep ...

", "One Bass Hit", "Milano" and "La Ronde Suite"). The first session took place in New York, but the eventual

Hackensack, New Jersey Hackensack is a city in and the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.New Jer ...

sessions were engineered by

Rudy Van Gelder Rudolph Van Gelder (November 2, 1924 – August 25, 2016) was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz. Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelon ...

; the whole album was reissued in 2006 as part of the Rudy Van Gelder Remasters collection. "Django" (like the other original material on the album) was composed by the group's pianist and musical director,

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashvill ...

. It is one of his best-known compositions, written in memory of the Belgian gypsy guitarist

Django Reinhardt Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani nickname Django ( or ), was a Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most ...

. One other apostrophic tune is "Delauney's Dilemma", a jaunty tribute to the French jazz critic

Charles Delaunay Charles Delaunay (18 January 1911 – 16 February 1988) was a French author, jazz expert, co-founder and long-term leader of the Hot Club de France. Biography Born in Vineuil-Saint-Firmin, Oise, the son of painters Robert Delaunay and Sonia Del ...

. The lengthy "La Ronde Suite", with discrete sections emphasizing each group member's contributions, is in fact a version of the standard "Two Bass Hit", written by Lewis for Dizzy Gillespie and recorded by, among others,

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...

on ''

Milestones A milestone is a marker of distance along roads. Milestone may also refer to: Measurements *Milestone (project management), metaphorically, markers of reaching an identifiable stage in any task or the project *Software release life cycle state, s ...

''. Gillespie's own tune, "One Bass Hit", is also included as a feature for bassist

Percy Heath Percy Heath (April 30, 1923 – April 28, 2005) was an American jazz bassist, brother of saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Albert Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers in 1975. Heath played with the Modern Jazz Quartet througho ...

Vibraphonist The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

Milt "Bags" Jackson can be heard grunting and humming throughout the quieter numbers, which include renditions of the Gershwins' "But Not For Me" and the

Vernon Duke Vernon Duke ( 16 January 1969) was a Russian-born American composer/songwriter who also wrote under his birth name, Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for " Taking a Chance on Love," with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche (1940), " I Can ...

standard "Autumn In New York".

Reception

Writing for

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

, Douglas Payne described ''Django'' as "classic jazz in construction and execution" and said it was "the place to begin appreciating the many and great virtues of one of jazz's finest aggregates".

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

's Lindsay Planer wrote that "In terms of seminal Modern Jazz Quartet entries, it is hard to exceed the variety of styles and performances gathered on ''Django''."

Track listing

" (

) – 7:03 #"One Bass Hit" ( Dizzy Gillespie) – 2:59 #"La Ronde Suite" (Lewis) – 9:38 #"The Queen's Fancy" (Lewis) – 3:12 #"Delauney's Dilemma" (Lewis) – 4:01 #" Autumn In New York" (

) – 3:40 #" But Not for Me" (

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

Ira Gershwin Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the ...

) – 3:44 #"Milano" (Lewis) – 4:23

Personnel

Milt Jackson Milton Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999), nicknamed "Bags", was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging sol ...

— vibraphone *

— piano *

— bass *

Kenny Clarke Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914January 26, 1985), nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. A major innovator of the bebop style of drumming, he pioneered the use of the ride cymbal to keep time rather than the hi-h ...

— drums

References

External links

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

br>Basic Jazz Record Library recommendation
{{Authority control 1956 albums Cool jazz albums Post-bop albums Modern Jazz Quartet albums Prestige Records albums Albums produced by Bob Weinstock Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio Albums produced by Ira Gitler