Django recorded “Anniversary Song”—also known as “Les Flots Du Danube,” or simply, “Danube”— twice, with two different formations of the Quintette du Hot Club de France. The first occasion was on July 6, 1947 and featured Hubert Rostaing on clarinet and Joseph Reinhardt on rhythm guitar, with Ladislas Czabanyck and André Jourdan on bass and drums, respectively. (You’ll find transcriptions further down the page of Django’s and Hubert Rostaing’s solos from this performance.)
During the Rome sessions of April and May of 1950 Django recorded “Anniversary Song” again, with a different lineup: André Ekyan (as, cl); Raph Schécroun (p); Alf. Masselier (b); Roger Paraboschi (dm.) You can hear it here:
“Anniversary Song” is a much-covered tune and there is some variation among the versions you may encounter, so to facilitate jamming on it at DiJ here’s a simple lead sheet (courtesy of Jack Soref) you can use as a common reference.
Anniversary Song Standard and Tab
Django Reinhardt’s solo on the 1947 recording (which you can hear at the top of this page) starts around the :39 mark. This transcription of that solo comes to you courtesy of Benjamin Givan and Jack Soref.
Anniversary Song Django Solo Transcription
Here you have Susanne Ortner’s transcription of Hubert Rostaing’s solo from the 1947 recording. It begins around 1:52 in the video we’ve linked you to toward the top of this page.
Anniversary Song Hubert Rostaing Solo Transcription
Any odd night in Paris, France you just may find the likes of Marcel Loeffler, Daniel John Martin and Mathieu Chatelain playing world class Gypsy jazz close enough that you could hand them a class of wine. In November 2015 you would have found them at the “Petits Joueurs”—and among the tunes they played that night was this one, under the title, “Danube.” Here you can see a video of that performance. Below it you’ll find a link to a transcription (courtesy Django in June newcomer Nataly Merezhuk) of about 1 minute of the violin solo by Daniel John Martin, starting around the 4 minute mark in the video. Accordionists, we have some of Marcel’s playing for you, too…read on.
Anniversary Song Daniel John Martin solo transcription
Here you have Dallas Vietty’s transcription of Marcel Loeffler’s performance in the video above:
Anniversary Song Marcel Loeffler
Tim Connell as prepared all sorts of goodies for mandolinists, starting with the video you see immediately below. On it, he covers chord voicings to use in Am, some tips on the use of the Harmonic Minor scale for soloing in that key, and more tips on soloing in C major. All that can be applied directly to Anniversary Song, as Tim demonstrates on the video. Below it you’ll find links to pdf’s he prepared of the same material.
Mandolin_Improvisation in Harmonic Minor
Mandolin_Anniversary Song C major etude
This backing track comes to us courtesy of Gonzalo Bergara. You’ll find a bunch more at https://www.gonzalobergara.com/shop