ProJazz.net

“Django” is a jazz standard written by John Lewis.
Lewis wrote “Django” in 1954 as a tribute to his friend, the Belgian-born jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, who died the previous year.
First recorded on December 23, 1954 by the Modern Jazz Quartet, it appeared on the group’s 1955 10-inch album The Modern Jazz Quartet, Vol. 2. It was one of the Modern Jazz Quartet’s signature compositions, with the group’s bassist Percy Heath recalling that “If we didn’t play ‘Django’ in a concert, we risked getting stoned. I mean in the thrown-at sense.”
Miles Davis described “Django” as one of the best compositions ever, and in their book Clawing at the Limits of Cool, Salim Washington and Farah Griffin said, “It is almost like a poem in its economy and poignancy. With remarkable restraint and almost no concessions to the extroverted tendencies of jazz, the slow and dirgelike ‘Django’ sustains an intensity and pathos made all the more beautiful through restraint”.

Personnel:

Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ):

John Lewis – piano
Milt Jackson – vibraphone
Percy Heath – bass
Kenny Clarke – drums