The Music of Django Reinhardt

Rating:
Summary: Vintage Guitar Magazine Says:
Review: Guitarist Stan Ayeroff is no greenhorn when it comes to the music of Django Reinhardt. Many aspiring guitarists have a dog-earred copy of Ayeroff's classic book Django Reinhardt that provided a fine introduction to his Hot Club music.
Now, Ayeroff is back with a master thesis on Django Reinhardt's music, a 272-page analysis of his musical style, eccentric two-finger technique, and virtuoso tricks. If you can't get enough of Django, here's more to fan the flames.
Along with the analysis of Django's music, this book is packed with transcriptions of forty-four solos. No song heads or melodies are included; the heads are easy enough to find in other collections.
The choice of songs here is weighted toward Django's earliest recordings with the Quintette du Hot Club de France, including "Japanese Sandman," "Swannee River," "Limehouse Blues," "Rose Room," "My Melancholy Baby," and the other usual suspects. This choice of songs provides a good basis in Django's playing and a foundation for jamming on other classic swing numbers, but does leave one wishing there was more of Django's own compositions with his musical extrapolations of his own themes.
The book is all written in standard notation, which is fine and dandy considering the level of musical expertise here. But it's a shame that the music is not also offered in tablature: With the renaissance of interest in Django's music, there are many greenhorns lusting for just such a book, and the addition of tab may have expanded the market for this book many times over.
Interestingly, the solo transcriptions are notated for playing with just two fingers à la Django. Of course you don't have to follow this and can use all your digits, but it does aid immensely in understanding Django's approach to the fretboard.
If you're serious about your Django, you'll want this book?whether you read or have to struggle through each exercise.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I am rarely tempted to write good reviews here, as most people seem to think that everything deserves 4 or 5 stars. I don't seem to live in that kind of world. I find a staggering amound of medioctrity and junk, wasted time. I am just trying to be a good citizen here.

This is an excellent book. There is only one thing that doesn't make much sense to me, namely the fact that almost half of it is redundant. The solos and the analysis section are essentially the same thing, except that in the solos section the analytical comments are not included above the notation. This just makes the book about twice as thick and I have no confidence in the BINDING. So many American soft-cover books simply crack and break at the spine, then pages fall out . The thicker the book, the harder it is to open out on a music stand and the faster the glue will crack on the spine.

The book could have a much better binding if it were not so over-inflated -- probably to bulk it out and make it look like good value. Buying by weight, which we all do, I think, consciously or not.

As for the content: fine quality music font, top-notch advice, intelligent writing. If you have the sound files, you can't go wrong. Many thanks to the author for this fabulous work.

Rating:
Summary: Django Reinhardt
Review: This book needs professional skills. There are no Tabs and so you must know how to read music. I will suggest to buy it in order to improve you skills. Even if the book is difficult I am sure that it's important to have it because you will use it. It challenge you to improve your level.
Marco