Legendary French jazz violinist STEPHANE GRAPPELLI was
born (d. 1997). Grappelli is best known as the cofounder of the
Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt. It was
one of the first (and arguably the most famous) of all-string jazz
bands.
Born Stephane
Grappelly (he didn't change his name to "Grappelli" until the 1960s),
his collaboration with Reinhardt produced a musical pairing that was
sort of the jazz equivalent of Lennon-McCartney or Jagger-Richards. A
foil worthy of literature, Grappelli was openly Gay, fastidiously a tidy
pianist and violinist.
Grappelli was
born in Paris, France to Italian parents: his father, Marquess Ernesto
Grappelli was born in Alatri (Lazio). His mother died when he was four
and his father left to fight in World War I. As a result he was sent to
an orphanage. Grappelli started his musical career busking on the
streets of Paris and Montmartre with a violin.
He began playing
the violin at age 12, and attended the Conservatoire de Paris studying
music theory, between 1924 and 1928. He continued to busk on the side
until he gained fame in Paris as a violin virtuoso. He also worked as a
silent film pianist while at the conservatory and played the saxophone
and accordion. He called his piano "My Other Love" and released an album
of solo piano of the same name. His early fame came playing with the
Quintette du Hot Club de France with Django Reinhardt, which disbanded
in 1939 due to World War II. In 1940, a little known jazz pianist by the
name of George Shearing made his debut as a sideman in Grappelli's
band.
After the war he
appeared on hundreds of recordings including sessions with Duke
Ellington, jazz pianists Oscar Peterson, Michel Petrucciani and Claude
Bolling, jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, jazz violinist Stuff Smith,
Indian classical violinist L. Subramaniam, vibraphonist Gary Burton, pop
singer Paul Simon, mandolin player David Grisman, classical violinist
Yehudi Menuhin, orchestral conductor André Previn, guitar player Bucky
Pizzarelli, guitar player Joe Pass, cello player Yo Yo Ma, harmonica and
jazz guitar player Toots Thielmans, jazz guitarist Henri Crolla and
fiddler Mark O'Connor. He also collaborated extensively with the British
guitarist and graphic designer Diz Disley, recording 13 record albums
with him and his trio, and with now renowned British guitarist Martin
Taylor. In the 1980s he gave several concerts with the young British
cellist Julian Lloyd Webber.
Grappelli made a cameo appearance in the 1978 film King of the Gypsies,
along with noted mandolinist David Grisman. Three years later they
performed together in concert, which was recorded live and released to
critical acclaim. Grappelli's music is played very quietly, almost
inaudibly, on Pink Floyd's album Wish You Were Here. In 1997, Grappelli
received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He is an inductee of the
Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. Grappelli is interred in Paris' famous
Père Lachaise Cemetery.
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