A French Manush born in Belgium, Django was one of the greatest composers of jazz music and is considered the founder of Romani jazz interpretation. During his youth, he travelled through Belgium, Italy, France and Algeria. He played constantly, despite the fact that he never learned to read music, and in fact he only learned to sign his name for contracts and autographs. At the age of 18 he lost the third and fourth fingers on his left hand in a fire and was forced to create a completely new technique of playing with only three fingers. Django was the first successsful European jazz musician.