Swing 18

Producer Charles Delaunay persuaded the initially reluctant violinists Eddie South and Stéphane Grappelli to improvise on Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, but during the first recording they stayed close to the score despite Delaunay’s frantic gestures. When they returned two days later, Delaunay took the score away after the opening section, leaving them to improvise over Django Reinhardt’s accompaniment. Grappelli later disowned the experiment with magnificent ferocity: “It’s like when I hear on the radio the fifth symphony of Beethoven in disco—well, they should be in jail, those guys.” He went further, calling such crossovers “disgusting” and insisting that classical music should be left alone.