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Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN X 1. Reinhardt, Django, — Jazz musicians—France—Biography. R44D74 But when the family brought their travels to a halt alongside a hidden stream or within a safe wood to light their cookfire, they called him only by his Romany name. It was a name of which Django was exceedingly proud. It bore an immediacy, a sense of life, and a vision of destiny.
He was born in a caravan at a crossroads in the dead of winter. Here, the land was so flat it gave the impression one could see to the ends of the earth. The wet wind whipped down from the Atlantic unimpeded in its cold fury. Riding on the wind came dark rains that seemed never-ending, turning day into night for months on end until one prayed for even the weakest rays of sun. As they had done for countless years past, the family would weather the winter in a rendezvous outside the Belgian village of Liberchies in the southwestern Hainaut region.
With fresh water from a stream and fodder for their horse from the fallow fields, the family settled in as much as they ever settled anywhere. The family lived in a wooden box measuring roughly seven feet wide by fourteen feet long and six feet high. This box was mounted atop two axles bearing wooden-spoked wheels. Traces and tack held their single horse while a simple bench supported the driver. At the rear, steps led to the entry door.
The typical Romany caravan of the time had small windows on either side letting in daylight; these windows were covered by handcrafted lace curtains—the kind of domestic touch that made a caravan a home. Inside, a cast-iron stove was bolted to the floor; fed on wood and coal, it glowed transparent red in the winter and warmed the whole of the caravan. Across the front end, a bedchamber dominated, surmounting chests of drawers storing belongings, quilts, and blankets.
