With Only My Violin

At the age of 12, Stephane Grappelli was given a violin by his father, after excelling in classical violin at the Paris Conservatory, he discovered jazz on the streets of Montmartre and developed a love for improvising from the Gypsy musicians with whom he played in the cafes. After playing in different bands for several years, he metone night a Gypsy guitarist named Django Reinhardt who was "looking for a violinist to play hot" -- and the rest is jazz history: they formed the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, melding for the first time ever the sounds of black American jazz with European idioms. Their recordings throughout the 1930s are universally considered among jazz's greatest.Grappelli went on to play and record with Django for 20 glorious years until Django's death in 1953. Since then, Grappelli has played and/or recorded with almost all of the greatest names in 20th-century music history. Grappelli died in 1997 at the age of 89.First published in France in 1992, With Only My Violin is an adventurous ride through a century of jazz, and the candid recollections of a man who was born to play the violin -- and earned through his love of music and tireless play his place in the pantheon of jazz legends.