On this day in 1910 guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt was born in Liberchies, Pont-à-Celles, Belgium. Django, "I awake" in Romani, spent his youth in gypsy encampments close to Paris, where he learned to play the banjo, guitar and violin. At the age of 18 Django was severly injured in a fire leaving him partially paralyzed. Due to the injury Django had to relearn to play the guitar primarily with only his thumb, index and middle finger (he still used his pinky and ring finger for chord work and strumming.) Django Reinhardt went on to become one of the most famous European Jazz musicians of all-time after his rise to fame with violinist Stéphane Grappelli in the Quintette du Hot Club de France (as seen in the video below):
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