Mélodie au crépuscule (#67 in “a shining moment” series)

 

The pictured twilight is in a beautiful part of Australia’s southwest – a so-called “valley” which many people repeatedly drive past without ever seeing, as they rush further “down south”…to “Marg’s”.

Mélodie au crépuscule is a beautiful composition which was NOT composed by Django Reinhardt.

(photo copyright Doug Spencer, 6.51 pm on 05 September 2016, at Evedon – a self-styled “gateway to the Ferguson Valley”…one of several such gateways)

Like South Australia’s very different but equally lovely Clare Valley, Western Australia’s Ferguson Valley is really a combination of valleys and rolling hills, and likewise a patchwork of natural bush/forest, vineyards, wineries, farms, small towns, and a few manmade “attractions”.

Too many tourists in SA are mono-focused on the Barossa Valley, and too many in WA have only Margaret River in mind.

“The Barossa” and “Margs” do indeed have a lot to offer, but so do the Clare and Ferguson “valleys”…and the latter two are pleasingly lower-key, less-thronged.

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Mélodie au crépuscule (twilight melody) was first recorded, in 1943, by Django Reinhardt, and most people now attribute it to him.

Its actual composer was Django’s younger brother Joseph Reinhardt, (1912-1982) who played rhythm guitar on many of Django’s recordings, but was also a capable soloist.

One of the finest so-called “gypsy jazz” guitarists, post-Django, is Frenchman Biréli Lagrène (born 1966)

As was also true of Django, Biréli is not only a player of “gypsy jazz”/ “swing guitar”/“manouche swing”, but Biréli is one of that genre’s most startlingly gifted exponents.

And, as was also true of Django, some of Biréli’s finest playing involves unhurried, lyrical pieces.

There, his virtuosity is still unmistakably evident, but all the more rewarding for its relaxed delivery.

Understandably, this circa 2015 performance’s camera person had an eye only for the soloist, but Biréli was not alone. Denis Chang played rhythm guitar and Paul Van Dyk bass.