From sign to sound (5/6) : Stéphane Grappelli, violinist of the soul

From classical music to French chanson, the Du signe au son series is now turning its attention to jazz. The art of interpretation concerns all genres of music! In the spotlight is the inventor of the jazz violin: Stéphane Grappelli, who passed away 25 years ago.

Paris, the courtyards of Montmartre buildings, cinemas accompanying silent films, bars and cabarets. Here are the first scenes of young Stéphane Grappelli, on violin but also on piano. Yes, because the piano was his first instrument, and the improvising violinist he was to become considered it indispensable for mastering chords and harmonic sequences.

In the early 1930s, Django Reinhardt’s meeting with the guitarist from a Sinté family was to prove decisive and change his life. The two musicians went on to form the Quintette du Hot Club de France. The Paris jazz scene was about to be turned upside down! A jazz quintet with no brass, woodwind or percussion instruments. Three guitars, a violin and a double bass – all string instruments, typical of gypsy bands. Unheard of! But that’s not all. A new style of jazz was also created: gypsy jazz, unifying the gypsy, gypsy and jazz musical traditions. An important page in the history of jazz has just been written.

After his partnership with Django Reinhardt, who sadly passed away on May 16, 1953 at the age of 42, Grappelli went on to perform with some of the greatest names in jazz: George Shearing, Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Jean-Luc Ponty, Michel Petrucciani, David Grisman, Michel Legrand…

He was also involved in prestigious collaborations, blending his style and playing with other musical genres: with Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell, British guitarist and lute player Julian Bream, singer Paul Simon, child prodigy violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and Pink Floyd for the track Wish You Were Here. The cinema also called on his talent: Stéphane Grappelli wrote the soundtrack for Bertrand Blier’s film Les Valseuses (1974), performing original pieces, as well as the music for Louis Malle’s film Milou en mai(1989).

On September 11, 1975, in Paris, Stéphane Grappelli was awarded the Légion d’honneur. France’s highest honor for his immense talent as a versatile musician.

“A few notes of his precious Guadagnini were enough to release a joie de vivre from another era, with sentiment and gentle brio,” wrote Italian music critic Giacomo Pellicciotti the day after his death on December 1, 1997. Grappelli’s interpretative art has touched, and continues to touch, the minds of his audiences, thanks to the recordings he has left as his legacy.

Discover the selection of documents.

Follow us on the Blog and discover the last episode, on December 11, 2022: Ravi Shankar.