Stephane Grappelli was born on the 26th of January 1908 in Paris (France) and died on the 01. of December 1997 also in Paris.After he first had learnt to play the Piano, Stephane later regularly studied Violin and classical music at the University of music in Paris.
In the middle of the 1920s he played in a lot of dance-bands in Paris, at so-called "Bals Musettes", while he turned later on, however, indeed more slowly to play Jazz.
In the early 1930ies at one of his concerts he met with Django Reinhardt and they both founded the later on world-famous "Quintette du Hotclub de France" together with Louis Vola (Bs. ) and Joseph Reinhardt and Roger Chaput (Git. ). Until that time Stephane still had played both instruments, but, however, from then on he excusively concentrated on the violin, becoming one of the most famous Jazz-violonists of all times.
Shortly before outbreak of the 2nd world war, Stephane and Django went to London where they were engaged for some concerts with the Quintette. It was when in 1939 the war broke out that he remained there in London while Django went back to Paris to be with his family (see also Django - private Life).
It was then, during the postwar years, when both sporadically met again and played and recorded together in the late 40ies and early 50s years, also coming re-uniting for some concerts all over Europe. But the "old magic" was gone and they never returned to form a real "Quintette" again for good.Stephane Grappelli experimented a lot later on and played with many different musicians.
Amongst them it was Babik Reinhardt Django´s 2nd son, (Stephane Grapelli together with Babik Reinhardt in the studio (picture on the right), Stuff Smith and Joe Venuti, Gary Burton, Earl Hines, Martial Solal, Jean-Luc Pony and many other famous Jazz-masters.
One of his most famous recordings after the the ones of the Quintette in 1971 has been the record "Paris encounters" with Gary Bourton on vibraphone. Then in the late 1970ies Stephane played some Duets with the famous classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and some recordings were also taken of this.
Stephane Grappelli was one of the Grand-Masters of the European Jazz. His death on the 01. December 1997 left a big gap in the Jazz-scene. He is mentioned till this day as one of the most important Jazz-violinists of the world.
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