Nicolai Foss
Although I love Django’s compositions, in my view, the best part of the jazz manouche repetoire are the waltzes. One of the greatest of the waltzes is “La Gitane” by the famous late Toulon-based manouche guitarist, Paul “Tchan-Tchou” Vidal.
Here is Manouche guitar ace Angelo Debarre playing La Gitane. Here is Joschko Sthephan’s treatment, less aggressive/assured than Angelo’s. Xavier Riley give it a try here. This is Rezar Dominguez’ try (seems they both play nylon-string guitars). The Italian take (notice the strange pompe). And finally the great Stochelo Rosenberg. (but the best version of them all is Tchan-Tchou’s own original version; you can find it on this — highly recommended — CD).