De Dikke Delvaux 250: Albert Einstein schrijft brief aan Django Reinhardt
za 27 feb. - 11:57
250 keer is Jan Delvaux met een verhaal uit de Belgische muziek langsgekomen. En de bron is nog altijd niet droog. Verre van zelfs. In een extra korte Allez Allez (om 14u begint Sporza met Omloop Het Nieuwsblad) gaan we extra lang door met De Dikke Delvaux, een uur lang, vol speciallekes, van K3 tot Blur.
Eén van de opmerkelijkste verhalen die Jan deze week meebrengt gaat over Django Reinhardt, één van de allergrootste jazzmuzikanten van Europa in zijn tijd. Amerika was echter dé place to be voor de jazz, dus sloot hij zich aan bij het orkest van Duke Ellington.
Django werd na een lange tournee in de VS ontslagen door Ellington nadat hij te laat was op een repetitie. Naar verluidt zou hij op de lappen zijn geweest met Marcel Cerdan, de man van Edith Piaf.
Iemand die daar niet mee was opgezet was... Albert Einstein. De wereldberoemde fysicus was grote fan van onze landgenoot en ging daarom in New York naar een optreden van het orkest van Duke Ellington en Django kijken. Waarschijnlijk was dat op exact dezelfde dag dat Django zijn C4 kreeg.
Zo teleurgesteld dat hij zelfs een brief schreef naar Django! Daarin benadrukte hij hoe jammer hij het wel vond dat de gitarist er niet bij was en dat hij zelfs zijn beklag deed tegen Duke Ellington.
De brief van Albert Einstein aan Django Reinhardt
Dear Mr. Reinhardt
Last July, I was invited to participate in New York at a conference on peace in the world. The evening with some friends, we went to Cafe Society in Greenwich Village to attend the concert by Duke Ellington, because they had informed us that you are now a member of his band and so was our surprise see your absence.
At the end of the concert, I would congratulate Mr. Ellington for his piano performance and the high quality of his orchestra.
He introduced us to the very warm Rosetta Tharpe which provided the first part of the evening. This is a very talented woman, equipped with high moral qualities accompanied by a strange guitar, with at its center a sort of metal cover generating vibrant mesmerizing sound that perfectly matches his repertoire very spiritual.
You thinking somewhat suffering, I questioned Mr. Ellington, who seemed sorry not to meet my request, not knowing where you were now. He reassured me about your state of health and told me that the night you were in a “power form” (the term he used). I deduced that you were healthy, while noting that Mr. Ellington was a little personal about design electricity. Very quietly, he made me your praise praising your qualities expressions outsized leaving even his own musicians whose jovial Fred Guy, captivated by your facility to change the tone in improvisation.
I understand that your behavior was incompatible with the rigor imposed by the U.S. tour and as I understand: all my life I have fought for freedom and continue to fight against all the constraints likely to curb the creative mind so much the musician as the scientist.
You and I are family uprooted somewhere we are misunderstood and I would be the happiest man in the day when I shake your hand you. And that day, we could exchange, if you do not see it offends some notes, you and your guitar that many consider to be exceptional and I with my violin, Aegidius Klotz very good bill that my mother had called my father that he should purchase that I undertake a career as a violinist, as were his wishes … I still play a little on the occasion when I need to feel, and I think you will join me on this theme, the sphericity of everything that is so little compared to empty creator.
We will meet one day, I’m sure, because nothing is set.
Sincerely yours.
Albert Einstein.
Nog méér Belpop-verhalen hoor je in Allez, Allez, zaterdag van 13u tot 14u op Radio 1.
Foto © Belpop Bonanza
