I’ve played the cello for as long as I can remember, and, though I play less often these days, there is still a world of muscle memory in my hands and fingers, so when the knife I held two nights ago suddenly jumped from the cabbage to the pad of my index finger, I feared not only pain and injury, but also the loss of a lifetime of lessons. Happily, it was a simple slice, and not too deep; held aloft, with some pressure, straight to the sink, deep breaths, don’t look too closely.

Yesterday, as I tasted wine and my finger throbbed, I remembered that many great artists had missing digits, including silent film stars, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, and the Romani Jazz guitarist, Django Rhinehardt. As it happens, today is Django’s birthday. Reinhardt was born in 1910, on January 23rd, in Liberchies, Belgium, to a Belgian family of Manouche descent, and - try this on for size - that same year, on December 28th, my grandmother, Nettie Judels, was born in Namur, just 25 miles from Liberchies. I like to think perhaps they met at a sandbox or shared some chocolate in their youth, in the neighboring Wallonian towns of Gemboux, Floreffe, or Fleurus, before Rhinehardt’s fateful accident.

When Django was eighteen years old, he overturned a candle in his caravan wagon, starting a fire that nearly killed him and badly burned the outer two fingers of his left hand. Returning to the guitar, he relied on his left index and middle fingers for melodic lines, and began using the two injured fingers only for chords. These limitations, and the sensibility he brought to the music, created a new sound, an oblique, jangly style of open- voiced chords and angular punctuation that lives on in the inspiring work of Marc Ribot, Stefan Wremble, and countless others.

My finger’s going to be fine, maybe a bit fatter at the pad, and when it stops hurting, I’ll go back to the cello with renewed vigor. Hell, Itzhak Perlman’s fingers are so fat he has to lift one from the fingerboard to make room for the next. I’m looking forward to the challenge. Join us this week for some good music, some healing, some tasting, some looking forward...and a great big toast to Django!

TONIGHT: Thursday Night Flights! Chilean Reds and California Whites. Pinot & Pais from way down south and Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, & Grenache Blanc from the Sacramento delta, Santa Barbara, and Contra Costa County. Flights $12 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm.

SATURDAY 1/25: Loire Valley Cabernet Franc: Everyone’s favorite, fresh, mineral- driven, well-structured, earthy, spicy, berry-fruited bistro reds. Flights $15 from 2-6pm and wines by the glass until 9pm.

SUNDAY 1/26: A Taste of Tuscany: ‘Orange’ wine from Foradori’s Ampeleia estate, stately Sangiovese, and other delights from the Apennines to the Tyrrhenian Sea. Flights $15 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until 8pm.


Cheers,
 


Max