Which jazz guitarist co-founded the Hot Club de France Quintet with Stéphane Grappelli?

Django Reinhardt co-founded the Hot Club de France Quintet with violinist Stéphane Grappelli. The group emerged in Paris in the 1930s and became a defining ensemble of European jazz.

The quintet’s sound joined Reinhardt’s distinctive guitar playing with Grappelli’s lyrical violin, supported by rhythm guitars and double bass. It helped establish gypsy jazz, also called jazz manouche, as a recognizable style built around swing, acoustic strings, and improvisation.

Reinhardt had lost the use of two fingers on his left hand after a 1928 caravan fire, yet he developed an unusual technique that allowed him to become one of jazz’s most influential guitarists. His playing influenced musicians far beyond France.

The ensemble’s name is sometimes shortened to the Quintette du Hot Club de France. Reinhardt and Grappelli were its central figures, although the rhythm section changed across recordings and performances.