Nuages

Quintette du Hot Club de France, 1940, from Single. Solo by Django Reinhardt.

Reinhardt's own melody, played with slow vibrato and sudden flurries, became his best-known composition.

Nuages is Django Reinhardt's own melody, and on this 1940 recording he plays it with an unmistakable mix of tenderness and flair. On his Selmer-Maccaferri guitar, he lingers over the slow theme with wide, expressive vibrato, then breaks into sudden flurries of fast notes that sweep across the neck before settling back into the melody. The contrast between calm and fire is central to his style. The tune became his best-known composition and a standard for Gypsy jazz players everywhere. Listen for the way he bends and shakes the long notes, giving them an almost vocal quality, and how the quick runs seem to spill out spontaneously yet always land cleanly on the next phrase of the tune.

Nuages by Quintette du Hot Club de France is featured in our Jazz (#10) list. The solo is played by Django Reinhardt and the song was released in 1940.

In our lists

• The Greatest Solo of Every Year — #4
• The 25 Greatest Jazz Guitar Solos — #10
• The Best Django Reinhardt Guitar Solos — #2

Sources