Born in Belgium on January 23, 1910, Django Reinhardt learned guitar at an early age, adapting his technique to accommodate the loss of the use of two fingers burned in a caravan fire in 1928. Reinhardt toured the United States with Duke Ellington in 1946. He was one of the first important guitar soloists in jazz; his blend of swing and the Roma musical tradition, as well as his unconventional technique, made him a unique and legendary figure. Reinhardt died in France in 1953.

Early Life

Born on January 23, 1910, in Liberchies, Belgium, Django Reinhardt became famous for his unique musical sound, which blended elements of American jazz with traditional European and Roma music. Reinhardt's father was a musician and entertainer and his mother was a dancer, according to some reports; they were Manouches, or French gypsies, and they eventually settled in a camp near Paris. Raised without any formal schooling, Reinhardt was practically illiterate.

In his youth, Reinhardt learned to play an interesting instrument—a hybrid of a guitar and a banjo. He was largely self-taught, never learning how to write or read music. Later on, Reinhardt had to depend on others to transcribe his compositions. He was already playing in clubs in Paris by his early teens. Reinhardt started out playing popular French music, but he became interested in American jazz in the mid-1920s. He especially liked the works of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Joe Venuti. His promising career, however, was almost ended by a terrible accident in 1928.

In 1928, Reinhardt was injured in a fire in his caravan. A lit candle fell into some paper, or celluloid, flowers that his wife had made to sell, and the flames quickly spread throughout their home. Both Reinhardt and his wife made it out of the fire, but Reinhardt suffered bad burns to his right leg and left hand. Perhaps worst of all for this talented musician, he permanently lost the use of two fingers on his damaged hand. He would spend the next 18 months to two years recuperating.

During this time, Reinhardt taught himself how to play music again. It was a slow, painful process, but he devised an innovative style of guitar playing. With his two fingers and thumb, Reinhardt handled his instrument with remarkable speed and agility. He was back to dazzling audiences in the Paris nightclubs by 1930.
Famous Quintet

By the mid-1930s, Reinhardt had joined forces with violinist Stephane Grappelli to form the Quintet of the Hot Club of France (Quintette du Hot Club de France). Their group, which grew to include Reinhardt's brother Joseph and others, became the first major European jazz band. Some of the band's early recordings included covers of American songs like "Dinah" and "Lady Be Good," and these tracks helped win them a following on both sides of the Atlantic.

Reinhardt also produced original music, which fused his musical heritage with the latest jazz and swing sounds. Some of his most famous works with the quintet are "Djangology," "Bricktop" and "Swing 39." His style from this period has been called "gypsy swing" and "le jazz hot."

Jacques Brel, in full Jacques Romain Georges Brel, (born April 8, 1929, Schaerbeeck, Belgium—died October 9, 1978, Bobigny, near Paris, France), Belgian singer and songwriter whose literate, passionate songs made him one of the most popular French-language musicians in Europe and gained him a worldwide following.

Brel began writing stories and poems as a teen, but he was an indifferent student, and after his final year of secondary school he took a job with his father’s packaging company. While there he became involved with a philanthropic youth organization, and he started performing and writing songs as a member of that group. Brel began singing his compositions in Brussels cabarets in 1952, and the following year he released his first recording, a single that featured the songs “Il y a” (“There Is” or “There Are”) and “La Foire” (“The Fair”) on its two sides. Although the single was only modestly successful, it caught the attention of a French recording executive, who invited Brel to move to Paris.

In 1953 Brel began singing in French cafés. He did not meet with immediate success, but he persevered, and his first album, Jacques Brel et ses chansons (“Jacques Brel and His Songs”) appeared in 1955. He finally broke through with the title song of his second album, Quand on n’a que l’amour (1957; “If We Only Have Love”), and by the end of the decade he was a star in France. His songs, frequently sharply satirical and often implicitly religious, also became hugely popular in much of Europe. His best-known songs, including “Ne me quitte pas” (“Do Not Leave Me”), “Amsterdam,” “Madeleine,” “Les Vieux” (“The Old Ones”), and “La Chanson des vieux amants” (“Song of Old Lovers”), were translated and recorded by numerous singers in other languages. Notable American recordings of Brel’s songs included Damita Jo’s “If You Go Away” (1966), a translation by Rod McKuen of “Ne me quitte pas”; Judy Collins’s “The Dove” (1963), an English-language version of “La Colombe”; David Bowie’s “Amsterdam” (1973) and “My Death” (1983), the latter a translation of Brel’s “La Mort” (1959); and Terry Jacks’s “Seasons in the Sun” (1974), McKuen’s rather cloying translation of Brel’s 1961 song “Le Moribond” (“The Dying Man”). Brel became best known in the United States, however, through the 1968 Off-Broadway revue Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, which was revived on Broadway in 1972 and filmed in 1975, featuring translations by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman.

Brel announced his retirement from performing in 1966, with his final performance the following year, and he also released the album Jacques Brel 67. His next, and final, album, Les Marquises (1977), was rapturously received. A statue of Brel singing was unveiled in Brussels in 2017.

Brel also acted in 10 films from 1967 to 1973, two of which he directed. In addition, he adapted and translated the stage musical Man of La Mancha as L’Homme de la Mancha, and he both directed and played the lead in 1968 in Brussels and in a 1968–69 staging in Paris.

Louis Charles Auguste Claude (Charles) Trenet (Narbonne, 18 May 1913 - Créteil, 19 February 2001) was a French singer, composer and actor, active from the nineties until the nineties of the 20th century. Trenet, who got his comic expression and his felt hat the nickname "Le Fou Chantant" (the singing fool), is best known for his world hit Douce France and La mer. In France, Trenet is just as famous as Édith Piaf and Charles Aznavour.

Known to be active in various musical genres, the singer Charlotte Haesen reaches her listeners with her authentic performance and storytelling, her unmistakable timbre and her incredible musicality. She has won the EuJazz Award, the public price at the 28th Concours de la Chanson Alliance Francaise and received several rewards for her videoclips. Being a uniquely versatile artist, Haesen has performed with different formations at festivals and stages in over 15 countries worldwide.

Born in Amsterdam, she has origins from France, The Netherlands and Burundi. She grows up at the border between French speaking Belgium and The Nederlands. She studies jazz singing at the Maastricht Conservatory and the Amsterdam University of the Arts.

Charlotte currently focuses on two main projects: Café des Chansons and her duo with guitar player Philip Breidenbach: Haesen & Breidenbach.