Maccaferri heaven at Django Reinhardt guitar fest
Written by Dermot Watson on Wednesday, 01 July 2009
The Django Reinhardt guitar festival - now in its 30th year - takes place in Samois, a beautiful little village on the Seine about 50 miles south of Paris. In case you’re unaware, Django Reinhardt was a gypsy guitar player who was part of the Hot Club of France, who pioneered the style of music which became known as gypsy jazz, jazz manouche or minor swing (depending on who you ask). Samois was the village where Django spent his latter years fishing and painting.
The Hot Club played in Paris mainly during the 30s and 40s and developed a unique sophisticated swing style driven by Django’s lead and rhythm playing, his brother’s rhythm guitar and the sweet, silky violin sound of Stephane Grapelli.
Django’s playing was delicate, fiery and completely original. In many respects he had no choice. A bad accident had fused parts of his left hand together leaving him with what was essentially two fingers. But, as the cliché goes, necessity is sometimes the mother of invention so he found a way around it and - with that - a whole new way to approach the guitar. 70 years later, there’s a dedicated (and growing) number of guitar players around the world playing in the gypsy jazz style, and many tribute Hot Clubs (I once saw the Hot Club of Lisbon, for example).
The Django Festival is the gathering of the gypsy jazz clan. It is the event for anyone serious about playing or listening to this music. In addition to the organised schedule on the official stage, the camp sites and backstage areas are full of impromptu jam sessions with some of the world’s best playing together.
The Maccaferri guitar
The Maccaferri guitar (originally made by Selmer) is the only guitar to play minor swing with, and the only guitar to be seen with at Samois (I brought an OM along, not being a manouche player, and soon realised how deeply inappropriate it was).
The festival serves as a showcase for some of the luthiers who make Macaferri-style instruments. The way it works is that these makers set up a stall (or tent) and then encourage some of the best players to jam to showcase their instruments. For a player looking to strut their stuff or learn more, or for someone curious about the style and looking for an idea of how it works (like me) this is probably the best place in the world to be.
Macaferris have large (grand bouche) or small (petite buoche) sound holes, dependent on whether you want to play rhythm or lead (respectively), though some players inverse these. They sound very different (much more trebly) than American flat-tops and – to my ears – have a lot more in common with pre-war archtop guitars. I don’t own one, don’t need one, but I’d be shocked if I didn’t end up with one some day.
About Selmer Maccaferri guitars
