Dregni’s biography of Django Reinhardt captures the great gypsy guitarist’s fundamental nature, his unpredictability, his musical brilliance, his childlike joy, his interest in painting, the breadth of his compositions. Dregni details Django’s personal life, his musical relationships, his recordings, his incorporation of early swing and later bebop. The author includes a history of gypsy life and details of the guitarist’s instruments. Django was definitely one-of-a-kind, a product of his gypsy heritage and of his time in an age when music was undergoing dramatic transformations.

Michael Dregni is a columnist, reviewer, and feature writer for Vintage Guitar magazine, and his work has also appeared in Utne Reader, San Francisco Examiner, and Cycle, among other publications.