Across France people wanted to forget the war and all that was associated with it. Django’s star fell overnight as new forms of popular music took over, and the younger generation of jazz musicians turned to Bebop.

Work dried up and Reinhardt became stranded with his caravan on the outskirts of the ‘dismal town’ of Le Bourget, to the north east of Paris. His guitar gathered dust.

The saxophonist André Ekyan tracked Django down to Le Bourget and persuaded him to join his new ensemble. They toured together but Django’s depression returned and he went back to a life of lassitude at Le Bourget. (MD p.247)

Improvisation No4 is a doleful solo piece, structured around heavily sustained flamenco type chords.