One of the best collectios is the Mosaic Box Set. It is a 6 cd collection from 1936-1948 and the quality is excellent. It is still in print and cost 95.00. Go to www.mosaicrecords.com for more information.
There is an insanely good deal on Django Reinhart: two boxed sets, one of five discs, the other of four, on the English JSP label. Expertly remastered by Ted Kendall, and sold at a budget price. Im not sure they're available in America, but you can order them through Amazon.com England's site. Even with shipping from England, an outlandish bargain.
I'm a huge fan! I really enjoy "Swing 39: Jazz in Paris." (It was supposed to be "Jazz in Berlin," but ol' Adolf didn't take too kindly to gypsys.) It's sonically decent, considering the vintage, and the performance is superb. In many cases, there are two versions of the same song, so this disc would be for someone who wants to hear Django experiment and venture a little bit.
For Grappelli I like one called young Django (hard to find) it has Larry Coryell, Philip Catherine and Niels Orsted Pederson......There is one live with David Grisman, a mandolin master, that is good, in fact a Grisman CD titled Hot Dawg, has some excellent Grappelli on it too! I also like one called Flamingo with Michel Petrucciani on piano. Hard to find audiophile quality of Django & Stephane, but the old Hot Club recordings have great music, only ok sound.
A couple of cds that I didn't list in my first post. If you like Django you may like the soundtrack to "Sweet and Lowdown", a Woody Allen directed movie about the the world's second greatest jazz guitar player. Also a rather obscure Al Stewart album called "Between The Wars". Both have excellent Django style playing. The movie is actually quite good with excellent music.
Django fans need to check out Birelli Legrene (not sure of spelling) if you haven't already done so. His first two albums ('15' and...I can't remember the other one) are straight up Django-style jazz. Then he went to Berklee, got into fusion for a while--skip those, in my opinion. Recently got back into Django; I think his two latest albums are 'The New York Django Rehnhardt Festival' or something like that, with him and two other guitarists; the other album I saw reviewed in one the the guitar mags, don't remember the title but it is Django-style jazz. Can't speak for the recording quality; my LP's are old and beat up.
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