Django Reinhardt: Airwaves

Often while I’m scouring various lists for new releases, I pass over a whole lot of reissues. Sometimes you can get excited about some previously unreleased studio sessions, but it’s almost never the case. However, today there’s an exception: Django Reinhardt, a musician who died over half a century ago, has a handful of recordings up his white-lapelled suit sleeve. Airwaves is one of dozens of compilations that have been released over the past few decades, but this one has several gems that haven’t gone through the whitewashing of modern remastery. The warmth is still there, the clips and pops left on the tracks like little scars, reviving the character that good music in Django’s era carried without question.