"Even people who don't like jazz like this music," said Elliott Reed, leader of the Gypsy Swing Revue, a band that plays at the Lumber Baron Inn in North Denver.

     "To me this music expresses the joy of life," said David Williams, who started the Hot Club of the Rockies, one of the Colorado's first Gypsy Jazz bands, seven years ago.

     Gypsy Jazz (or Gypsy Swing, as it is sometimes called) is acoustic jazz with a European flavor. It is American swing-inspired, but for a small ensemble of (usually) strings, including guitar, violin and bass.

     "It should really be called 'Django Jazz' because he invented it," said Williams. "He was a Gypsy, he grew up playing Gypsy music. But he really wanted to play jazz, like on the American records he heard. He wasn't trying to bring Gypsy music into it, but it was in his playing."

     The Gypsy element is part of what players and audiences love about the music.

     "The sad songs sound sad, feel sad. The happy ones are bouncy with joy. There is such human emotion in every song," said Lannie Garrett, who sings with the Gypsy Swing Revue.

     "The appeal of gypsy music in two words is 'soulful joy,'" said Peter Levine, leader of the Blue Horizon band. "The music is infectious because it swings, is passionate and is acoustic. It is jazz in a folk idiom."

     Audiences of all ages like it because it is fun, danceable and approachable.

     Paris Swing Set, a North Denver-based band, has discovered enthusiastic audiences at Mead St. Station and the Tennyson St. First Friday Artwalks.

     "When we played at the artwalks last summer, people gathered and started dancing on the sidewalk," said Ken Lutes of Paris Swing Set. "When that happens there is a great communication between the musician and the dancer. I know I get lost in my playing when I see someone lost in dancing to the music."

     Dan Ault, violinist/mandolinist with Blue Horizon, said, "People like to hear the recognizable standards like Avalon, Caravan, Sweet Sue and Honeysuckle Rose."

     Reed said Gypsy Jazz "fills a hole in our musical culture that nothing else seems to fill. Straight-ahead jazz is hard for people to understand. But the simpler harmonies and strong beat of Gypsy Jazz draw people into it."

     Players enjoy the challenge of playing Gypsy Jazz.

     "The chord progressions and voicings are different than we usually hear," said Kit Simon, leader of The Olde Town Swing Band. "It's exotic and passionate. I'm wild about it."

     Guitarist Pascal Guimbard got interested in Gypsy Jazz when he lived in Paris.

     "You can see guys playing in cafes and small clubs there," he said. "The fire and technique they have in their playing is just amazing. I think this is why a lot of people grow fond of this music. The technique is very demanding but a lot of fun."

     Paul Musso, senior instructor and coordinator of guitar studies at the College of Arts and Media at the University of Colorado at Denver, says he is fascinated by Django's sound.

     "His technique was so ahead of its time," Musso said. "The stuff jazz and even heavy metal players use today, Django started. Sometimes you can't believe his music is old because it sounds so contemporary."

     Playing like Django isn't easy, though.

     "My students can spend an entire semester learning 32 bars of Django," Musso said.

     As much as his music, Jean Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt's life has all the makings of legend.

     He was born in a gypsy caravan during the night of January 23, 1910, near the Belgian town of Liberchies. His unmarried mother, known to audiences as "La Belle Laurence," was a dancer and acrobat working with a wandering troupe of Gypsy comedians and musicians.

     Many have since referred to Django as a Belgian Gypsy, due to his place of birth, or a French Gypsy, as he lived most of his life in France. But the nationality was never important; his cultural background as a Gypsy was.

     Django grew up a wanderer. Living in a caravan, the family lived on and off over the years on the nether zones at the edge of Paris by one of the old city gates. He never lived in a real house until he was twenty years old. The French Gypsies, or Manouches, were a world unto themselves, medieval in their beliefs, and distrustful of the modern world.

     Django learned to play first violin, then banjo, before taking up the guitar. In his teens, Django played in cafes, dancehalls and nightclubs, and made his first recordings with accordionist Jean Vaissade for the Ideal Company. Since Django could not read or write at the time, "Jiango Renard" was how his name appeared on these records.

     And then tragedy struck. At one o'clock in the morning of November 2, 1928, Django returned from a club to his caravan. His wife had fashioned flowers from highly flammable celluloid to sell in the market. A candle Django was holding ignited the celluloid and in minutes the caravan was aflame. Django and his wife escaped, but not before Django suffered horrible burns over half of his body.

     Django's left hand was disfigured from the burns: His two small fingers were twisted and limited in use; his middle and index fingers still functioned. His family thought he would never play guitar again and the men of the caravan wept, according to his biographer, Charles Delaunay.

     But while bed-ridden and recovering, Django taught himself to play again. He created a whole new fingering system built around the two fingers on his left hand that had full mobility. He could not extend his fourth and fifth fingers but he used them for chords and octaves. His soloing was all done with the index and middle fingers! Film clips of Django show his technique to be graceful and precise, almost defying belief.

     When Django met violinist Stephane Grappelli and began jamming on American swing tunes, Gypsy Jazz was born. Their Quintet of the Hot Club of France formed in late 1934.

     Stories about Django are many, including those about his compulsive gambling and irresponsible behaviors. He was a "free spirit" with little regard for time and no regard for the value of money. Django players love to swap their favorite stories:

     "Sometimes he didn't show up for gigs because he didn't feel like it," said Reed. "His brothers and others would pretend to be Django and play the gig. Also he demanded outrageous amounts of money to play, then he would blow the money on gambling or entertaining people."

     Williams said: "Django was always a Gypsy. He had spent so much of his life outdoors in a Gypsy camp that he would keep the water running in his hotel room so it sounded like a stream."

     "He made his brothers carry his guitar for him and set up for the gigs. At the last minute he'd stroll in like a rock star," said Musso.

     Django's musical style evolved constantly during his life. In the 1940's he attached a pickup to his Selmer guitar and experimented with going electric. He became influenced by the new Be-bop jazz sounds of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Likewise, Gypsy Jazz musicians around the world continue to "evolve" the style.

     "Gypsy Jazz changes with the personality of each player and the musical direction they came from," Williams said. "Bluegrass players like to play fast, while purists like to play Django transcriptions note for note."

     Popular present-day Gypsy Jazz players include Bireli Lagrene, Jimmy Rosenberg, The Rosenberg Trio, Dorado Schmidt, Fapy Lafertin, John Jorgensen and the Hot Club of San Francisco, among others.

     "They are carrying on the tradition, but they are bringing their own sound to it," said Reed.

Here are some local bands that play Gypsy Jazz, and where you can hear them (call venues for dates and times):

Gypsy Swing Revue: Trios Enoteca, The Lumber Baron Inn, Sweet Fannie Adams in Bailey, the Black Rose in Black Forest.

Paris Swing Set: Mead St. Station about once a month and Tennyson St. First Friday Artwalks during warm months.

David Williams & Deco Django (duo with Jerry Rudy): Chautauqua Dining Hall in Boulder, Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

David Williams & The Hot Club of the Rockies

North Side Swing Mafia: Mead St. Station. The Olde Town Swing Band: Arvada-based, mostly play private parties.

Blue Horizon: Masa Grill in Boulder; the D-Note and Cheshire Cat in Arvada; August Morning Coffee House, Abbondanza Pizzeria, Gizzi's Coffee House and Border's Books in Longmont.

Mango fan Django: Sonterra Grill, Colorado Springs.

Musette (Paul Musso's trio): private parties.