This week sees an ambitious festival marking the centenary of the birth of Django Reinhardt.

Based at London restaurant Le QuecumBar in Battersea the festival which is partly sponsored by the Belgian Tourist office runs until the 25th. The bar, which also doubles as the capital’s shrine to gypsy jazz, will host the event with a series of concerts and workshops under the banner of Le QuecumBar International Gypsy Swing Guitar Festival which comes to a close just two days after Django’s birth in Belgium 100 years ago.

The guitarist, still regarded as one of the greatest ever jazz musicians of European origin, began his musical career as a child on violin, only taking up the guitar-banjo in his early teens before being forced to alter his guitar playing technique after losing two fingers in a caravan fire. To many Django’s music became the soundtrack of Paris in the 1930s particularly in tandem with Stéphane Grappelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France but Reinhardt’s legend also spread to the US even if his touring there with Duke Ellington was deemed a relative artistic failure.

Today his legacy is secure and many of today’s major players such as leading UK Django disciple Martin Taylor owe him a considerable debt, while film makers such as Woody Allen have used him as an inspiration, with the American director affectionately choosing his hero in Sweet and Lowdown (played by Sean Penn) as the world’s second best gypsy guitar player (after of course Django).

A wide array of European gypsy swing guitar talent is scheduled for the festival which comes to a close on the 25th with Ritary Gaguenetti, Lollo Meier and Stochelo Rosenberg.

For the full programme go to http://www.djangoreinhardtfestival.co.uk