François's comment : This is a book i'm "attached" to, for many reasons :

• I've participated in it by providing detailed review of its transcriptions and suggested fingerings, providing also a piece of my archives where was detailed the recording session of the first improvisation.
• Django's improvisation have always been something very special in my passion for Django's music - I just love them.
• The superb quality of the book, it's size - beautiful object to me - my favorite music book. I would go on an island with this only book if I had to choose.

This was the second book by Micheal, the firest one being the great "Gipsy Picking".

Those of you who've seen "Gypsy Picking" know how important his first book was to Gypsy jazz. It brought a new level of understanding to the right-hand picking technique.

This next book allows you to take these skills and apply them to unaccompanied pieces by Django as well as contemporary players like Stochelo, Angelo, Boulou, Fapy, and Bireli.

Working on soloing skills is a noble and satisfying undertaking. But, in my mind, studying unaccompanied pieces provides a different and possibly greater satisfaction -- especially, if you are a lone player in your neighborhood.

Being able to pull off a Django piece by yourself allows you to dictate the emotional content and expression in a way independent of other's influences. And there's nothing like sitting on a deck or walking into a music store and being able to play a whole Django piece by yourself!

The pieces Michael's picked provide you with more than this, however. They offer you an insight into Django's head, helping you to form the vocabulary of his music and the mental blueprints he used to develop his Gypsy jazz soloing style.

There are 16 songs in the book. Enough material to keep most of us studying for a long time to come.

This book is the book that Michael worked on for years. Every piece has been carefully noted and tabbed. He has carefully identifed the proper Gypsy fingering patterns and pick strokes, something often missing with other tabs. The very process of memorizing these pieces brings insight and those "AH HA!" smiling moments of understanding.

Think of the first book Gypsy Picking as an "introduction" to the skills you need to appreciate the rest of your studies--much as RA Wilson's Mask of the Illuminanti prepped you for the great Illuminantus trilogy, or Tolkien's Hobbit opened the way to the Lord of the Rings. Think of Horowitz' Unaccompanied Django as the beginning of your Gypsy jazz journey.

Archtop Eddy Parson - Colorado

Django Reinhardt
Improvisation #1
Improvisation #2
Improvisation #3 (Part 1)
Improvisation #3 (Part 2)
Improvisation #5
Improvisation #6
Echoes Of Spain
J’Attendrai
Naguine
Theme 1 (Nuages Intro)
Nuages
Theme 2 (Nuages Outro)
Parfum
Tears
Two Improvised Guitar Choruses (Part 1)
Two Improvised Guitar Choruses (Part 2)

Stochelo Rosenberg
Just Relax
Stéphanesque

+ impros in the style of Boulou Ferré and Angelo Debarre.