Spillane, Jeremiah. 2023. Django’s Worlds: Exploring Influence, Mediation and Genre Formation in the Music of Django Reinhardt and the Genre of Jazz Manouche. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]

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	Text (Django’s Worlds: Exploring Influence, Mediation and Genre Formation in the Music of Django Reinhardt and the Genre of Jazz Manouche) MUS_thesis_SpilllaneJ_2023.pdf - Accepted Version Permissions: Administrator Access Only Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (101MB)

Abstract or Description

This thesis investigates the music of the Belgian-born Romani guitarist, Django Reinhardt (1910-53), and the genre of jazz manouche (or, problematically, “gypsy jazz”), widely considered to be constructed upon Reinhardt’s musical legacy, that emerged following his death. The thesis’ central concern is the idea of “influence”, and its driving aim is to describe and understand the complex ways in which Reinhardt and his musical practice were influenced by an early encounter with jazz, and how the guitarist’s mature music went on to influence countless later musicians. Though influence is an often-invoked concept in jazz and popular music discourses both popular and academic, it is usually simplistically conceived, and has rarely been subject to extended scholarly interrogation. The thesis’ original contribution to knowledge, then, lies in its modelling of a musical influence which is negotiated across complex and dynamic networks of textual, technological, interpersonal and ideological sources.

The thesis is structured in two parts. The first defines and addresses “influence” as it can be seen flowing into Reinhardt’s music, and the second that which has flowed out of it. Part one examines Reinhardt’s musical formation in the Paris of the 1920s and 30s, and shows Reinhardt working with and assimilating American jazz, hybridising it with European and Romani musics. Furthermore, the jazz world around Reinhardt too influenced the outcome of his musical innovations. Here we see local scene actors amplifying contingent musical activities, like the conception of the all string ensemble, into a national (and later ethnoracial) archetype.

Part two considers Reinhardt’s posthumous influence, and explores the complexities of influence as it transcends personal response and hardens into the “genre” of jazz manouche. This section explores that genre as conceived and practiced in Manouche, non-Manouche and online communities. Methodologically, this thesis uses archival research, ethnography and musical analysis to explore influence in the various “worlds” Reinhardt occupied and in turn influenced.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.25602/GOLD.00034673
Keywords:	Jazz, jazz manouche, gypsy jazz, influence, genre, intertextuality, mediation
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Music
Date:	31 December 2023
Item ID:	34673
Date Deposited:	19 Jan 2024 17:25
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2024 17:26
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/34673

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