“J’attendrai” (I Will Wait) was a pop hit for the French chanteuse Rina Ketty in 1938. Here it is covered in stunning fashion the next year by The Quintet of the Hot Club of France, led by Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. This clip not only shows us the interplay of two jazz giants but gives us a glimpse of Django’s superb guitar technique. He had full use of only the first two fingers of his left hand, having been badly burned in a fire years before. A full-blooded gypsy, Django nevertheless survived Hitler’s occupation of France, protected by German officers who admired his music. Later he would play for American soldiers. But that was to come. This clip rescues a miracle of jazz craftmanship from a vanished time.
