DESCRIPTION:
Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli
Django Reinhardt (g); Stéphane Grappelli (v); Gianni Safred (p); Marco Pecori (b); Aurelio de Carolis (dm)
1949 January-February - RAI Studios, Rome
In 1949 Django and Stephane played at the 'Rupe Tarpea' nightclub in Rome with an Italian rhythm section consisting of piano, bass and drums. While there, a large amount of material was recorded for an unknown lover of their music. Django apparently recorded two versions of NUAGES at this time although only one version has ever been released. The results of these sessions (along with the 1950 Rome recordings) remained in a vault in Rome for many years; a total of around 100 tracks were released. The first NUAGES recorded in the 1949 sessions produced one of Django's masterpiece recordings. Stephane does no more than play the melody on the first and final choruses (no introduction) but in between Django displays his magical improvisational skills on acoustic guitar - he never played the amplified instrument in Stephane's company (on record). It could be argued that this was one of the maestro's finest performances to date on any recording - not just on NUAGES. The second recording of NUAGES from this session remains unissued.- David Gould.