Whenever I hear Django Reinhardt I can see the apartment we used to live in on Columbia Street many years ago.  It’s where I first heard and fell in love with the Quintet of the Hot Club of France.  There was a balcony off the living room and it was shady and we spent much of the summer sitting out there….listening to Django and Grappelli.  I have loved them ever since.  It’s one of those things…we won’t listen to it for awhile and then we pull it out and get overwhelmed all over again.

When we were first living in Chicago Grappelli played at a jazz club near the Merchandise Mart.  We were dead broke at the time but my mother thought we shouldn’t miss it so she bought our tickets and gave us $20 to buy a drink.  My mother has always been cool.  We sat at a little table near the stage.  Grappelli  was wearing a flowered shirt and had the same little regal nod that Leo had as a baby.  Saw him at Grant Park once too but mostly I remember him at that club.  Later my mother sewed Ernie a flowered shirt and we always called it his Grappelli shirt.

Found this on youtube the other day and this is why one must love youtube despite all the crap on it: