Said Sadi

Django Reinhardt was the first hugely influential jazz figure to emerge from Europe and he remains the most influential European to this day, with possible competition from Joe Zawinul, George Shearing, John McLaughlin, his old cohort Stephane Grappelli and a bare handful of others. A free-spirited gypsy, Reinhardt wasn't the most reliable person in the world, frequently wandering off into the countryside on a whim. Yet Reinhardt came up with a unique way of propelling the humble acoustic guitar into the front line of a jazz combo in the days before amplification became widespread. He would spin joyous, arcing, marvelously inflected solos above the thrumming base of two rhythm guitars and a bass, with Grappelli's elegantly gliding violin serving as the perfect foil.

This is such a swinging, sweet and tasty Jazz album. Its titled: Blossom Dearie: The Pianist: Le Blue Stars (Jazz in Paris).

Jack the hipster. A musician's musician. The white negro from the docks. Jack Sels has been given many nicknames throughout the years. The Antwerp saxophone player who died at the mere age of 48 in 1970, remains Belgium's most mythical jazz musician, both to those who knew him during his lifetime and those who only know him from the stories - and there are quite some stories to be told about Jack Sels. Throughout his career, he would play with jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young, Lou Bennett and Lucky Thompson, but he remained virtually unknown outside Belgium due to his reluctance to leave Antwerp.