When Bireli Lagrene burst onto the scene at the age of 13, many felt he was the reincarnation of Django Reinhardt, the famed Gypsy jazz guitarist.
Reinhardt, born and raised in a Gypsy camp outside Paris, revolutionized the way jazz guitar was played before amplification made it a permanent fixture. With the Hot Club of France, Reinhardt played fast swinging jazz that featured his lead lines and swift chording in a fun, exciting style of jazz that has never been duplicated. Until Lagrene, that is.
Emerging nearly 50 years later, Lagrene could match Reinhardt's breathtaking fluency note for note. Lagrene's first releases in the early '80s worked through Reinhardt's considerable legacy, delivering the lovely original songs with finger-breaking fretwork and a joyful exuberance.